Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is a Golden Globe-winning American film actress and a successful author of books for children. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen", because of her starring roles in many horror films early in her career, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that covers every genre. Through marriage, she is Baroness Haden-Guest in the British peerage, so is entitled to be called Lady Haden-Guest, although she does not use this title.

Early life

Curtis was born in Los Angeles, California, the child of well-known actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Hungary. Her parents divorced in 1962 and her mother remarried to a Robert Brandt. She has an older sister, Kelly Curtis, who is also an actress, and several half-siblings (all from her father's remarriage), Alexandra, Allegra, Ben, and Nicholas Curtis (who died in 1994 of a drug overdose).

Curtis attended both Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills High School, but graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall. She returned to California in 1976. She attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she considered majoring in social work, but left after a semester in order to pursue an acting career. Universal Studios put her under contract, and she starred in the television series, Operation Petticoat.

Career

Film

Curtis made her film debut in the 1978 horror film, Halloween, playing the role of Laurie Strode, the only teenage character in the film who is not killed. The film was a major success and was considered the highest grossing independent film of its time. Curtis was subsequently cast in several horror films, which led to her association with the horror genre, garnering her the title of a "scream queen".

Her first follow-up to Halloween was the horror film, The Fog, which was directed by "Halloween" director John Carpenter. The film opened in February 1980 to mixed reviews but strong box office, further cementing Curtis as a horror film starlet. Her next film, Prom Night, was a low-budget Canadian slasher film and was released in July 1980. The film was considered similar in style to Halloween, and received negative reviews which marked it as a disposable entry in the then active "slasher film" genre. That year, Curtis also starred in Terror Train, which opened in October and received a negative reaction akin to Prom Night. Both films performed only moderately at the box office. Curtis had a similar function in both films - playing the main character whose friends are murdered, and who is practically the only protagonist to survive. Film critic Roger Ebert, who had given negative reviews to all three of Curtis' 1980 films, said that Curtis "is to the current horror film glut what Christopher Lee was to the last one-or Boris Karloff was in the 1930s.". Curtis later appeared in Halloween II, 20 Years Later and Resurrection.

Her role in 1983's Trading Places established her as more than just a horror queen and 1988's A Fish Called Wanda achieved near cult status -- while showcasing her as a first rate comic actress. She won a Golden Globe for her work in 1994's True Lies.

Her recent successful film roles for Curtis have included Disney's Freaky Friday (2003), opposite Lindsay Lohan. The movie was filmed at Palisades High School in Pacific Palisades, CA, near where Curtis and Guest make their home with their children. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in this movie.

Television

In television, Curtis co-starred opposite Richard Lewis in the situation comedy Anything But Love. Her role as Hannah Miller received both a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for her work in TNT's adaptation of the Wendy Wasserstein play The Heidi Chronicles. More recently, Curtis starred in the CBS television movie Nicholas' Gift, for which she received an Emmy nomination.

Children's Books

Working with illustrator, Laura Cornell, Curtis has written a number of critically-acclaimed children's books. These include:

When I was Little: A Four-Year Old's Memoir Of Her Youth, published September 1993.
Tell Me Again About The Night I was Born, published August 1996.
Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day, published September 1998, which was listed on the New York Times best-seller list for nine weeks.
Where Do Balloons Go?: An Uplifting Mystery, published August 2000.
I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem, published September 2002.
It's Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel, published September 2004.
Is There Really A Human Race?, published September 2006.

Private life

Curtis married actor Christopher Guest on December 18, 1984, becoming Lady Haden-Guest when her husband inherited the Barony of Haden-Guest in 1996, upon the death of his father. The couple have two adopted children, Anne Haden Guest (born 1986) and Thomas Haden Guest (born 1996). Curtis is also actor Jake Gyllenhaal's godmother.

Today, Curtis also takes time to support various philanthropic groups. She was Guest of Honor at the 11th annual Gala and Fundraiser in 2003 for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, CA-based non-profit organization offering a live-in, twelve-step program of rehabilitation for women in need. Past Honorees of this organization have included Sir Anthony Hopkins; the 2005 honoree was Angela Lansbury.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2004	Christmas with the Kranks	Nora Krank
2003	Freaky Friday	Tess Coleman
2002	Resurrection	Laurie Strode
2001	The Tailor of Panama	Louisa Pendel
2000	Drowning Mona	Rona Mace
1999	Virus	Kelly Foster
1998	20 Years Later	Laurie Strode/Keri Tate
1997	Fierce Creatures	Willa Weston
1996	House Arrest	Janet Beindorf
1994	True Lies	Helen Tasker
1994	Mother's Boys	Judith 'Jude' Madigan
1994	My Girl 2	Shelly DeVoto Sultenfuss
1992	Forever Young	Claire Cooper
1991	My Girl	Shelly DeVoto
1991	Queens Logic	Grace
1990	Blue Steel	Megan Turner
1988	A Fish Called Wanda	Wanda Gershwitz
1988	Dominick and Eugene	Jennifer Reston
1985	Amazing Grace and Chuck	Lynn Taylor
1985	Perfect	Jessie
1984	Grandview, U.S.A.	Michelle 'Mike' Cody
1984	Love Letters	Anna Winter
1983	Trading Places	Ophelia
1981	Halloween II	Laurie Strode
1981	Roadgames	Pamela 'Hitch' Rushworth
1980	Terror Train	Alana Maxwell
1980	Prom Night	Kim Hammond
1980	The Fog	Elizabeth Solley
1978	Halloween	Laurie Strode

References

Footnotes

Web sites

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