Jamie Lee Curtis Biography

Jamie Lee Curtis made her movie debut in the classic horror film Halloween (1978).

The second child of movie star parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, she had already had TV jobs as a teen, including one season of the series Operation Petticoat (1977-78). The success of Halloween led her to an early career as a plucky heroine in horror films, including The Fog, Terror Train and Prom Night (all 1980).

Curtis then showed her comedy talent in the Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places (1983), then was off on her way to a respectable career as a leading lady. A hint of androgyny and a few flashes of her much-admired physique made her a sex symbol, especially in comedies like A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and True Lies (1994, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger).

As Curtis matured she made fewer movies, but emerged as an unofficial spokesperson for being proud of an aging body — in 2002 she appeared in More magazine without make-up, and as she turned 50 AARP magazine boasted about a “topless” photo (in fact, it was a cropped photo of Curtis in a strapless dress).

In 1995 she began publishing children’s books with illustrator Laura Cornell, including Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (2000) and Is There Really a Human Race? (2006).

In addition to several television roles, Curtis’s other films include Love Letters (1984), Drowning Mona (2000, starring Casey Affleck), and Freaky Friday (2003, starring Lindsay Lohan). In the late 2010s she made a comeback of sorts, appearing in three more Halloween movies (2018, 2021 and 2022) and the box office hit Knives Out (2019).

That run was capped off in 2022, when she played a comically stern IRS tax accountant in the martial arts-meets-sci-fi film Everything Everywhere All at Once (also starring Michelle Yeoh). She was nominated for, and won, the Oscar as best supporting actress for the film.