American Prince is a memoir from Hollywood's classic star, Tony Curtis.
One of the golden-age movie stars groomed by the studio system, along with fellow actors like Rock Hudson and Robert Wagner, he had a long career including an Oscar nomination for his role with good friend Harry Belafonte in The Defiant Ones. This is a story of the highs and lows of stardom, grown from humble beginnings.
Bernard Schwartz grew up in East side New York, a Hungarian Jewish neighbourhood where his family ran a cleaning business. At sixteen he enlisted in the Navy, returning to New York looking for a break. He found it at the Dramatic Workshop, where stage actors were quickly picked up by Hollywood talent scouts. Quickly he was in California trying to pick up girls in the studio commissary (like Judy Garland) and befriending unknowns (like a young redhead named Marilyn Monroe). Paired in small roles with the biggest names (the now famous bisexual scene with Laurence Olivier in Spartacus), he was groomed as a 'lover' and anywhere he went girls screamed - because, look at him. The studio wanted him to marry Piper Laurie, but he fell in love with MGM starlet Janet Leigh (they had a daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis). There are lots of stories of hanging with the Rat Pack, famous actors of the day, and creating a truly classic comedy Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and the movie star Marilyn Monroe. After Janet, there were five other marriages, cocaine abuse, and for those of us growing up in the 1970/80's, many roles in hit TV shows. Later in life, he began painting and had a second career as a visual artist.
Filled with gratitude at an interesting journey, this memoir is candid and thoughtful. He had a long run in a temperamental industry and comes across as interesting, and interested in everyone. If you enjoy reading about Hollywood's golden age of movie stars, and the entertainment business, you won't be disappointed.
Tony Curtis died in 2010 at the age of 85.
2008 / Hardcover / 364 pages
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