Hollywood legend Tony Curtis dies, aged 85
Thursday 30th September 2010, 10:50AM BST.
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Actor Tony Curtis, who was best known for his role in the movie Some Like it Hot, has died. He was 85.
The star’s business manager and family spokesman Preston Ahearn said the Oscar-nominated actor passed away last night peacefully in bed next to his wife in their home in Henderson, Nevada.
His death was confirmed by Clark County coroner Mike Murphy who said the actor died of a heart attack at his Las Vegas area home.
Appearing on stage in 2008, Curtis was asked by an audience member what he would like to have written on his gravestone. “Nobody’s perfect,” he quipped, quoting the final line of his best-loved comedy, Some Like it Hot.
He was born Bernard Schwartz to Hungarian immigrant parents in the Bronx.
Marketed as prime 1950s beefcake by Hollywood, he won plaudits for his role as a venal Press agent in the 1957 drama The Sweet Smell of Success.
The following year he gained his only Oscar nomination for his turn opposite Sidney Poitier in the tense racial parable The Defiant Ones.
His most enduring screen role, however, remains his role as a runaway jazz musician, alongside Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, in Billy Wilder’s 1959 classic Some Like it Hot. Curtis, the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, married six times and appeared to revel in his reputation as a carouser.
“I wouldn’t be caught dead marrying a woman young enough to be my wife,” he once remarked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0vlqarFD4
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Sorry to hear this news, there probably aren’t many stars of Curtis’ era left now.
I always remember his performance as Danny Wilde in the 70′s tv series THE PERSUADERS, with Roger Moore.
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