Tony Curtis

The star’s career all but collapsed in 1962, however, when he divorced Janet Leigh after having an affair with 17-year-old German actress Christine Kaufmann. By then, he and Leigh had two children: Kelly Lee and Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis and Kaufmann married in 1963 and divorced in 1967. Shortly thereafter, in 1968, the actor married 23-year-old model Leslie Allen. Following their 1982 divorce, he would have three more marriages—to Andrea Savio (1984-1992), Lisa Deutsch (1993-1994) and Jill Vandenberg (from 1998 until his death in 2010). In addition to six different marriages, Curtis engaged in several high-profile romances with icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood.

By the 1970s, Curtis was struggling with an addiction to alcohol and drugs. In his later career, he appeared in a variety of low-profile films and on various TV shows, but eventually headed to rehab in 1982 and reinvented himself as a fine art painter. He also wrote published two autobiographies during this time: Tony Curtis: The Autobiography (1994) and American Prince: A Memoir. In 2002, he toured in a musical adaptation of Some Like It Hot. His final film was David & Fatima (2008). By then he was struggling with frequent health issues, which included heart bypass surgery in 1994 and a recurring battle with obstructive pulmonary disease.

Tony Curtis died on September 30, 2010, at the age of 85, in Henderson, Nevada, of cardiac arrest. He was survived by his sixth wife, Jill VandenBerg; his two daughters with Janet Leigh, Kelly Lee and Jamie Lee; two daughters with Christine Kaufmann, Alexandra and Allegra; and a son, Benjamin, with Leslie Allen.