Given the recent passing of Tony Curtis, one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars, I thought you may be interested in this photo (above) and an anecdote or two about Tony and yours truly, a little Hamilton, On. girl who once played opposite him in a movie.
The picture of me and Tony is from a film called "It Rained All Night the Day I Left" (released in 1980). I co-starred along with Tony and Lou Gossett Jr. and was still living in Hamilton at the time.
The movie was shot in Israel for $5 million, the largest Canadian budget to date, and was the first movie to take out "war insurance." A headline for an article on me at that time was "Make movies not wars."
I used to watch Tony because he was a master at stealing scenes; no one stood a chance opposite him. He once told me to make sure I always talk on camera if the action called for me to dial a phone, that way the editor could not cut away from me.
When I worked with Tony, I felt I had really ‘made it’ in the movies. He was truly a movie star dressing with great style. Not just a great actor but very smart, very articulate, an accomplished swimmer, equestrian and artist.
The man who was ridiculed for his Bronx accent in "Spartacus", was the same guy who counseled me to take voice classes to lose my Canadian accent!
He was known all over the world. Tony once told me the story of being in the waiting room at the airport in Tel Aviv and Moishe Dyan, with that distinctive eye patch, kept walking back and forth and looking at him.
Tony told it this way: “Finally Mr. Dyan approached me and said ‘Are you Tony Curtis?’” I responded ‘Are you Moishe Dyan?’ Dyan came back: ‘I love your movies.’ Then, I moved in closely, and said ‘I love your wars."
He always dressed like a star. I remember when we were in the middle of the desert and he wore silver cowboy boots and hat (not in costume, this is the way he dressed). The locals kept giggling and pointing and there was a group of Bedouin women standing to one side. One of them came up and asked, "Are you John Wayne?" Tony quickly replied: "No I'm his son."
Despite his reputation with women, he was always very cool. In fact he had the script re-written for the film we were in because I looked too young. He was 52 at the time and I was 19 and at first we were a love interest. He thought that was improper, so he made them write it so he was more of a fatherly character worrying about this young girl in the desert.
He had class. He was very intelligent and extremely creative. We had a long wait in the desert between shots and to pass the time, he made beautiful sculptures out of wire hangers.
And yes, he sparkled when he smiled.
Lisa Langlois
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