Jamie Lee and Tony Curtis

           Jamie Lee and her father Tony Curtis

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis spoke out about her legendary father, actor Tony Curtis, who died of a heart attack at age 85 last month.

In her first interview since her father’s death, Curtis discussed her father, who she was estranged from for most of her life. “Children, as we all know, are complicated and messy. He was not a father and he was not interested in being a father,” she said on The Talk. She continued, “He did what he was supposed to do from a financial standpoint, which was honourable of him, but he was not an involved father.”

            Tony Curtis was a huge movie star in the 1950s, appearing in Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe, for instance, and winning an Oscar nomination for The Defiant Ones in 1959.

            He was an incurable womanizer, however, marrying six times and becoming a father to six. He had Jamie Lee with his first wife, actress Janet Leigh. When he wasn’t tying the knot, he was dating high profile girlfriends such as Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe.

            Despite all of this, Jamie Lee was still saddened by the death of her father. At his funeral earlier this month, Jamie Lee cried while describing her father as “A little mashugana (the Yiddish word for crazy) but always full of life.”

            Jamie Lee, growing up in the limelight with such a chaotic family structure, not surprisingly, has had some serious issues in her life. She was once addicted to alcohol and pain killers. She got sober in 1999, however, and says that recovery is the greatest achievement of her life.

            This is a big statement to make if you consider just how many achievements this woman has made in her lifetime. She has starred in hit movies, television shows and advertisements, adopted two children, written New York Times best seller books for children, and even patented her own invention.

            It’s sad when children don’t have a good relationship with their parents, especially when their parent is a celebrated actor. But at least Jamie Lee can acknowledge that her dad was only human – a human with both good and bad traits.

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