Tony Curtis - “In America, You Have To Die Before They Say Anything Nice About You”

Tony Curtis was an American actor who had a wide timeline career in Hollywood, almost 6 decades. Born as Bernard Schwartz in 1925, Tony was the eldest of the three kids in the family. Having seen a miserable and poverty stricken childhood, Tony was always ignited to do something to make his situation better. The worst was yet to come when his parents admitted Tony and his younger brother Julius to an orphanage due to the lack of capability to give them a meal a day. It was then when Tony realized that he was alone and the only person he could ever trust. 

During his life in the orphanage, Tony got deeply attached to Julius and protected him like a father. But hell broke loose on him when Julius met with an accident in the year 1938 and was killed. After his death, Tony went into deep depression and his parents, who had reclaimed their custody from the orphanage by then, decided to send him to school. However, Tony refused to any kind of formal education, believing that a formal education wouldn’t help him earn his livelihood.

Soon after that, Tony discovered his interest in the film industry. He joined the navy and got a GI bill after three years, which could send him to acting school without paying any fees. Tony saw this as an opportunity to fulfill his lifetime dream of becoming an actor and joined the acting school.

Tony’s film career started with a two minute role in “Criss Cross (1949)”. Until late 1950, Tony played brief roles in several films. In 1950, he got his first major role in the film “Sierra”, after which the industry could see an upcoming talented artist. His performance was highly applauded and as a result, he got another big budget film “Winchester’73” in the same year itself. After that Tony appeared in films that were based on social causes such as “The Defiant Ones (1958)” and “Spartacus (1960).” His best performances came in, “Some like it Hot (1959) and “The Persuaders (1971)”.

In a life that he lived for 85 years, Tony married six times and had six children. All of his marriages ended in divorce except the last one which ended because of his death in the year 2010. Tony encountered death experiences numerous times, but he finally passed away after having a cardiac arrest on September 29, 2010.