Jamie Lee Curtis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jamie Lee Curtis
Curtis in July 2018
Born	(1958-11-22) November 22, 1958 (age 65) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Education	Choate Rosemary Hall
Occupation	Actress producer author
Years active	1977–present
Spouse(s)	Christopher Guest ​ ​ (m. 1984)​
Children	2
Relatives	Tony Curtis (father) Janet Leigh (mother) Kelly Curtis (sister) Allegra Curtis (half-sister)
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Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for her performances in film and television, she is one of the most prolific actors of the horror and slasher genres and is regarded as a scream queen. Curtis has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA, two Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as nominations for an Emmy and a Grammy. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.

Curtis came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977–1978). She made her feature film debut playing Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's slasher film Halloween (1978), the first film in the Halloween franchise, which established her as a scream queen and led to a string of parts in horror films such as The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980), and Roadgames (1981). She reprised the role of Laurie in the Halloween sequels Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022).

Curtis's film work spans many genres outside of horror, including the cult comedies Trading Places (1983), for which she won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, and A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. She won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Helen Tasker in James Cameron's True Lies (1994). Her other notable film roles include Blue Steel (1990), My Girl (1991), Forever Young (1992), Mother's Boys (1993), Fierce Creatures (1997), Virus (1999), Drowning Mona (2000), The Tailor of Panama (2001), Freaky Friday (2003), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), You Again (2010), and Knives Out (2019). Her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) earned her the first Academy Award nomination—and win—of her career, for Best Supporting Actress. To date, her films have grossed over $2.3 billion at the box office.

Curtis received a Golden Globe and a People's Choice Award for her portrayal of Hannah Miller on ABC's Anything But Love (1989–1992), and earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Nicholas' Gift (1998). She also starred as Cathy Munsch on the Fox series Scream Queens (2015–16), for which she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. Curtis has written numerous children's books, including Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day (1998), which made The New York Times's best-seller list. Curtis is a daughter of actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She is married to British-American filmmaker Christopher Guest, with whom she has two adopted children. Her marriage to Guest, who holds the British title of 5th Baron Haden-Guest, makes her a baroness who is entitled to use the name "The Right Honourable The Lady Haden-Guest", though she opts not to use it.

Early life

Curtis with her mother, Janet Leigh, in 1960

Curtis was born in Santa Monica, California, to actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Her father was Jewish, a son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants, from Mátészalka. Two of her maternal great-grandparents were Danish, while the rest of her mother's ancestry was German and Scots-Irish. Curtis has an older sister, Kelly Curtis, who is also an actress, and four half-siblings (all from her father's remarriages): Alexandra, actress Allegra Curtis, Benjamin, and Nicholas Curtis (who died in 1994). Curtis's parents divorced in 1962. After the divorce, she stated her father was "not around" and that he was "not interested in being a father." She was raised by her mother and her stepfather, stockbroker Robert Brandt.

Curtis attended elite schools Westlake School (now Harvard-Westlake School) and Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles, and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut in 1976. Returning to California in 1976, she attended her mother's alma mater, the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, and studied law. She dropped out after one semester to pursue an acting career.

Acting career

Film performances

Curtis's film debut occurred in the 1978 horror film Halloween, in which she played the role of Laurie Strode. The film was a major success and was considered the highest-grossing independent film of its time, earning accolades as a classic horror film. The producer, Debra Hill, specifically cast Curtis because her mother, Leigh, had been known as a horror icon. Curtis was subsequently cast in several horror films, garnering her the title "scream queen." She would also return to the Halloween franchise seven times, playing Strode again in the sequels Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022), and having an uncredited voice role in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).

Her next film following Halloween was The Fog, which was helmed by Halloween director John Carpenter. The horror film opened in February 1980 to mixed reviews but strong box office, starting Curtis as a horror film starlet. Her next film, Prom Night, was a low-budget Canadian slasher film released in July 1980. The film, for which she earned a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress, was similar in style to Halloween, yet received negative reviews which marked it as a disposable entry in the then-popular slasher genre. That year, Curtis also starred in Terror Train, which opened in October and met with negative reviews akin to Prom Night. Both films performed moderately well at the box office. Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave negative reviews to all three of Curtis's 1980 films, said that Curtis "is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last one—or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s." In 1981, she appeared alongside Stacey Keach in the Australian thriller film Roadgames, directed by Carpenter's friend Richard Franklin; her importation, which was requested by the film's American distributor AVCO Embassy Pictures, was contested by the Sydney branch of Actors Equity. Although the film was a box office bomb in Australia and Franklin later regretted not increasing the size of Curtis's role, it has achieved a cult following and was championed by Quentin Tarantino. In 1997, she was inducted into the Fangoria Hall of Fame.

