Born in abject poverty to a Hungarian immigrant tailor, a young Bernie Schwartz learned one of life's most important lessons at a tender age: you can't rely on anyone but yourself.
Making his way through adversities of language, impoverishment, deaths of loved ones and even a stint in an orphanage, he turned things around after service in the military, using the G.I. Bill to fund his attendance in acting school. One quick change of name, and straight out of some absurd Horatio Alger story, he wound up fast tracked to Hollywood and fame.
Following a run of big budget historical epics, he found a niche in fluffy, sexless comedies, somewhere between the goofy antics of Martin and Lewis and the pillow talk of Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Young, handsome and affable, he became a darling of the teenage fanclub set, to the point where he even spoofed himself on an episode of the Flintstones, voicing a thinly veiled cartoon analogue.
Falling on hard times and still striving for stretch roles outside this typecast safe zone, he wound up shaking the tree in extremis with a dramatization of early serial killer Albert DeSalvo, finding himself critically acclaimed...but seemingly unable to land further roles of note. Struggling with drug use, he still managed to bring a unique character and often riveting if decidedly off kilter sensibility to films as diverse and often absurd as The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, The Manitou and the Mae West oddity Sextette.
Turning increasingly to television in his later years, he used a sleazy Hollywood gossip show as a platform to share some wholly unrelated memories of his past career, drumming up enough interest to publish a successful autobiography and launch a late sideline in painting, before taking one last truly bizarre turn at the very end of his life...
Join us tonight as we speak to the quirky, often questionable but undeniably loveable Tony Curtis, only here on Weird Scenes!
Week 81: Bronx Boy Breaks Box Office - the unusual tale of Tony Curtis
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Week 111 (11/30/23): Take a Bite of the Rotten Apple - NYC cop/crime films of the 70s
Week 110 (11/16/23): Cary Grant
Week 109 (11/2/23): Crimenaux ala Francais - Crime The French Way
Week 108 (10/19/23): Hide in Plain Sight: the Life and Career of Rock Hudson
Week 107 (10/5/23): Still a Bit of a Lad: The Bumpy Career of Hugh Grant
Week 106 (9/21/23): Who’s Afraid of Liz and Dick? The Tempestuous Career of Richard Burton
Week 105 (9/7/23): Ride the rollercoaster - the life and career of Jennifer Lopez
Week 104 (8/24/23): Hail to the Queen: the rise, fall and resurrection of America’s Sweetheart Sandra Bullock
Weird Scenes Week 103 (8/10/23): Sex Italian Style: The Life and Films of Sophia Loren
Weird Scenes Week 102 (7/27/23): A Man of Unusual Talent: The Life and Career of Tony Perkins
Weird Scenes Week 101 (7/13/23): Brian DePalma
Weird Scenes Week 100 (6/29/23): Jamie Lee Curtis
Weird Scenes Week 99 (6/15/23): Richard Benjamin, Class(y) Clown
Weird Scenes Week 98 (6/1/23): High Voltage and Wired: The Life and Career of John Belushi
Weird Scenes Week 97 (5/18/23): In The Court of Chaos: Up (and Down) with Wesley Snipes
Weird Scenes Week 96 (5/4/23): Sometimes You’ve Just Got To Let One Go: The Atypical Career of Whoopi Goldberg
Weird Scenes Week 95 (4/20/23): From Horse Laughs to Hollywood to Fat Suit Hell: The Rapid Rise and Precipitous Fall of Eddie Murphy
Weird Scenes Week 94 (4/6/23): Class and Style: The Unusual Career of Jacqueline Bissett
Weird Scenes Week 93 (3/23/23): Come Fly With The Chairman of the Bored - The Films of Frank Sinatra
Weird Scenes Week 92 (3/9/23): George Segal
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