The Remarkably Successful Career of Jamie Lee Curtis Through the Years

Born in sunny Santa Monica, California in November of 1958, most people probably suspected that little Jamie Lee Curtis was going to eventually become one of the next renowned Hollywood greats.

Not only was this because she grew up in Los Angeles, no doubt rubbing shoulders with the children of many other famous movie stars at Beverly Hills High School, but also because both of her parents happened to have been some of the biggest movie actors of their generation.

Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t the only woman in her family to make a big splash with a memorable horror role. Her mother, Janet Leigh, was one of the most famous horror stars of the day.

Her biggest moment had probably been in 1960, shortly after Curtis was born, when she starred in the now infamous Hitchcock horror film, Psycho. Her shower scene earned her a Golden Globe Award and even a nomination at the Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress.

Tony Curtis was also a big star during the 1950s, appearing in over 100 films. Like his daughter, he played in roles that ranged from lighthearted and fun comedies to serious and intense dramas.

One of his biggest roles also happened shortly after Jamie Lee Curtis was born, in 1959 when he starred in the film, Some Like It Hot, appearing alongside none other than Marilyn Monroe. The American Film Institute called the movie, “the funniest American film ever made.”

Even though Jamie Lee Curtis would one day be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, everyone thought that her sister was going to be the movie icon. Her older sister, Kelly Lee Curtis, had already appeared on the big screen with her parents in 1958 when she was just a toddler.

Although she never became as big as her younger sister, she did go on to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and landed some smaller roles.

Sadly, the family did not stay together for very long. In 1962 Jamie Lee’s parents, Tony and Janet, went through a very difficult, public separation. At the time the only children were Jamie Lee, and her older sister Kelly.

Both went to go and live with their mother since according to Jamie Lee, her father wasn’t around very much after the separation. In later interviews, she would go on to state that he was “not interested in being a father.”

Tony Curtis has been married four different times so it’s really no surprise that Jamie has so many half-siblings. She has two half-brothers — Benjamin and Nicholas, as well as a half-sister named Allegra.

Not pictured here are her two other sisters, Alexandra and Kelly. Together they all make up one big family, and while they may have had their differences, they all manage to keep close to one another.

After Curtis’ father passed away, she and the rest of her family were absolutely devastated. But, that devastation soon turned to a feeling of betrayal when they discovered what her father had done without telling anyone else in the family.

It turned out that, for reasons unexplained, her father had made sure to write all of his children out of his will. Rather than leave them any of his possessions, he had them all auctioned off without them getting a single thing.

So growing up it was just Jamie Lee and her older sister Kelly. The two attended the same high school together, first in Beverly Hills and for a couple years in Connecticut, and Jamie Lee Curtis would eventually go on to attend the same university as her mother, University of the Pacific.

Although for Jamie Lee she didn’t attend it for the same reasons as her mother. The future actress actually had her sights set on becoming a future lawyer.

Even though Jamie Lee Curtis had her sights set on becoming a lawyer, it didn’t seem as though it was going to be for her.

In an interview with Good Housekeeping, the actress admitted, “I was studying corrections at the University of the Pacific… I was a terrible student. School just… missed me. I probably had some learning thing that I didn’t know about. I had a D+ average and was a party girl.” But soon her life would change.

It was clear that school was not going to be the place where Jamie Lee Curtis found her success. So, she returned to the place that she had grown up in, Los Angeles, to see if she could find success as an actress.

With only a half year of college under her belt, Jamie Lee Curtis would have to rely on nothing more than her own talent and perseverance. Thankfully, she was about to catch a break sooner than expected.

Coming back to L.A. Curtis did what many young actresses do, hire an acting agent and start trying out for roles. Her agent had actually managed to find a great role for her, one based on Nancy Drew in an upcoming television series.

While she did try out for the part, she would soon discover that becoming an actress wasn’t as easy as just having a couple of famous parents. In fact, things were about to get a lot worse.

