Jamie Lee Curtis is an American actress, producer and children’s author. Known primarily for her performances in the horror/thriller genre over the years, Curtis has become widely regarded as a “scream queen.”

JAMIE LEE CURTIS BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 (Curtis: Age 64) in Santa Monica, California. Curtis was born to two actors. Her mother Janet Leigh was of Danish, German, and Scotch-Irish descent. Her father Tony Curtis was Jewish, and was a son of emigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. Curtis has one older sister, actress Kelly Curtis, and four half-siblings from her father’s later marriages.

In 1962, Curtis’s parents had divorced. Her father wasn’t around much at all, as Curtis has stated that her father was “not interested in being a father.” After his death, Curtis and her siblings discovered they had been completely removed from his will. Following the divorce, her mother married Robert Brandt, who helped raise Curtis along with her mother.

Originally, Curtis was on track to study law at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, but dropped out after just one semester in order to pursue her acting career.

JAMIE LEE CURTIS BIOGRAPHY: CAREER, HALLOWEEN

Curtis began her acting career by playing a minor role in a Quincy episode in 1977 and a few small roles in other TV shows afterward. Her film debut was about a year later when she appeared in John Carpenter’s horror film Halloween, in which she played the iconic lead role, Laurie Strode.

Curtis has gone on to receive numerous accolades in her acting career, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and two Golden Globes, as well as several nominations for a Grammy and a Primetime Emmy.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Curtis reflects on her first foray into acting.

“Vanity fair has one of those career highlights that they put up on their sight, and they got the first second I’m ever in a TV show and it was in a Quincy episode. I had signed a contract at Universal. I’m a woman in a dressing room who Quincy opens the dressing room and exposes, and she covers up and, you know, they have words and then she has a little retort to him at the end of the scene. And that was my first moment ever on screen.”

Curtis then went on to recall a special moment she shared with her fellow castmates while filming.

“You know, the truth is there was a single moment, and it was simply us sitting on the stairs together. There was a moment where we were in between setups and there was a flight of stairs, and this whole cast sort of were sitting on it, and I know there’s a photograph of that cast somewhere, probably on my Instagram account that somebody else took one day when we were sitting there. But imagine the entire cast just sitting on the stairs talking, and there was that feeling of family. And so that doesn’t happen very often. Usually many actors, they break up as they finish shooting and then everybody goes off to their own worlds, and we didn’t. We stuck together and I think it shows in the movie.” 

When asked if she thought there was any political commentary in Knives Out, Curtis was definitive:

“Well of course there is. By the way, there’s political commentary in Bambi. You know, art is about something. That is the nature of art, is that it’s to challenge us as an audience and to delight us and to entertain us, but even in entertainment you can still think a little. You don’t have to be brain-dead, and so yes, I think White Privilege gets a good comeuppance. And you know there’s plenty of red meat in this movie and plenty of blue meat and during that family squabble a lot is thrown at each other, and in the center of the movie is really love, which is the character of Ana de Armas, this beautiful Cuban actress who plays the nurse of the deceased patriarch.”

On top of her impressive acting career, Curtis was also a blogger for the Huffington Post from 2011 to 2017. She has also written a number of children’s books, all published by HarperCollins children’s books. In February of 2022, it was announced that Curtis had co-written a graphic novel, titled Mother Nature, which is set to be published at the end of the month. Additionally, Curtis launched her podcast series Letters from Camp in 2020 and Good Friend with Jamie Lee Curtis in 2021.

JAMIE LEE CURTIS BIOGRAPHY: PERSONAL LIFE

Curtis currently lives in Santa Monica, California. She is married to British-American filmmaker and actor, Christopher Guest, whom she wed on December 18, 1984. Curtis had seen a picture of Christopher from a film and immediately informed her friend, Debra Hill, that she was going to marry him. Just five months later, they were indeed married. Together, they have two adopted daughters, Annie and Ruby.

Curtis is good friends with American actress Sigourney Weaver. 

Curtis is a recovering alcoholic who was once addicted to painkillers that she began to use after a cosmetic surgical procedure. She’s been sober from opiates for almost 25 years now and has described her recovery from painkillers as the greatest achievement of her life. She is a big fan of the video game World of Warcraft and also enjoys reading the manga One Piece. 

In 2021, Curtis received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award during a Venice International Film Festival and said how she feels “so alive like a fourteen-year-old merely beginning their life.”

“That’s how I wake up every day with that sort of joy and purpose,” she said. “I’m just beginning my work.”

 

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