00:03Hi, I'm Alisha Malone and tonight on TCM we are celebrating the 100th birthday of Tony Curtis.
00:09He was born in the Bronx on June the 3rd, 1925 as Bernard Schwartz.
00:14His childhood was very difficult.
00:16He lived with his Jewish-Hungarian immigrant parents and two brothers in cramped quarters
00:22and his mother suffered from schizophrenia.
00:25During the Great Depression, Bernard's parents couldn't afford to keep him
00:28and placed him in an institution.
00:30Then during World War II, he served in the Navy where he witnessed the surrender of Japan firsthand
00:36and when he returned to New York, he started taking acting classes.
00:41Around this time, Bernie Schwartz was discovered by Agent Joyce Selznick,
00:45the niece of David O. Selznick, and he moved to Hollywood where he was signed to Universal.
00:51He was billed first as James Curtis, then Anthony Curtis and finally just Tony Curtis.
00:56It took a few years for him to gain notice as an actor, but his personal life made headlines
01:02when he married actress Janet Leigh in 1951.
01:05And it wasn't until the late 1950s when his talent outshone his good looks,
01:10with his critically acclaimed dramatic performances in Sweet Smell of Success and The Defiant Ones,
01:16both of which we'll watch later tonight.
01:19Curtis also proved he could do comedy in the movie we're about to see from 1959,
01:24directed by Billy Wilder, It's Some Like It Hot.
01:27Billy Wilder had seen Tony Curtis in Sweet Smell of Success and contacted him about the role
01:33before Jack Lemmon had been confirmed.
01:36Curtis was excited to work with Wilder, being a fan of his movies,
01:40and he and Lemmon played two musicians who witnessed the St. Valentine's Day massacre
01:45and go on the run, disguising themselves as women to join a female band.
01:49When they were testing their female costumes, Wilder recalled that Lemmon came sauntering out,
01:56while Curtis needed a little more encouragement.
01:58Both Wilder and Lemmon were supportive of him, and the two actors quickly became friends.
02:04Curtis later wrote in his memoir, American Prince, that they were never competitive with each other.
02:09Perhaps, Curtis said, it was because Jack was so comfortable in his own skin.
02:14With Marilyn Monroe and George Raft from 1959, enjoy Some Like It Hot.