Curtis at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival

Her role in 1983's Trading Places helped Curtis shed her horror queen image, and garnered her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She then starred in the 1988 comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, which achieved cult status while showcasing her as a comedic actress. For her performance, she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Curtis received positive reviews for her performance in the action thriller Blue Steel (1990), which was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. She also received a Golden Globe Award for her work in the 1994 action comedy film True Lies, directed by James Cameron.

Her other film roles also include the coming-of-age films My Girl (1991) and My Girl 2 (1994), and the Disney comedy film Freaky Friday (2003), opposite Lindsay Lohan. The latter was filmed at Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades, California, near where Curtis and Guest lived with their children. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for her performance in the film. She starred in the Christmas comedy film Christmas with the Kranks (2004), which went on to gain a cult following.

In October 2006, Curtis told Access Hollywood that she had closed the book on her acting career to focus on her family. She returned to acting after being cast in June 2007 in Disney's live-action-animated film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, co-starring opposite Piper Perabo as one of three live-action characters in the film. She also starred in the 2010 comedy film You Again, opposite Kristen Bell and Sigourney Weaver. Curtis had voice roles in the animated films The Little Engine That Could (2011) and From Up on Poppy Hill (2011). This was followed by supporting roles in the neo-noir mystery film Veronica Mars (2014) and the biographical drama film Spare Parts (2015).

Curtis returned to leading roles with her reprisal of Laurie Strode in the horror sequel film Halloween (2018). The film debuted to $76.2 million, marking the second-best opening weekend of October and the highest opening weekend of the Halloween franchise; and became the biggest domestic grosser in the franchise with its opening weekend alone. Its opening performance was the best-ever for a film starring a lead actress over 55 years old. Curtis's performance earned critical acclaim. Also in 2018, she had a role in the drama film An Acceptable Loss. She then starred as Linda Drysdale-Thrombrey in Rian Johnson's mystery film Knives Out, which earned critical acclaim and over $300 million at the global box office.

In September 2021, she was honored with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for her lifetime achievements. Curtis again reprised her role as Laurie Strode in the horror sequels Halloween Kills, which was released in October 2021, and in Halloween Ends, which was released in October 2022. She also appeared as Deirdre Beaubeirdra in the science fiction action film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), and will have a leading role in the video game adaptation Borderlands.

Television performances

Curtis at the 1989 Primetime Emmy Awards

Curtis made her television debut in a 1977 episode of the drama series Quincy, M.E.. She went on to guest star on several series, including Columbo, Charlie's Angels and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. She appeared as Nurse Lt. Barbara Duran in the short-lived comedy series Operation Petticoat (1977–1978), based on the 1959 film that starred her father, Tony Curtis. Curtis was also a gameshow panelist on several episodes of Match Game.

Curtis starred in the 1981 television film Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story. She earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for her work in TNT's adaptation of the Wendy Wasserstein play The Heidi Chronicles. Her first starring role on television came opposite Richard Lewis in the situation comedy series Anything But Love, which ran for four seasons from 1989 through 1992. For her performance as Hannah Miller, she received a People's Choice Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. Curtis also appeared in a 1996 episode of the sitcom The Drew Carey Show. In 1998, she starred in the CBS television film Nicholas' Gift, for which she received an Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

In 2012, she appeared in five episodes of the police drama series NCIS, playing the role of Dr. Samantha Ryan, a potential romantic interest of Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon). During an interview, she stated that if they could develop a storyline, she would be interested to return to the series, but this never occurred. The series reunited Curtis with Harmon, after he played her character's fiancé and later husband in the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday.

From 2012 to 2018, Curtis had a recurring role as Joan Day, the mother of Zooey Deschanel's character, in the sitcom New Girl. From 2015 to 2016, Curtis had a lead role as Cathy Munsch on the Fox satirical horror comedy series Scream Queens, which aired for two seasons. For her performance, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy.

Other ventures

Children's books

Working with illustrator Laura Cornell, Curtis has written a number of children's books, all published by HarperCollins Children's Books.

