Jamie Lee Curtis

• Born: November 22, 1958
• Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

Actor and writer

Curtis, the daughter of actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, became known for her work in horror films of the early 1980s, and in later years she starred in films with John Travolta, Eddie Murphy, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In addition, she is an acclaimed best-selling author of children’s books.

Early Life

Jamie Lee Curtis was born in Los Angeles, California, in November, 1958, to parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, both actors. Curtis’s paternal grandparents were Jewish Austro-Hungarian immigrants. Her father’s birth name was Bernard Schwartz, which he changed to Tony Curtis for his career in Hollywood; Curtis was a variation of Kurtz, a relative on his mother’s side. Jamie’s grandfather, Emanual Schwartz, was a tailor, and her grandmother, Helen Schwartz, was a shopkeeper. However, Curtis did not grow up with Jewish religion and traditions; in her later life, she came to value and to explore her Jewish heritage.

After her parents divorced in 1962, she lived with her mother, her stepfather, Robert Brandt, and her older sister, Kelly, who later became an actor. Curtis has several half brothers and half sisters from her father’s later marriages. Curtis has been described as an introverted young girl. She attended Westlake School and Beverly Hills High School, before graduating in 1976 from Choate Rosemary Hall, a private college preparatory school in Connecticut. She enrolled in the University of the Pacific in California but dropped out to pursue her acting career.

Life’s Work

Curtis established her early reputation as a professional actor through performances on television and in the horror films of the early 1980’s. In 1977, at age nineteen, Curtis made her debut as a television actor in episodes of Operation Petticoat, Columbo, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, and Quincy, M.D. She continued her television career the following year, 1978, in Charlie’s Angels, The Love Boat, and Buck Rogers in the Twenty-fifth Century. That same year she was cast in her first feature film, Halloween (1978), as babysitter Laurie Strode. Curtis earned her nickname Scream Queen through her roles in horror films, including The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980), Halloween II (1981), and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).

The next twenty-five years brought many film and television opportunities to Curtis. In 1983, she played Ophelia, a sex worker, in the comedy Trading Places with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy. Two years later, Curtis took the role of Jesse, a female aerobics instructor, opposite John Travolta, a journalist, in the drama-romance Perfect (1985). The year 1988 brought a comedy-heist film her way in the Academy Award-winning film A Fish Called Wanda. In 1990 her work in the television series Anything but Love brought Curtis a Golden Globe Award. True Lies (1994) rewarded her with a second Golden Globe Award for her film role as Helen Tasker, wife of Harry Tasker, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Curtis added other popular films, such as My Girl (1991), Virus (1999), Freaky Friday (2003), and Christmas with the Kranks (2004) to her credits. She next appeared in the comedies Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) and You Again (2010).

Curtis began the 2010s by appearing in recurring roles on the television crime drama NCIS, in 2012, and the comedy series New Girl, between 2012 and 2018. She then appeared in the crime drama Veronica Mars: The Movie (2014) and the drama Spare Parts (2015). From 2015 and 2016, Curtis costarred in the Ryan Murphy comedy horror series Scream Queen, alongside Emma Roberts, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Keke Palmer, and Billie Lourd. In 2018, she appeared in the thriller An Acceptable Loss. The following year, she joined the ensemble cast of the Oscar-nominated murder mystery Knives Out (2019), alongside Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette.

Curtis reprised her role as Laurie Strode in the 2018 slasher film Halloween, the eleventh film in the Halloween film series and the direct sequel of the 1978 film in which she also starred. She continued in that starring role in Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Also in 2022, Curtis appeared in the science fiction film Everything Everywhere All at Once. Curtis's performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once was critically acclaimed, and she went on to win best actress in a supporting role at the 2023 Academy Awards.

In her forties, Curtis became dependent on pain medication after cosmetic surgery. She admitted to being addicted to alcohol and drugs, but she embraced a recovery program and became sober in 1999, which she claims as the greatest accomplishment of her life. She has served on the board of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, and she supports Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Teen Line.

