Jamie Lee Curtis (born November 22, 1958) is an American actress, producer, and children's author. Known for her performances in film and television, she is one of the most prolific actors of the horror and slasher genres and has been labeled as a scream queen. Curtis has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as nominations for an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Grammy Award. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.
Curtis came to prominence with her portrayal of Lt. Barbara Duran on the ABC sitcom Operation Petticoat (1977–1978). She made her feature film debut playing Laurie Strode in John Carpenter's slasher film Halloween (1978), the first film in the Halloween franchise, which established her as a scream queen and led to a string of parts in horror films such as The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1980), and Roadgames (1981). She reprised the role of Laurie in the Halloween sequels Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), and Halloween Ends (2022).
Curtis' film work spans many genres outside of horror, including the cult comedies Trading Places (1983), for which she won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, and A Fish Called Wanda (1988), for which she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. Her role in the film Perfect (1985) earned her a reputation as a sex symbol. She won a Golden Globe Award for her role as Helen Tasker in James Cameron's action-comedy film True Lies (1994). Her other notable films include Blue Steel (1990), My Girl (1991), Forever Young (1992), Mother's Boys (1993), Fierce Creatures (1997), Virus (1999), Drowning Mona (2000), The Tailor of Panama (2001), Freaky Friday (2003), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), You Again (2010), and Knives Out (2019). Her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) earned her the first Academy Award nomination of her career, for Best Supporting Actress. To date, her films have grossed over $2.3 billion at the box office.
Curtis received a Golden Globe and a People's Choice Award for her role as Hannah Miller on ABC's Anything But Love (1989–1992), and earned an Primetime Emmy nomination for Nicholas' Gift (1998). She also starred as Cathy Munsch on the Fox series Scream Queens (2015–16), for which she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. Curtis has written numerous children's books, including Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day (1998), which made The New York Times's best-seller list. Curtis is a daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She is married to British-American filmmaker Christopher Guest, with whom she has two adopted children. Her marriage to Guest, who is the United Kingdom's 5th Baron Haden-Guest, makes her a baroness who is entitled to use the name "The Right Honourable The Lady Haden-Guest", though she opts not to use it.
Early life
Curtis as a baby with her mother in 1960
Jamie Lee Curtis was born in Santa Monica, California, on November 22, 1958, the daughter of actors Janet Leigh (born Jeanette Helen Morrison; 1927–2004) and Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; 1925–2010). Her mother was of Danish, German, and Scotch-Irish descent. Her father was Jewish, a son of emigrants from Mátészalka, Hungary. She has an older sister, actress Kelly Curtis (born 1956), and four half-siblings from her father's later marriages: Alexandra, actress Allegra Curtis (born 1966), Benjamin, and Nicholas (who died of a drug overdose in 1994).
Curtis' parents divorced in 1962. After the divorce, she stated her father was "not around" and that he was "not interested in being a father". After her father's death, she learned that she and her siblings had all been cut out of his will. Her mother married stockbroker Robert Brandt, who helped raise her. Curtis attended the elite Harvard-Westlake School and Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles, and graduated in 1976 from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. Returning to California in 1976, she studied law at her mother's alma mater, the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She dropped out after one semester to pursue an acting career.