Curtis autographing a copy of her children's book in 2010

• When I Was Little: A Four-Year Old's Memoir of Her Youth, 1993.
• Tell Me Again About The Night I was Born, 1996.
• Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, 1998; listed on the New York Times best-seller list for 10 weeks.
• Where Do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery, 2000.
• I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem, 2002.
• It's Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel, 2004.
• Is There Really a Human Race?, 2006.
• Big Words for Little People, ISBN: 978-0-06-112759-5, 2008.
• My Friend Jay, 2009, edition of one, presented to Jay Leno
• My Mommy Hung the Moon: A Love Story, 2010.
• My Brave Year of Firsts, 2016.
• This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From, 2016.
• Me, Myselfie & I: A Cautionary Tale, 2018.

Invention

In 1987, Curtis filed a US patent application that subsequently issued as Patent No. 4,753,647. This is a modification of a diaper with a moisture-proof pocket containing wipes that can be taken out and used with one hand. Curtis refused to allow her invention to be marketed until companies started selling biodegradable diapers. The full statutory term of this patent expired February 20, 2007, and it is now in the public domain. She filed a second US patent application related to disposable diapers in 2016 which issued as US Patent 9,827,151 on November 28, 2017, and will expire on September 7, 2036.

Blogging

Curtis is a blogger for The Huffington Post online newspaper. On her website, Curtis tells her young readers that she "moonlights as an actor, photographer, and closet organizer".

Podcasts

Curtis launched the podcast series Letters from Camp on Audible in 2020 and Good Friend with Jamie Lee Curtis for iHeartRadio in 2021.

Political views

Curtis speaking at an event in support of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in September 2016

During California's 2008 general election, Curtis appeared in the "Yes on Prop 3" television advertisements.

In March 2012, Curtis was featured with Martin Sheen and Brad Pitt in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play 8—a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage—as Sandy Stier. The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Curtis endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election; she has since been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.

Philanthropy

Beginning in 1990, Curtis and her father, Tony, took a renewed interest in their family's Hungarian Jewish heritage, and helped finance the rebuilding of the "Great Synagogue" in Budapest, Hungary. The largest synagogue in Europe today, it was originally built in 1859 and suffered damage during World War II.

Curtis also helped to refurbish the synagogue in Mátészalka where her grandparents worshipped. She attended the opening of the Tony Curtis Memorial Museum and Cafe, which is also located in Mátészalka.

Curtis was guest of honor at the 11th annual gala and fundraiser in 2003 for Women in Recovery, a Venice, California-based non-profit organization offering a live-in, twelve-step program of rehabilitation for women in need. Past honorees of this organization include Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dame Angela Lansbury. Curtis is also involved in the work of the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, serving as the annual host for the organization's "Dream Halloween" event in Los Angeles, launched every year in October.

Curtis plays a leadership role for Children's Hospital Los Angeles and supported the 2011 opening of a new inpatient facility for the organization.

Personal life

Curtis married Christopher Guest on December 18, 1984. She saw a picture of him from the movie This Is Spinal Tap in Rolling Stone and told her friend Debra Hill, "Oh, I'm going to marry that guy"; she married him five months later. They have two adopted daughters: Annie, born in 1986, and Ruby, born in 1996; Ruby is transgender. Curtis is actor Jake Gyllenhaal's godmother. Prior to her marriage to Guest, Curtis dated British rock singer Adam Ant.

Her father-in-law was a British hereditary peer, Peter Haden-Guest, 4th Baron Haden-Guest; when he died on April 8, 1996, her husband succeeded him, becoming the 5th Baron Haden-Guest and making her The Honourable the Lady Haden-Guest. Curtis does not use this title, saying, "it has nothing to do with me".

She is close friends with actress Sigourney Weaver. In a 2015 interview, she said she has never watched Weaver's film Alien in its entirety because she was too scared by it.

After her father Tony's death, she learned that her entire family, including siblings, had been cut out of his will.

She is a fan of World of Warcraft and One Piece, and has attended Comic-Con, EVO and BlizzCon incognito.

Curtis received the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 78th Venice International Film Festival, to which she reacted saying that she "[felt] so alive, like I'm this 14-year-old person just beginning their life. That’s how I wake up every day with that sort of joy and purpose" and added that she "is just beginning [her] work."

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

BAFTA Awards

Emmy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Grammy Awards

Independent Spirit Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

Critics' awards

Other awards and nominations

Honors

See also

In Spanish: Jamie Lee Curtis para niños