Curtis expanded her creative endeavors to include writing, and she became a best-selling author of children’s books, including Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (1996), Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods that Make My Day (1998), My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story (2010), My Brave Year of Firsts (2016), and Me, Myselfie and I: A Cautionary Tale (2018). She also contributed a chapter for Alan King’s book, Matzo Balls for Breakfast: And Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish (2004). She wrote that she did not grow up with the Jewish faith, although she sometimes attended Bar Mitzvah parties. She described how four life incidents helped her reconnect to her Jewish heritage. The first was when she saw a picture of a sweet young boy holding his hands up in terror during the Holocaust. The second was when her father married a Jewish woman and celebrated in Jewish tradition under the family’s chuppah (canopy). The third was when she watched her sister and her father work with some Hungarian Jews to create the Emanuel Foundation, named for Curtis’s grandfather. This foundation restored the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest in honor of 600,000 Hungarian victims of the Holocaust. The fourth was when Curtis observed the gift her friend Deborah Oppenheimer made for her mother: the documentary, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, which won an Academy Award. Oppenheimer’s mother was a survivor of the Kindertransport, a rescue operation that moved ten thousand mostly Jewish children from Europe to England before the start of World War II. These four life experiences connected Curtis to her Jewish history.

Curtis and her husband, Christopher Guest, have two children. She became Lady Haden-Guest in 1996 when her husband was named the fifth Baron Haden-Guest upon the death of his father. Curtis worked with various charities and served on community groups, such as the American Red Cross Celebrity Panel, to promote personal emergency preparedness. She offered her voice for ads supporting the Strong American Schools campaign. Curtis received the Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Film Festival for her lifetime achievements.

Significance

Curtis has been a successful actor in horror, drama, and comedy roles. Among her honors are Golden Globe Awards she received for her portrayals in the 1994 film True Lies and the 1989 television series Anything but Love. She also holds a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films for True Lies; an American Comedy Award for True Lies; and a British Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for A Fish Called Wanda. Her win at the 2023 Academy Awards for Everything Everywhere All at Once further added to Curtis's career accolades. She was also nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in 2024 for her work on the hit television series The Bear.

Curtis has successfully navigated the trials of the glamorous Hollywood life, which included parental divorce and substance addiction, to become a successful actor with an established and stable family. She has publicly shared her experiences as an addict, inspiring others to overcome their own hardships, and she realized her dream to become an author. She reestablished her life’s priorities to value what matters most: family, friends, and giving to others.

Bibliography

Curtis, Jamie Lee.“In Her Own Words.” Interview by Robert Epstein. Psychology Today (September/October 2001).

Curtis, Jamie Lee.“Jamie Lee Curtis Interview: Starring as Herself, Embracing Reality.” Interview by Meg Grant. Reader’s Digest (December 2004): 90-91.

Griffin, Nancy. “Jamie Lee Curtis Turns 50: The Essential Jamie Lee.” AARP The Magazine 51, no. 3 (May/June 2008).

"Jamie Lee Curtis Reflects on 'The Bear' Role Following 2024 Emmy Nomination." Daily Jang, 25 July 2024, jang.com.pk/en/16719-jamie-lee-curtis-reflects-on-the-bear-role-following-2024-emmy-nomination-news. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

King, Alan. “Four Things: Jamie Lee Curtis.” In Matzo Balls for Breakfast: And Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish. New York: Free Press, 2004.

Owoseje, Toyin. "Jamie Lee Curtis Wins Her First Oscar, References Movie Star Parents Who Never Scooped Top Prize." CNN Entertainment, 13 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/entertainment/jamie-lee-curtis-oscar-2023-scli-intl/index.html. Accessed 2 Sept. 2024.

Seeber, Michael. “Jamie Lee Curtis Revealed.” Psychology Today, September/October 2001.