Hollywood Legend Tony Curtis Dead at Age 85

(HMG Celebrity News) – Hollywood golden age leading man Tony Curtis has died, at the age of 85. Curtis passed at his Las Vegas area home of  cardiac arrest early Thursday morning.  Born Bernard Schwartz, to poor Jewish immigrants in the Bronx, he joined the Navy when he was 17 years old, got out, used the GI Bill to pay for acting school, and an agent saw him and Curtis was on his way to Hollywood.  The handsome and athletic Curtis appeared in more than 100 films, playing roles as diverse as a noble slave in Sparticus, escape artist Harry Houdini, and a hustling Naval officer in Operation Petticoat. Curtis starred in one of most loved movies of all time, Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. He was nominated for an Oscar for his efforts in the 1959 “The Defiant Ones,” with Sidney Portier.  Curtis was married six times. His first wife was actress Janet Leigh, to whom he was married for 11 years (June 4, 1951 – 1962), and with whom he fathered actresses Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis.  Curtis also loved to paint, and he credited his art sold on his personal Web site with helping him through a period of addiction to alcohol and cocaine in the 1970′s.  His second memoir (photo right), American Prince, published in 2008, detailed his friendships and loves with Hollywood’s biggest names.