It is sad to learn that the world has lost another legend of American cinema in Tony Curtis (June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) after he suffered a cardiac arrest on Wednesday.
Curtis appeared in 90 movies during his long career and was recognised for his incredible versatility as an actor, which was evidenced by his three best-known roles: “Junior” – the cross dressing musician on the run from gangsters in Billy Wilder comedy Some Like It Hot; John “Joker” Jackson – a racist escaped prisoner shackled to black prison mate Sidney Poitier in Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones for which Curtis earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination; and the role of Antoninus in Stanley Kubrick’s highly-acclaimed, historically-inaccurate Spartacus.
Curtis was responsible for Sidney Poitier receiving the first top billing in his career after Curtis famously insisted that the black actor receive equal billing for The Defiant Ones. “That’s how I got top billing for the first time in my life,” Poitier said. “I think that speaks a lot of him.”