After not getting the role for the Nancy Drew based television show, Jamie Lee Curtis knew she had to keep going. What seemed like a big break came rolling her way when the major movie studio Universal agreed to sign the young actress to a seven-year contract.

But it didn’t last, Jamie was fired. In an interview, she said, “I got fired along with 12 other actors. I was devastated. I thought it was the end of my life.”

After what likely seemed like years of dealing with rejection Jamie Lee Curtis was about to catch the biggest break of her life. After Universal had fired her she once again became a free agent, able to work for whoever she wanted.

So when a young independent movie maker by the name of John Carpenter approached her with a role in his upcoming horror film, she decided to take it. It would become probably the best decision of her career.

When reflecting on the film that brought her into the limelight, which happened shortly after she’d gotten fired from Universal, Jamie Lee Curtis says, “had I not been fired, I would not have been able to go up for the movie Halloween, which basically gave me the life I have today.”

Indeed Curtis’ role as lead character Laurie Strode wowed audiences and soon became an iconic cult film. In fact, this indie film defied numerous expectations that many people had.

Halloween could easily be described as a box office smash. Filmed on a budget that ran at a mere $325,000, the movie ended up grossing $70 million and was screened worldwide.

While the people responsible for filming were no doubt happy, that number didn’t mean much for Curtis other than the fame that it brought her. In spite of the amount of money the film had raked in, Curtis’ paycheck remained at a mere $8,000 for her starring role.

Much like her mother had been a generation ago, Jamie Lee Curtis’ name was now intertwined with the horror genre. For her work in Halloween, Curtis was given the title of “scream queen,” meaning an actress who is associated almost exclusively with horror films.

While this was no doubt a major high point in her life, it was only the beginning. Jamie Lee Curtis went on to star in many other Hollywood horror films – all with varying degrees of success.

Jamie Lee Curtis’ next film after Halloween was another horror flick, this time called The Fog. The film was also directed by John Carpenter, the same director as Halloween, with Curtis once again taking the lead role.

Many suspected that this winning formula was going to once again produce an incredible film that moviegoers would remember. While The Fog did do very financially well at the box office, the critics had some mixed reviews about this particular horror film.

Hollywood’s scream queen could hardly stay away from more horror films now could she? Obviously not, and her next film, Prom Night, was similar to Halloween in that it was a low budget Canadian feature that also relied on the same slasher elements as her first-ever film.

The second movie she starred in was Terror Train. While both of these films did fairly well at the box office, critics were not happy with either one of these horror movies.

Curtis was no stranger to the inner workings of Hollywood movies. She had been raised by two movie stars, and quickly saw that her career was becoming very centered around doing only horror films.

In a 2018 interview, Curtis said, “I felt honored that Halloween was and will be the greatest part of my creative life. But I also grew up in show-off business, and I recognized very early that a pigeonholing association with one genre only would be limiting.”

A mere three years after Halloween had been released in 1978, Halloween II hit theaters. It was met with eager anticipation from fans who wondered whether or not it could possibly compare to the first Halloween that had garnered so much attention.

While the film did well at the box office, and Curtis herself was praised for her role, overall critics felt that the film didn’t compare to the original, relying instead on too many elements like blood and gore.

Here’s something that very few fans are aware of: Jamie Lee Curtis, despite being known for a time as the Hollywood “scream queen,” doesn’t like horror movies! We’re dead serious, too.

During a sit-down interview, she revealed that “I do not like horror movies. I do not say this for a joke, although it gets a laugh, I really don’t. There’s nothing I like about being scared.” As long as she keeps making them, we’re not complaining.

After years of stressing if she’d ever be able to star in anything that wasn’t trying to make people jump out of their seats, Jamie Lee Curtis finally got the chance to star in a comedy.

1983 marked the premiere of Trading Places, a funny feature starring Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. The film was a huge hit, with Curtis herself being praised for playing the role of Ophelia. But praise wasn’t the only thing Curtis got out of it.

