Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh are Jamie Lee Curtis’s parents. However, American actress, producer, and children’s book author Jamie Lee Curtis is well-known. She has become known as the “scream queen” for her success in the horror and slasher genres.
She has won various honors for her noteworthy work in film and television, including 2 Golden Globe Awards, two Actors Guild Awards, and a BAFTA Award, among others.
As Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977–1978), Curtis rose to fame. She then made her feature picture debut in John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), which cemented her reputation as a scream queen.
Who Is Tony Curtis?
The well-known American actor Tony Curtis and Bernard Schwartz had over six decades-long careers. He appeared in more than 100 films of various genres, but the 1950s and the early 1960s were when he was most well-known.
Along with Burt Lancaster, Curtis starred in Sweet Smell of Success (1957), which brought him his first significant acclaim as a dramatic performer. Sidney Poitier was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in The Defiant Ones (1958).
He appeared in the comedy Operation Petticoat and Some Like It Hot in 1959 and the historical epic Spartacus in 1960. His most notable dramatic part came in 1968’s true-life drama The Boston Strangler, which Curtis also acted in.
In 1960, Curtis’ stardom and film career waned, but he still made many television appearances. He played the American businessman Danny Wilde in the 24-episode ITC TV series The Persuaders! He played the Ukrainian Cossack Andrei in the historical action romance epic Taras Bulba in 1962.
With his first wife, actress Janet Leigh, Curtis raised actors Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis. With his second wife, Christine Kaufmann, Curtis raised actors Allegra Curtis and Alexandra Curtis.
Who Is Janet Leigh?
The American actress, singer, dancer, and novelist Janet Leigh was born on July 6, 1927. Her prolific career spanned more than five decades.
Leigh, born and raised in Stockton, California, to working-class parents, was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at 18 after being spotted by actress Norma Shearer.
Before appearing in The Romance of Rosy Ridge in 1947, Leigh began her career as a radio host. Act of Violence (1948), Little Women (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), and The Naked Spur (1952) are just a few of the many films she featured in with MGM (1953).
She also appeared alongside Robert Mitchum in the 1949 RKO Radio Pictures romance comedy Holiday Affair.
Leigh switched to more dramatic roles in the late 1950s, appearing in movies like Touch of Evil by Orson Welles and Safari (1956).
However, she achieved her greatest fame in 1960 when she played the role of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
Leigh occasionally continued acting in movies, including cameos in Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979).
In 1975, she also performed in Murder Among Friends on Broadway. Between 1984 and 2002, Leigh produced four publications, including two novels.
Before getting hitched to actor Tony Curtis in 1951, Leigh was married twice, one of which was annulled. Leigh remarried and reduced her acting schedule after the couple’s public marriage ended in divorce in 1962.
At 77 years old, she passed away in October 2004 after a year-long fight with vasculitis. Leigh and her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis also starred in two horror movies, The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
