# RIP Tony Curtis **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2010, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585 "2010-09-30T10:32:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/41 "2010-10-01T06:18:57Z")
The Great Race has always been one of my favourite movies. RIP Tony. ---
**Author:** ![Promethea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/42 "2010-10-01T07:13:04Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > > [@twickster](#): > > > > He was great in _Some Like It Hot_. > > That’s one of my favorite films. But my favorite Tony Curtis movie is _[The Great Race](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059243/)_. > > RIP Mr. Curtis. “So, until another day, Mr. Leslie!” The Great Race is easily the most quoted film in my family. Tony Curtis was wonderful in it. Would have been so easy to go way over the top or be overshadowed by Jack Lemmon but I thought he found the perfect mix of arrogance and charm. _I’m simply Leslie … and I’m at your service._ ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/43 "2010-10-01T07:22:54Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > _I’m Spartacus_! > > Tony as Antoninus \*\* One of the best seduction scenes EVER!\*\* Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you eat oysters? Antoninus: When I have them, master. Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you eat snails? Antoninus: No, master. Marcus Licinius Crassus: Do you consider the eating of oysters to be moral and the eating of snails to be immoral? Antoninus: No, master. Marcus Licinius Crassus: Of course not. It is all a matter of taste, isn’t it? Antoninus: Yes, master. Marcus Licinius Crassus: And taste is not the same as appetite, and therefore not a question of morals. Antoninus: It could be argued so, master. Marcus Licinius Crassus: My robe, Antoninus. My taste includes both snails and oysters. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/44 "2010-10-01T12:56:17Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > It would have been better if he gotten a wig/toupee He did that for a while. He looked like a combination of Bill Shatner and Bea Arthur. The cowboy hat was an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/45 "2010-10-01T13:46:59Z")
When you get to age 85 and in bad health, well, come on, who wants to be fooling with wigs and toupees? The cowboy hat covered up the bald and looked rather fetching… I forgot all about The Sweet Smell of Success. Besides the great performances, it’s a very stylish, jazzy picture of New York back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/46 "2010-10-01T13:49:55Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > > [@yojimbo](#): > > > > Coz he was bald. > > It would have been better if he gotten a wig/toupee IMO it’s never better if you go down the wig road. He looked much better in the cowboy hat. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/47 "2010-10-01T19:22:53Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > > [@Susanann](#): > > > > It would have been better if he gotten a wig/toupee > > He did that for a while. He looked like a combination of Bill Shatner and Bea Arthur. YIKES!! I think Tony Curtis looked better when he and Jerry Lewis made the movie: **Boeing Boeing** Looking back, Tony Curtis was in a whole bunch of entertaining movies, he was very lucky and unusual to get so many good movie roles. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/48 "2010-10-01T19:25:31Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > I did not go see a movie because Curtis was in it. I did. … and I enjoyed all of them. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/49 "2010-10-01T21:54:34Z")
Tony Curtis was in a load of films, some of them really good ones. The thing I liked about him however was that he’d go on any UK chat show any time he was in the country, and just be entertaining, with a million anecdotes. That was his job, and he was good at it, and he didn’t need to be, but he did even when when he was very not well. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/50 "2010-10-01T22:13:00Z")
Yonda lies da castle of my fadda. Seriously, RIP ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/51 "2010-10-02T01:49:00Z")
I had a crush on him when I was about 8. I loved to watch Trapeze whenever it came on TV. Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis - who could ask for anything more? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/52 "2010-10-02T01:55:26Z")
If I were to have a movie career, I’d probably want Tony Curtis’. Sex, drugs, some pretty good movies and not (quite) bothered by the microscopic scrutiny you get from today’s paparazzi. I think he had a ball with his life. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/53 "2010-10-02T02:04:32Z")
Jamie Lee Curtis said in an interview several years back that her husband, Christopher Guest, would no longer speak to or have anything to do with Tony Curtis because of his bad behavior while drunk or high, I don’t recall which. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/54 "2010-10-02T02:07:05Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Jamie Lee Curtis said in an interview several years back that her husband, Christopher Guest, would no longer speak to or have anything to do with Tony Curtis because of his bad behavior while drunk or high, I don’t recall which. Ah, good ol’ Tony. That’s my boy. On a side note, I once dated a nurse who worshipped the ground that Jamie Lee Curtis walked on. Said that was her ideal of pure femininity. I’ve always thought Jamie Lee Curtis to be a rather ugly-looking beanstalk. Probably helps explains why the relationship with the nurse didn’t last. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/55 "2010-10-02T02:19:41Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > Yonda lies da castle of my fadda. I don’t have any idea what kind of arrangements there are, but I just have an image of a funeral home director saying, “Yonda lie da remains o’ Tony Cuddus.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/56 "2010-10-02T02:45:05Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve always thought Jamie Lee Curtis to be a rather ugly-looking beanstalk. Probably helps explains why the relationship with the nurse didn’t last. Now I feel guilty. Maybe that was a tad too harsh. I should have said “funny-looking.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/57 "2010-10-02T04:32:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > > I’ve always thought Jamie Lee Curtis to be a rather ugly-looking beanstalk. Probably helps explains why the relationship with the nurse didn’t last. > > Now I feel guilty. Maybe that was a tad too harsh. I should have said “funny-looking.” Yeah, how mean, with her father just dying and all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/58 "2010-10-02T11:44:18Z")
I remember I kind of enjoyed his novel _Kid Andrew Cody and Julie Sparrow_ and had thought about rereading it recently. I’ll have to dig it up. He had a line I liked about some deadbeat character and how he had once been “his highness the baby.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585/59 "2010-10-05T05:41:49Z")
Ebert just added _Some Like It Hot_ to his Great Movies list. His essay is [here](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000109/REVIEWS08/1090301/). Excerpt: **“Capturing the chemistry was not all that simple. Legends surround _Some Like It Hot_. Kissing Marilyn, Curtis famously said, was like kissing Hitler. Monroe had so much trouble saying one line (‘Where’s the bourbon?’) while looking in a dresser drawer that Wilder had the line pasted inside the drawer. Then she opened the wrong drawer. So he had it pasted inside every drawer.”**😃 I showed this film to the wife way back when we were in school in Hawaii, and she hated it. Thought these two guys were just a couple of manipulative bastards. But she grew to love it over time and finally sees how great it is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-tony-curtis/555585.md?page=2)