| BIOGRAPHY
The daughter of film stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Jamie
Lee Curtis launched her film career as a "scream queen."
After a nondescript supporting role on the TV series Operation
Petticoat, Curtis rose to cult stardom playing the straight-laced
teenage baby sitter imperiled by an unknown slasher in Halloween
(1978). Upon appearing in the film's sequel and in such spookers
as The Fog (1979) and Prom Night (1980), she seemed in danger
of being limited to blood-splattered horror films. But Curtis
wasn't about to be typed this early in the game: with a meaty
secondary role as a prostitute -- featuring several well-publicized
nude scenes -- in the big-budget comedy Trading Places (1983),
she made the transition from imperiled teen type to knowing adult
with nary a hitch.
Curtis didn't exactly have a string of box-office smashes after
Trading Places, but she was always worth watching even when the
films weren't. And when the good parts did come along, notably
her roles in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and My Girl (1991), she
proved she was an actress of range and stature and not just another
"movie star's kid." Taking a potentially humiliating
role as the unknowing wife of a secret agent in the megabucks
Arnold Schwarzenegger adventure True Lies (1994), Curtis delivered
a sparkling performance, emerging as the only truly likable character
in a loud and misogynistic melodrama.
In 1997, she was reunited with the cast of A Fish Called Wanda
(Kevin Kline, John Cleese, and Michael Palin) for Fierce Creatures,
another comedy/farce in the same vein as Wanda. Unfortunately,
the film was largely disappointing; but, the following year, Curtis
rebounded with a return to familiar territory in Halloween: H2O.
The slasher flick, although less than a critical favorite, proved
to be popular with audiences. In 1999, Curtis again ventured into
the big-budget realm with the action thriller Virus, and had a
supporting role in Daddy and Them, Billy Bob Thornton's sophomore
writing/directorial effort. She could then be seen in Drowning
Mona, a black comedy in which she played a waitress caught up
in an affair with the husband of her town's most infamous dead
woman.
The 2000's have brought Curtis several interesting opportunities,
including a live performance at Paul McCartney's benefit for the
controversial animal rights organization PETA in 2000, and a no-holds-barred
photo shoot with More magazine in 2002 -- the then 44-year-old
actress wanted to emphasize that even high-profile celebrities
look "normal" when without the help of a team of make-up
artists and digital alterations. In 2001, Curtis starred alongside
Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush and James Bond front man Pierce Brosnan
in the espionage thriller The Tailor of Panama, and returned for
a cameo appearance in Halloween: Resurrection, which will supposedly
mark her final role in the Halloween franchise. Curtis would return
to more family-oriented pictures in 2003's Freaky Friday with
Lindsay Lohan, which featured the forty-something actress playing
a punky teen whose spirit had magically been transferred to her
mother's body.
Married to actor Christopher Guest since 1984, Curtis became
a Baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, when her husband inherited the Barony
in 1996.
|
FILMOGRAPHY
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
• Freaky Friday (2003)
• Daddy and Them (2002)
• Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
• The Tailor of Panama (2001)
• Drowning Mona (2000)
• Virus (1999)
• Halloween H2O/Mother's Boys (1998)
• Halloween: H2O (1998)
• Virus (1998)
• Fierce Creatures (1997)
• House Arrest (1996)
• Mother's Boys (1994)
• My Girl 2 (1994)
• True Lies (1994)
• Forever Young (1992)
• My Girl (1991)
• Queens Logic (1991)
• Amazing Grace and Chuck (1990)
• Blue Steel (1990)
• Dominick and Eugene (1988)
• A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
• A Man in Love (1987)
• As Summers Die (1986)
• Perfect (1985)
• Grandview U.S.A. (1984)
• Love Letters (1983)
• Trading Places (1983)
• Halloween II (1981)
• Road Games (1981)
• She's in the Army Now (1981)
• Prom Night (1980)
• Terror Train (1980)
• The Fog (1979)
• Halloween (1978)
• Freaky Friday (1976) |
