From 'Hot' to not, he was a Hollywood icon

LOS ANGELES - Tony Curtis, the dashingly handsome film star of the 1950s and '60s best remembered for his hilarious turn in drag in Billy Wilder's classic comedy "Some Like It Hot" and dramatic roles in "The Defiant Ones" and "Sweet Smell of Success," died Wednesday night of a cardiac arrest in his Las Vegas area home. He was 85.

"My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, said in a statement. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world."

One of Hollywood's most durable actors, Curtis appeared in more than 100 movies and was nominated for a best actor Oscar for "The Defiant Ones," the 1958 convict-escape film in which he was chained to his costar Sidney Poitier.

But Curtis failed to receive a nomination for another strong role, one that he felt sure would finally win him an Academy Award: Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. That 1968 film of the same name was the last of Curtis' major starring roles.

"After that, the pictures that I got were not particularly intriguing," he told the Seattle Times in 2000, "but I had lots of child-support payments."

For many film fans, Curtis' most memorable role was in "Some Like It Hot," the 1959 film in which he and Jack Lemmon played small-time jazz musicians who witnessed the St. Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago and, pursued by gangsters who wanted to kill them too, posed as women to escape with an all-female jazz band bound for Miami.

In 2000, the American Film Institute named "Some Like It Hot" the best comedy of the 20th century.

Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in New York City, the oldest son of Jewish Hungarian immigrants. His father was a tailor, and the family was marked by tragedy: One of Curtis' brothers was killed at age 9 when he was hit by a truck, and the other, who was 15 years Curtis' junior, suffered from schizophrenia.

Curtis' early life was a series of struggles -- he said he was constantly taunted for being young, Jewish and handsome. At 17, he enlisted in the Navy, serving in the Pacific during World War II. He used the GI Bill for acting classes in New York City.

That led to some work in the Catskills and later in Yiddish theater in Chicago. He was back in New York when he was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout and, at age 23, put under contract with Universal for $75 a week.

"I got into movies so easy it was scary," Curtis told the Denver Post in 1996.

Bernie Schwartz sounded too Jewish for an actor, so the studio gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. After his eighth film, he became Tony Curtis.

As a performer, Curtis drew first and foremost on his good looks. With his dark, curly hair, worn in a sculptural style later imitated by Elvis Presley, and plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and wide, full lips, Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 1950s.

The studio helped smooth the rough edges off the ambitious young actor. The last to go was his street-tinged Bronx accent, which had become a Hollywood joke.

His costars were the biggest names in Hollywood: Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Poitier, Lemmon, Natalie Wood and -- in "The Vikings," "Houdini" and other films -- Janet Leigh, his first wife (he had six).

Later in life, Curtis, a recovering alcoholic, pursued another career as an artist, creating Matisse-like still lifes.

In his later acting years, Curtis was mostly reduced to being a celebrity without serious portfolio and this, combined with his early teen-idol image and a raft of mediocre films, left him with a reputation that was lighter than many of his substantial roles during his prime would otherwise support.