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  Date / Time: 2/23/2009 12:29 AM UTC

  WordSmitten :: Actor Tony Curtis :: "American Prince"
  

  Tony Curtis appears live on the WordSmitten "About the Books" program on March 1 at 4 PM.

  
  

  Tony Curtis is an American film actor famous for handsome good looks and trademark New York accent. He discusses his book, "American Prince."
  
  Biography
  
  Tony Curtis, whose birth name was Bernard Schwartz, is the eldest of three sons born to Manuel and Helen Schwartz. Tony was born on June 3, 1925, in New York City. Tony grew up in an impoverished section of the Bronx and and his family struggled through the Depression. Eventually, Tony joined the Navy in 1943, and upon his release from active duty, he returned to New York where he used the GI Bill to attend acting school.
  

  Tony first gained attention in a Greenwich Village stage production of "Golden Boy." Not long after his discovery, he was offered a seven year contract by Universal Pictures. In 1948 he headed for California where his screen debut had him dancing with Yvonne de Carlo in Criss Cross (1948).
  

  Tony first earned top billing rights in The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951) which co-starred Piper Laurie. Tony returned to the screen as a boxer in Flesh and Fury (1952).
  

  Although under contract with Universal, Paramount cast Tony in the role of Houdini (1953,) which cast him opposite Janet Leigh (his first wife).
  

  In 1958 when Curtis and Sidney Poitier starred in Stanley Kramer's social drama The Defiant Ones (1959), both men earned Academy Award nominations.

  Tony's most memorable role was in Some Like It Hot (1959) playing opposite Marylin Monroe and Jack Lemon. Riding on the crest of Some Like It Hot, Tony got to work first hand with his idol Cary Grant in Blake Edward's comedy, Operation Petticoat (1959), another massive hit.
  
  For director Stanley Kubrick, Tony co-starred in the 1960 epic Spartacus, followed a year later by The Great Impostor.
  

  
  

  He battled long and hard to win the against-type title role in The Boston Strangler (1968), a role he receives critical acclaim for to this day. Tony returned to comedy again with Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969).
  
  Starring in over 140 major motion pictures. An American icon, Tony not only appears on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club but was the inspiration for, and the voice of, the character "Stony Curtis" in the cartoon The Flintstones.
  
  Tony had many great friends over time, including close relationships with the legendary Rat Pack--Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford.
  
  Tony has been married five times. He first wed actress Janet Leigh in 1951, and the couple had two daughters, Kelly (b.1957) and Jamie Lee (b.1958). After a marriage of 11 years, Tony married actress Christine Kaufmann. They had two daughters, Alexandra (b.1964) and Allegra (b.1966). Tony and Kaufmann divorced in 1967 and a year later he married Leslie Allen in 1968 and they had two sons: Nicholas (b.1971, who died in 1994) and Benjamin (b.1973). Tony and Allen divorced in 1982. He wed lawyer Lisa Deutsch in 1993, and divorced her in 1994, no children. On November 6, 1998, Tony married his fifth wife, Jill VandenBerg.
  

  Tony is still married to Jill today, making their marriage the longest lasting and most succesful relationship Tony has ever enjoyed. Tony attributes his health, well-being, and happiness to Jill.
  
  Tony is now enjoying a successful second career as a fine artist. Since at least the early 1960s, Curtis has had a second career as a painter, assemblage creator, and sketcher. His work can command more than $50,000 a canvas now and it is on this he now focuses rather than movies. "I still make movies but I'm not that interested any more. I paint all the time." Tony's paintings are featured in galleries all around the world, including in Las Vegas, Carmel, Maui, Whistler, London, Paris, and New York. In 2007 his painting The Red Table went on display at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.
  
  In addition, Tony is the biggest supporter of Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary, a non-profit horse rescue started by he and his wife, Jill. Tony and Jill actively support the rights of horses not to be abused and slaughtered for human consumption. Currently, Tony and Jill have over two hundred rescued horses on their ranch outside Jean, Nevada. For more information visit www.shilohhorserescue.com

   

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  • Actor Tony Curtis
  • film
  • Some Like It Hot
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