Tony Curtis Dies
Sep. 30th, 2010 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
filkertomSadness. Actor Tony Curtis has passed away at the age of 85. He was not a great actor, and he had some really dumb movies to his credit, but he could be a lot of fun in the right role, and seemed a genuinely nice guy.
What were some of your favorite Curtis roles? Mine, without question, is The Great Leslie in The Great Race. I also thought he acquitted himself well in the Houdini biopic, and then there's Some Like It Hot, and his best acting role by far in The Defiant Ones, and Operation Petticoat, and The Great Impostor, and....
What were some of your favorite Curtis roles? Mine, without question, is The Great Leslie in The Great Race. I also thought he acquitted himself well in the Houdini biopic, and then there's Some Like It Hot, and his best acting role by far in The Defiant Ones, and Operation Petticoat, and The Great Impostor, and....
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:13 pm (UTC)I told R. that "The Great Leslie" died this morning and she immediately responded by asking if we weregoing to watch The Great Race tonight.
Had totally forgotten about the Houdini biopic. Haven't seen that in years.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 08:58 pm (UTC)The Defiant Ones - both he and Theo Bikel as the sheriff got Oscar nominations.
Some Like It Hot.
The Great Race
The Boston Strangler
The Persuaders. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:43 pm (UTC)-L.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 03:52 pm (UTC)Tony Curtis may have had the world's worst accent in Falworth, but his fencing work, particularly in The Great Race, is some of the best on film - he was a competetive fencer, not just a 'movie fencer' and it shows!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 08:03 pm (UTC)And I do believe that Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a contender for world's worst accent. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 12:41 pm (UTC)While Rathbone was an accomplished fencer, Kaye was much the younger and faster in those days....
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 04:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 05:19 pm (UTC)Some Like It Hot
Trapeze
Houdini
Operation Petticoat
Spartacus
Paris When It Sizzles
and more. He was a great actor. I'll miss him. I know what I'll be watching tonight after work...
"Now, if you'd won the Men's International Fencing Competition . . ."
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 05:36 pm (UTC)I have to tell my friend Karen's story; some years ago, Tony Curtis was the guest of honor at the St. Louis Film Festival, even did the artwork for the posters. Karen stood in line for hours, one lone teenager in a sea of little old ladies. When she finally reached the table where Tony Curtis was signing autographs, she said to him "Mr. Curtis, you are my favorite actor".
He rose to his feet... and kissed her hand!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 08:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 10:10 pm (UTC)It's also one of Jerry Lewis' better turns since he isn't relying on the geeky scenery chewing he did in most of his "solo" flicks.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058981/
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 12:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 12:43 am (UTC)I still remember that glorious week when Channel 5 showed "The Great Race," all 3 hours of it, every day, and twice on the weekend days. Imprinted me.
My favorite Tony Curtis role? His appearance in the film documentary The Celluloid Closet, in which he discusses how he created "Josephine" in Some Like It Hot, and has some great commentary about the infamously-censored "oysters & snails" bathing scene between him and Laurence Olivier from Spartacus -- "Hey! Buy me dinner first! Don't just throw me in the tub and drop the soap!"
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 01:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 02:04 am (UTC)I've got a request in to my husband to DVR The Great Race if TCM or AMC shows it in the next few days [they're bound to be doing Tony Curtis Tributes].
Another move I like that he was in, though not as the #1 Star IMDB lists him second-billing], is 'Captain Newman, MD'. He played the chief orderly in the Section 8 ward of a military hospital during WWII. Gregory Peck had the title role.
A friend of mine tells this story of encountering Mr. Curtis in Seattle:
Curtis was doing some sort of celebrity appearance at a mall where my friend was having lunch in the food court. The "stage" area had a "rear wall" made of drapes hung on pipe frames, and at one point a confused elderly lady blundered through the wall from the wrong direction. Mr. Curtis calmly finished his sentence, then applied his considerable charm to calming the lady's befuddlement and escorting her to a chair. He then went on with his presentation.
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Date: 2010-10-01 02:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 08:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-02 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-03 12:05 am (UTC)