Tony Curtis

Academy Award-nominated, two-time Golden Globe-winning Hungarian Jewish-born Hollywood actor, producer, writer, and actor legend who has appeared in 130 films.

The film star, known worldwide as Tony Curtis, was born Bernard Schwartz in New York on 3 June 1925. His father Manó Schwartz (Emanuel Schwartz) was born in Mátészalka, while his mother Ilona Klein (Helen Schwartz) was born in Nagymihály in what is now Slovakia, but later said to have been born in Vályko. His parents emigrated from there to New York.

In 1943, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Navy, and after the war he continued his career as an actor in California at Universal Studios, where he was seen as a very imaginative actor. In addition to acting, he was interested in horseback riding and fencing. Early in his career he took the name Tony Curtis.

In 1951 he married the well-known actress Janet Leigh, who died in 2004. The marriage resulted in two daughters, Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. The latter, following in her father's footsteps, became an actress. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1962.

His divorce did not break his film career. He has appeared in films such as The Prince of Thieves and Ali's Baby Boy. In 1956, in the love triangle story Trapeze, he played a young artist alongside Gina Lollobrigida and Burt Lancaster. In it, he drew the attention of the critics to his brilliant acting. A more challenging role for him was that of a sycophantic journalist in The Sweet Smell of Success, also starring Burt Lancaster. His Oscar-nominated performance in The Shackled, in which he and Sydney Poitier played escaped convicts, was a great success. In 1959, he played a charming saxophonist in the worldwide hit Some like it hot, as a partner to Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. He was hailed as a global star after the film's release.

He typically starred in comedies, but his roles also included more serious ones, such as Antoninus in 1960's Spartacus and the serial killer in The Boston Strangler. In the golden age of television in the early 1970s, he co-starred with Roger Moore in The Persuaders as a high-profile American businessman who wasn't afraid to get into fights. The series ran in Hungary under the title "Two spoons in every pot". He later appeared in Such a Boxer and Blood Prize 2 - The Big Bang, as well as in TV series such as Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and CSI. In the latter, he played himself in a short scene.

Even after Tony Curtis's divorce, the Hollywood press was full of his private and women's affairs. He was known as a notorious womanizer. Almost every ten years he was on the front page with a new wife: Christine Kaufmann (1963-1967), Leslie Allen (1968-1981), Lisa Deutsch (1993-1994), Andrea Savio (1984-1992) and Jill Vandenberg (1998-until his death). Curtis believed that the secret to longevity was young women. His last wife and he were 45 years apart in age. He had six children, of whom Jamie Lee Curtis (1958), Allegra Curtis (1966) and Kelly Curtis (1956) became actors. His son Nicholas died of a heroin overdose on 2 July 1994.

Proud of his Hungarian origins, he visited Hungary several times. The first time he visited Hungary was in 1985, when he also visited Mátészalka, and then he came back to his parents'' homeland in 1988. In 1996, at the invitation of the government, he took part in the First World Meeting of Hungarian Filmmakers and hosted a film spot promoting Hungary. He established a foundation to support the renovation of the Dohány Street Synagogue. He also visited Mátészalka, where his parents had emigrated to America. He later changed from filming to painting. His paintings can be seen in famous galleries. His autobiographical book, The Prince of Hollywood, was published in 2009 and signed at the 16th International Book Festival in Budapest, Millenáris Park.

He died in his sleep at the age of 85 in his Nevada home. He died of a heart attack in the arms of his wife Jill.