Tony Curtis: Still Young (and Ornery) at Heart

Tony Curtis doesn’t mince any words on Turner Classic Movies’ interview series “Private Screenings,” which kicks off its third season on Tuesday.

The veteran star of more than 100 films--including such classics as “Trapeze,” “Spartacus,” “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Some Like It Hot”--discusses his early life and career in the one-hour special hosted by Robert Osborne.

On the subject of his well-publicized breakup with first wife Janet Leigh, Curtis tells Osborne: “We had such profound differences that neither of us could manage it. I just couldn’t play that game anymore . . . be with somebody I couldn’t stand anymore and vice versa.”

The former Bernard Schwartz also frankly talks about his drug addiction: “Drugs were very important to me. I used to freebase, smoke cocaine, a lot of alcohol. I did some heroin. I couldn’t work. I didn’t lose jobs; I just didn’t get them.”

The cable network will also be presenting several of Curtis’ best-known films Tuesday and Wednesday including 1958’s “The Defiant Ones,” for which he received a best actor Oscar nomination, and 1959’s “Operation Petticoat.”

Curtis, 73, is also a well-respected painter and has written a novel, as well as his autobiography. In person, the actor is charming, funny, energetic and a bit rough around the edges. Curtis, who is the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, lives in Bel-Air with his wife of two months and their seven cats. Curtis chatted about his life and career surrounded by his latest paintings.

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Question: Why do so many performers paint?

Answer: A lot of actors paint, but for the wrong reason. They say, “I paint because it is a hobby.” I paint because it is an expression for me. I have been painting for 30 years. I have had a number of shows, but I don’t make a federal case out of it. I don’t push it. Van Gogh didn’t push it. I draw every day. This is my vocation.

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Q: Was Hollywood everything you envisioned it would be when you arrived here in 1948?

A: It was fabulous. It was an overwhelming experience. I was a handsome boy. It helped. How I got into movies is key to the environment we are sitting in now--the way I am. I didn’t have to kiss anybody. I didn’t have to kiss anything. I just got off the streets of New York and when the war was over, they gave me the GI Bill, so I didn’t have to go to work right away. Someone saw me in the play “Golden Boy” [in New York] and the next thing, I am under contract to Universal. I was 22 years old. I started doing good, and suddenly I was King Kong at Universal for seven or eight years.

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Q: Why did Universal keep putting you in those light costume epics like “The Prince Who Was a Thief”?

A: Because, they cost absolutely nothing. Those pictures cost about $200,000 and we shot them in 18 days. They went out and grossed $2.5 million, and that was on a 30-cent movie ticket. There was nobody in town who was grossing that kind of money. I never thought that I didn’t deserve it. I said, “Of course, this is what you are supposed to do.” I asked for nothing [from the studio]. I didn’t ask for any favors from anybody. I just loved being in the movies, you know. I loved the acting lessons and going on the set.

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Q: Did you get frustrated doing those movies?

A: For the first five or seven years I wasn’t. My pictures were doing well. I hoped I could find some other movies, but Universal, they were shooting dice that had no numbers on it so they could never lose. So they were putting me in any piece of garbage they had, like “No Room for the Groom.” I didn’t have guys looking after me. [Agent] Lew Wasserman was not on my horizon yet. But as soon as I got connected with Lew, then the quality of my pictures changed with “Trapeze,” “Sweet Smell of Success,” “The Defiant Ones” and “Some Like It Hot.” I never ended up with an important player until Burt Lancaster [in “Trapeze”] in 1955.

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Q: You don’t hold anything back in “Private Screenings” when you talk about your battle with drugs in the ‘70s.

A: I went through terrible times--a very difficult drug addiction. I had marriages which were too devastating and too difficult. I was dissatisfied with what was happening to me. I didn’t like who I was married to. I didn’t like the movies I was getting. I just didn’t like anything. I just didn’t want to end up slipping away to nowhere, so drugs helped, but then they compounded [the problems].

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Q: Didn’t you appear on stage at the Mark Taper Forum during this time in the Neil Simon comedy “I Ought to Be in Pictures”?

A: I hated it. I had no place to live. I wasn’t living at home. That marriage was over. I was living in the back of my Trans Am. I was really strung out and you would think [director] Herb Ross and Neil Simon would have compassion enough to take this coward’s hand if they wanted to. That was really a very difficult time for me.

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Q: Did that experience, though, help get your life back in order?

A: Exactly. One thing I found was I was still the same kid I was in New York City who used to run around and mimic people. All of a sudden, I got back to my roots. There is not a guy around who has spent as much time in movies as I, who is standing up and walking around and having a smile on his face.

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Q: Do you have any movies in the pipeline?

A: I have not. I don’t like the quality. I don’t want to play old men because I ain’t no old man. I’m 73 1/2 and that’s what I am. There is nothing in me that equates to what they call age. The most perfect romantic movie I would love to make would be me with a 23-year-old girl. It’s her first time and it’s his last time. Two people who meet at just the right time in their lives. Time is not a dilemma. They both need each other. That is what I call a great movie.

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“Private Screenings: Tony Curtis” can be seen Tuesday at 6 and 9 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies. “Sweet Smell of Success” will be shown Tuesday at 8 p.m.; “The Defiant Ones” at 11 p.m.; “Operation Petticoat,” Wednesday at 5 p.m.; “Spartacus” at 8:30 p.m.; “Some Like It Hot” at 11 p.m.; “Trapeze,” Thursday at 1 a.m.