Jamie Lee Curtis’ reputation was about to completely change after the film Trading Places hit theaters. For one thing, she was taken much more seriously as an actress, having proved that she could do more than just horror films.

The other is that the film earned her a BAFTA, or British Film and Television Award, essentially a British Academy Award, for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film itself was nominated for several prestigious BAFTA awards as well.

Having been known around Hollywood for her horror films, and of course as the newest Hollywood “scream queen,” Curtis was now being recognized for her looks. While this was a welcome change, since she was trying to distance herself from horror films, she wasn’t excited about being known especially for her looks.

In an interview in 1985, after starring in the film Perfect, she said, “It connotes where your physical and sensual presence is the only thing people respond to.”

Curtis also stated, “I do it because I like doing the work. I’m not a vamp girl; I’m very much the baby girl – especially in my private life. I walk around in Tretorns and baggy safari shorts and odd assorted T-shirts from my husband’s T-shirt collection.

No makeup like a very semi-geeky, awkward girl. Girl! And I stress girl! I really think of myself as a girl. I only put on my womanly stuff when I go to work.”

Even though Jamie Lee Curtis might not have been so happy with her new reputation, it was doing a lot for her career. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Curtis was landing numerous roles, always staying at the forefront of the public eye.

In 1988 her career received another boost after she performed in the film, A Fish Called Wanda. The heist movie involving jewel thieves ended up getting her a nomination from both the Golden Globes and from BAFTA too.

Although Jamie Lee Curtis had already found enormous success as a movie actress, she decided it was time to seek new opportunities by jumping from the silver screen to the small screen. Her first major television role was in the sitcom comedy, Anything But Love.

In it, she and comedian Richard Lewis play two colleagues who, over the course of the show, are unable to hide their feelings for each other. Curtis won a Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award.

Her next big move happened in 1990, when Jamie Lee Curtis starred as New York police officer Megan Turner in Blue Steel. In that film, Curtis’ character is wrongly accused of killing a convenience store robber, who police believe to be innocent after the robber’s weapon goes mysteriously missing.

The movie was met with rave reviews, and Curtis proved that she could hold her own when it came to playing the role of an action hero on the big screen.

The next year Jamie Lee Curtis teamed up with her old friend and former co-star Dan Aykroyd, in the coming of age drama/comedy, My Girl. The film also starred Macaulay Culkin from the Home Alone series, and Anna Chlumsky (Veep) in her first ever role.

The film grossed an astounding $121 million after being filmed on a budget of $17 million. It was even good enough to warrant a sequel, and proved that Curtis still could do no wrong.

One of the early husband and wife spy thrillers, True Lies starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger as a married couple. Throughout the course of the film, the two discover some things about each other.

Namely that he is an actual super spy while she can handle herself in some stressful situations. Jamie Lee Curtis described the experience as “the best time ever,” and the two were reported to have remained friends ever since working together in the film.

While the film was a lot of fun for the two of them, it was not without its challenges. Although Arnold Schwarzenegger had no problem performing his own stunts, he had a lot of trouble learning how to dance the tango.

Even Curtis fell during one of her dance scenes but, because she’s a pro, got right back up and kept dancing. That take was actually left in the final script and Curtis still got a Golden Globe for it.

While things in the movie business were going great, many wondered how Curtis’ personal life was holding up as well. It turns out that it couldn’t have been better. Curtis had ended up marrying fellow actor Christopher Guest in December 1984.

Apparently, she had seen a photo of him in Rolling Stone and had told her friend, Debra Hill, “Oh, I’m going to marry that guy.” Five months later, her bold prediction came true, and the two tied the knot.

Jamie Lee Curtis and husband Christopher Guest decided that it was time for the two of them to grow their family. They decided to adopt their first child, a girl, and name her Annie.

It seemed as though growing up next to Jamie Lee Curtis has done wonders for the girl, who has since gone on to embody her adopted mother’s immeasurable talent. While not as fond of the spotlight as her mom, she is known to make occasional appearances.

