Homophobia Hollywood: Why gay movie stars still n't e out of the closet | The Inpennt | The Inpennt

Tony Curtis, the legendary actor who entertaed and awed The Defiant On, Houdi and, y, the cross-drsg edy romp Some Like It Hot, died at the age of 85 om rdiac arrt at his home near Las Vegas. Born Bernard Schwartz to Hungarian Jewish immigrants New York Cy, Curtis knew that his only ticket to fame and fortune me om his face, a palette of lite bety and handsome fightg World War II, Curtis moved back to New York, enrolled actg class and adopted a new name -- Anthony Curtis, which he ed for small parts films such as Francis and Wchter '73, which also starred another b actor who would bee famo, Rock Hudson. Curtis wouldn't officially shorten his stage name until 1950, when he appeared the Wtern Stage wasn't until 1951, wh the release of The Prce Who Was a Thief and his marriage to another risg star, Ja Leigh, that Curtis' star tly began to she, and peaked 1958, when Curtis and Sidney Poier starred as nvicts chaed together The Defiant On, a movie that garnered Curtis an Osr nomatn. Curtis' reer ntued to soar, brgg the public such hs as Spartac, The Great Race and Sex and The Sgle Girl. The most memorable for gay viewers, however, may have been Curtis' turn as a a mician on the n, and a drs, for Some Like It Hot. As the New York Tim not, Curtis' bety helped lend self to an "ambiguy."