By Lee Pfeiffer
News reports indicate that Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at age 85. According to the MSNBC news show Morning Joe, the actor's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis has confirmed the rumor. Entertainment Tonight says that Curtis died of a heart attack in his Nevada home. The actor, who was born Bernard Schwartz,was one of the last symbols of Hollywood's golden era. He emerged as a star almost immediately. It was a far cry from his upbringing in the Bronx, where he and his brother Julius were temporarily placed in an orphanage because their parents could not provide adequate care for them. Curtis served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, having enlisted because he was impressed by seeing Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo. After the War, Curtis found stardom in Hollywood through a contract with Universal. He ended up becoming one of the top sex symbols of the 1950s and 60s. His ability to play light comedy as well as intense drama made him a major box-office draw for many years. He earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones, but the Academy didn't recognize his most memorable performance in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, wherein he uses a dead-on impersonation of Cary Grant to try to seduce Marilyn Monroe. He also gave a brilliant performance in Sweet Smell of Success opposite Burt Lancaster. As his big screen career waned in the 70s, Curtis moved to television. In 1972, he starred opposite Roger Moore in The Persuaders. Although the show was not a hit in the USA, it was enormously popular internationally and a big screen version is being planned.
Curtis' active love life included six marriages, including one to Janet Leigh. He also married his 17 year-old Taras Bulba co-star Christine Kaufmann. In recent years, Curtis concentrated on writing his autobiography and immersing himself in painting. He had long ago acquired a reputation as an artist of considerable talent. Curtis' volatile personality and shoot-from-the-hip tendency to say whatever crossed his mind resulted in some minor scandals even in his later years, but he lived to see his career re-evaluated by Hollywood historians who had often dismissed his talents. Among his other major films: Trapeze, Spartacus, The Boston Strangler, Operation Petticoat, The Vikings, Sex and the Single Girl and The Great Race. For more click here