Even though she could probably be an actress if she wanted to, Curtis’ daughter still wants to perform in front of an audience. Rather than movies or television shows, though, she decided to take up dancing and as we can see, she’s pretty spectacular. She even received a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Kenyon College.

She has since taught ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, tap, and hip-hop. Plus, she e+ven co-directs an award-winning team.

It seems like everyone in Hollywood knows each other, either from working together at some point or just happening to have met each other at an event. Yet few of them are actually related to each other like Jamie Lee Curtis and Jake Gyllenhaal.

That’s right, she is actually Gyllenhaal’s godmother and the two reportedly have a great relationship together. In fact, it was Gyllenhaal who convinced Curtis to star in the most recent Halloween movie!

Shortly after Annie was adopted, Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest decided to add just one more to the family. This time they adopted a boy, and named him Thomas.

Apparently, the two are quite fond of online video games, with Curtis saying, “The astonishing thing about being a parent is that your children bring things to you that you would never, ever, ever, ever know… And you hope that you bring a few things to them that are interesting.”

Imagine this, you’re playing World of Warcraft when suddenly a player approaches you who wants to trade. As the player talks to you in this online world you start to recognize the voice not from your real life, but from movies you’ve seen.

Could it be Jamie Lee Curtis talking to you? If you’re a fan of World of Warcraft then there’s a chance that you might be playing with her! Curtis is a huge fan even dressing up in cosplay as her favorite character.

Although Curtis had some enormous successes in her life, ranging from her award studded movie and film career to her large and loving family, she had been carrying a secret with her.

She confessed to her husband Christopher that she had been engaging in some unhealthy habits to relieve stress. Her husband was reportedly stunned that he had never noticed but promised to support her on her journey to get healthy and remove these particularly unhealthy vices from her life.

For Curtis, getting sober was the best thing she had done for herself, and something that she considered to be her biggest accomplishment. In an interview after her recovery, she later recalled, “I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family…”

“Getting sober remains my single greatest accomplishment. [It’s] bigger than my husband, bigger than both of my children and bigger than any work, success, failure – anything.” We’re all very proud of her!

With Curtis’ positive, can-do attitude, she continued to excel to tremendous heights in her work. After finishing rehab, she went right back to work with a brand new outlook on life. Her next project was the 2002 Halloween sequel, Halloween: Resurrection.

While the film didn’t do so well critically, it was a minor success at the box office. But more importantly, it helped Curtis prove to the world that she could still be just as successful as ever before.

In 2003, Jamie Lee Curtis starred next to Lindsay Lohan in the mother-daughter comedy Freaky Friday. In the film, the two happen to come across magical fortune cookies, which cause them both to switch bodies.

While living out each other’s difficult, daily routines, the two get a new perspective and appreciation for one another. It was a very popular film, doing very well in both the box office and for the critics, and Curtis got a Golden Globe nomination.

Throughout the 2000s, Curtis continued to act and be in the public sphere. After Freaky Friday, her career became a reflection of her personal growth, changing as an almost mirror to her. She starred in Christmas with the Kranks in 2004, before acting in films like The Kid & I, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

While the films weren’t as popular as some of her other works, Curtis continued to invest an enormous amount of effort and talent into each production.

Curtis isn’t just a prolific actress who has starred in dozens of movies and television shows; she also happens to be an author. Specifically a children’s author, and one who has published over 13 children’s books.

Her books have managed to reach a wide audience, mainly because of her talent as a writer, but also because she has been published by HarperCollins, one of the biggest book publishers around who has made sure to mass distribute all of her books.

Curtis hasn’t just been writing for children, though. When she’s not acting or writing children’s books, the Halloween star writes a blog for the Huffington Post and even maintains her own website where she expresses her thoughts and feelings on several issues.

On her website, she describes herself by saying, “moonlights as an actor, photographer, and closet organizer.” Even the Huffington Post made sure to make it clear that Curtis is an author before she is an actress.

