Tony Curtis, who passed away yesterday at 85, was a Movie Star in every sense of the word. And when given a chance, he could really act.
He’s seen here in The Rawhide Years (1955) — a Universal-International Western I hoped to talk to him about someday. (Isn’t that a great photo?) In Hollywood’s typical ghoulish fashion, we might see this, and a slew of his other pictures, pop up on DVD before long.
Here’s his New York Times obituary. A previous post on this picture has some real insight from Tony on film acting.
It’s very sad to loose Tony Curtis; he won’t be remembered for his small list of westerns, and I still haven’t seen The Rawhide Years. But he was great, and he will always be a big favourite with me; I grew up watching his films, my first memory being The Black Shield Of Falworth.
On his visits to the UK for chat show appearances he was always entertaining and funny. Unfortunately his last TV shows here, during 2009, were quite sad. He had discarded the full silver grey hairpiece and was seen completely bald or he wore a cowboy hat, in one of the shows he was in a wheelchair. I realised then that he was struggling and the glow had gone except for a few brief moments when he added an amusing comment to the conversation. I didn’t want to see him like that, and the shows were difficult to watch; it seemed obvious that he wouldn’t be returning.
Just FYI,…the westerns he was in were KANSAS RAIDERS, SIERRA, WINCHESTER ’73, and THE RAWHIDE YEARS. The last one, of course, was a significant part. The others were not much.