What Was Tony Curtis Net Worth?
Tony Curtis was an American film actor who had a net worth of $60 million at the time of his death. Curtis was married six times. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is his daughter.
Tony Curtis appeared in films spanning six decades, first gaining major critical acclaim for his performance in ‘Sweet Smell of Success’ in 1957. He went on to give other acclaimed performances in films such as ‘The Defiant “. Ones”, “Some like it hot”. ,” “Operation Petticoat,” “Spartacus,” and “The Boston Strangler,” among others. On the small screen, Curtis starred opposite Roger Moore in the action-comedy television series “The Persuaders!”
Youth and education
Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925 in New York City, New York, the first of three boys to Hungarian Jewish immigrants Helen and Emanuel. His younger brothers were Julius and Robert. Until the age of six, Curtis spoke only Hungarian. At the age of eight, he was placed in an orphanage with Julius when the boys’ parents could not afford to feed them. Julius was hit and killed by a truck four years later. Growing up, Curtis joined a neighborhood gang; he was finally rescued from a life of delinquency when a neighbor sent him to a Boy Scout camp. He later attended Seward Park High School, where he had his first role in a school play.
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curtis joined the US Navy’s Pacific Submarine Force and served aboard the USS Proteus until the end of the war. After his discharge, he went to City College of New York on the GI Bill and then studied acting at the New School in Greenwich Village.
The beginnings of a career in film
Curtis moved to Hollywood in 1948 and signed a contract with Universal Pictures. At this time he changed his name from Bernard Schwartz to Anthony Curtis. He made his feature film debut in 1949 with an uncredited role in the film noir “Criss Cross.” At the same time, Curtis had small roles in “City Across the River”, “The Lady Gambles” and “Johnny Stool Pigeon”. In 1950, he appeared in ‘Francis’, ‘Woman in Hiding’, ‘I Was a Shop Hurter’, ‘Sierra’ and ‘Winchester ’73’. The following year, Curtis starred in “Kansas Raiders” and had his first leading role in “The Prince Who Was a Thief.” His later credits were “Flesh and Fury”, “No Room for the Groom” and “Son of Ali Baba”. In 1953, Curtis had another leading role in the biographical drama Houdini. His star continued to rise in the years that followed with roles in the B-movie hits “All American,” “Forbidden,” “Beachhead,” “Johnny Dark” and “The Black Shield of Falworth.” Curtis then starred in the musical “So This is Paris,” followed by the noir films “Six Bridges to Cross” and “The Square Jungle” and the swashbuckler “The Purple Mask.”
The pinnacle of the cinematographic career
Curtis had one of his biggest commercial hits to date in 1956 when he starred opposite Burt Lancaster and Gina Lollobrigida in “Trapeze.” His real breakthrough came the following year, when he starred in four films: “The Rawhide Years,” “Mister Cory,” “The Midnight Story” and “Sweet Smell of Success.” Although the latter film was a commercial disappointment, it earned Curtis the best reviews of his career, establishing him as a dramatic heavyweight. He then appeared in ‘The Vikings’ and ‘Kings Go Forth’. In 1958, Curtis gave another highly acclaimed performance in The Defiant Ones, opposite Sidney Poitier; both men earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. He followed this up with a string of major hits, including the comedies The Perfect Furlough,
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Cinematic career further
Since the 1960s, Curtis has appeared in ‘Who Was That Lady?’, ‘The Rat Race’ and the historical epic ‘Spartacus’. For his role in the latter, he received a Golden Globe nomination. After this, Curtis starred in the biographical dramas “The Great Impostor” and “The Outsider”, and then appeared with Yul Brynner and Christine Kaufmann in the epic adventure “Taras Bulba”. His later credits included “40 Pounds of Trouble”; “Adrian Messenger’s List”; “Captain Newman, MD”; “Wild and Wonderful”; “Goodbye Charlie”; “Sex and the Single Girl”; “The Great Race”; “Boeing Boeing”; and “Don’t Make Waves.”
Due to the poor reception of many of his comedies, Curtis fired his agent and took a major pay cut to play the title role in the 1968 biopic The Boston Strangler, his first dramatic role in many years. He returned to comedy the following year in “Monte Carlo or Bust!”, and then appeared in the 1970 war films “You Can’t Win ‘Em All” and “Suppose They Give a War and Nobody Came.” His other credits from the 1970s include “Lepke,” “The Last Tycoon,” “Sextette” and “The Manitou.” In the 1980s, Curtis starred in films such as ‘It Rained All Night the Day I Left’, ‘Little Miss Marker’, ‘The Mirror Crack’d’, ‘Insignificance’, ‘Welcome to Germany’ and ‘Midnight’ . In the next decade, it was in “
Television career
On television, Curtis is best known for starring opposite Roger Moore in the action comedy series “The Persuaders!” in the early 70s. He also had starring roles in “McCoy” and “Vega$.” Additionally, Curtis has appeared in a multitude of television films over the decades, including “The Song is You,” “The Third Girl from the Left,” “The Users,” “The Scarlett O’Hara War” , “Tarzan in Manhattan,” “and “A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Grimacing Governor.”
Personal life and death
Curtis was married six times in total. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married from 1951 to 1962. The couple appeared in many films together and had two daughters named Kelly and Jamie Lee, both actresses. Then, in 1963, Curtis married Christine Kaufmann, his “Taras Bulba” co-star, aged 18; they had two daughters named Alexandra and Allegra and divorced in 1968. Curtis later married Leslie Allen, with whom he had two sons named Nicholas and Benjamin. The couple divorced in 1982, and years later, Curtis married Andrea Savio, whom he divorced in 1992. The following year, he married Lisa Deutsch; they divorced after just one year. Finally, in 1998, Curtis married Jill Vandenberg, who was 45 years his junior.
Throughout his life, Curtis often struggled with his health. He developed a major addiction to cocaine in the 1970s, and in the 1980s, he suffered from advanced cirrhosis due to addiction to both alcohol and cocaine. After having a heart attack in the 90s, he had heart bypass surgery. Curtis later developed COPD and was hospitalized in July 2010 following an asthma attack. In, he died in his home of cardiac arrest at the age of 85.