Curtis could have just stopped and rested on her laurels after all of her impressive accomplishments, but she didn’t. Instead, she went ahead and thought of a brand new creation which she decided to patent.

The patent was for a diaper that had a built-in pocket on the side that could also hold baby wipes. While many companies have expressed interest in making this a reality, Curtis says she won’t let them use her idea until the wipes are biodegradable.

In an interview with the South China Post, Jamie Lee Curtis had confessed that she would never have imagined that she’d ever be playing Laurie Strode for yet another Halloween movie. Guess she should have remembered that one should never say never.

Sure enough, in 2018, Curtis once again jumped on to the screen playing the same role that had made her famous. While not as popular as the original, it was considered by many to be the best sequel.

Even though Curtis is an accomplished actress and children’s book writer, she also dabbled once at writing a script for her own horror film. The film would have been called The Myth, and she planned on producing it through her own production company.

The film was meant to be a natural disaster type horror story, complete with earthquakes, volcanoes, and storms that rage throughout the world. In spite of everything, the film never garnered much traction and was never made.

Through her father, Jamie Lee Curtis is Jewish with her ancestors having originated in Hungary. Curtis and her father both decided to reconnect with their Jewish heritage during the ’90s, and they did so with quite a bit of fanfare.

The two worked together to rebuild the Great Synagogue in Hungary, a beautiful structure that had been destroyed during World War II. The people of Hungary were extremely grateful to the two incredible stars.

Curtis is known for being passionate about everything she does. Whether it’s acting, writing, or anything else, she puts everything she has into it. That’s also true when it comes to her activism, which she takes very seriously.

A major project she did that got a lot of attention was when she acted in the play, 8 — a re-enactment of the trial that overturned the ban on same-sex marriage. She starred alongside many celebrities including Brad Pitt and Martin Sheen.

Another famed Hollywood “scream queen” is Sigourney Weaver, who’s best known for her leading role in the Alien franchise. Considering that she’s also been given the title of “scream queen,” one might think that the two of them would actually be rivals.

In reality, the opposite could not be more true. The two are best friends, attending each other’s movie premiers as well as supporting each other both personally and professionally. That being said, Curtis says she is too scared to see Weaver’s movies!

There should be no doubt that Jamie Lee Curtis is as close to Hollywood royalty as anyone could be. But, she’s not just royal by Hollywood standards — she actually has a royal title thanks to her husband.

After his father passed away, the title of the Fifth Baron Haden-Guest passed to his son (Curtis’ husband). That means that Curtis’ title changed to Baroness Haden-Guest among European royalty. She could go by that name, but she chooses not to do so.

As if there wasn’t enough evidence that Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t already Hollywood royalty, she literally has body parts that are worth more than most people will ever dream of making in a year. During the height of her Hollywood career, Curtis got her legs insured for a cool $1 million!

That way if anything happened to her she would know that she would still be getting a lot of money out of them. So, don’t trip her if you walk next to her!

Curtis doesn’t just support children by writing novels. She has also taken on a leadership role at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. She often goes to the hospital to visit the kids as a way to lift their spirits as they battle their respective diseases.

Once she saw that the hospital was lacking space, Curtis immediately began fighting for funding to open a new inpatient facility — a fight that she eventually succeeded in. There is no doubt that she’s a hero.

Jamie Lee Curtis focuses a lot of her time fighting on behalf of women. She doesn’t just go on marches and protests, though. In fact, Curtis also takes the time to get to know less advantaged women and help them as much as she possibly can.

One big moment where she first made herself known was in 2003 when she participated in the 11th annual fundraiser and gala for an organization called Women in Recovery. There, she was also named the guest of honor.

Curtis seems optimistic about her future saying, “I am a constant editor. I shed people, I shed clothing, I shed possessions, I shed ideas. The biggest thing I’ve shed is my own limitations and perception of who I am…”

“It has to come from me. And even if I stumble in my pursuit, that’s okay. We are all looking for a fast track to enlightenment, but it’s sweat equity, sweat equity, sweat equity.” We all hope the best for her!