R.I.P. Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis

The great actor Tony Curtis died tonight. Born on July 3, 1925 as Bernard Schwartz, son of Jewish Hungarian immigrants, Curtis served in the U.S.A. Navy during World War II and after his discharge he studied acting at New York.

Curtis acting deput was in 1949, when he played a rumba dancer in the movie “Criss Cross”.

An eclectic actor, Curtis had dramatic roles in movies such as “Sweet Smell of Success”, “The Defiant Ones”, “Spartacus” and “The Boston Strangler” but also brilliant roles in comedies such as “Operation Petticoat” and “Some Like It Hot”. Obviously those are just a few of the best known movies he acted in during his long career.

Curtis had also a pretty good television career, where he’s remembered in particular for the series “The Persuaders!” in which he and Roger Moore must handle themselves among intrigues and beautiful women.

Starting from the ’80s Curtis reduced his committment as an actor very much to pursue a career in painting turning his hobby into a true profession with a certain success as his paintings are exposed in various galleries around the world and even at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

His private life is as adventurous if not more than his work as he had six wives who gave him various children: the best known is Jamie Lee, an actress too he had from his first wife, the Psyco star Janet Leigh.

Despite his very american stage name Curtis never forgot his hungarian origines and in 1998 he founded the “Emanuel Foundation for Hungarian Culture”, serving as honorary chairperson.

Curtis suffered from various pulmonary diseases during his last years of life and in 2006 he was even in a coma for some days: probably his body was debilitated and in the American night he died.

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