0:00:15 > 0:00:20An Oscar-nominated actor and matinee idol whose career spanned six decades
0:00:20 > 0:00:23and included more than 120 films,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Tony Curtis was Hollywood gold.
0:00:26 > 0:00:31He had a playboy image, but also had a serious side
0:00:31 > 0:00:35and a self-awareness that made him a chat show favourite.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41He was candid and talked openly about his life in television interviews.
0:00:41 > 0:00:48This frankness and wry humour made him box office for the small screen audience.
0:00:51 > 0:00:57I didn't play my cards laidback, if you know what I mean. I let it all hang out.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59Yeah.
0:00:59 > 0:01:05I've come through a very serious illness. I'm an alcoholic and have a drug addiction
0:01:05 > 0:01:08and this really almost killed me.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12We begin with an interview in 1968 for the programme How It Is
0:01:12 > 0:01:17on location for the film Monte Carlo Or Bust.
0:01:17 > 0:01:24'Things have changed since he was known as the Baron of Beefcake and made films he'd sooner forget.
0:01:24 > 0:01:30'Now he's a superstar, he chooses his own parts and has some control over working conditions.'
0:01:30 > 0:01:35When you're not aware of your craft, if you don't know what you're doing,
0:01:35 > 0:01:42you just do it. Nothing disturbs you. But as you begin to realise the subtleties of it, as I have,
0:01:42 > 0:01:48why, I find that now I like to do it in as private an environment as possible.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54I don't like tourists watching, I don't like visitors on the set when I do certain scenes.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59I need the proximity and closeness of my co-workers, you know,
0:01:59 > 0:02:03because it is like making love, it's very private and I don't like to share it.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07I remember during the war years I was in the submarine service
0:02:07 > 0:02:13- and we used to run movies. We ran Gunga Din quite a bit and I always played Cary Grant.- You played him?
0:02:13 > 0:02:18Yes, we used to shut off the sound and everybody took different sounds.
0:02:18 > 0:02:22Someone was Joan Fontaine, Douglas Fairbanks Junior,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27someone else made elephant noises, pistol shots. I always played Cary Grant.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31AS CARY GRANT: Out of my way, McChesney!
0:02:31 > 0:02:38I remember almost all the dialogue! I just wanted my option picked up every 6 months and get that 4,000.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42I just wanted to make 12 grand a year and get out of there.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46- That was my whole...- Hello! - ..my whole, er, er, purpose
0:02:46 > 0:02:49of wanting to be around. Yeah.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53It's great here. Don't you love it? Man, it's unbelievable.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58- 'Then we asked about his movie idols.'- Oh, Cary Grant was, is.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03Errol Flynn was. Jimmy Cagney, Humphrey Bogart.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08They all were. There isn't one actor of that period - Clark Gable, Leslie Howard -
0:03:08 > 0:03:14that didn't have some kind of effect on me as a child. Each one provoked a different response.
0:03:14 > 0:03:20Some days you'd feel depressed over something and if you were as tough as Humphrey Bogart was
0:03:20 > 0:03:24life would be easier. Or as elegant as Cary Grant or whatever.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29Once again, Curtis paid homage to the stars who inspired him
0:03:29 > 0:03:35in the first of his interviews with Michael Parkinson, in 1972.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38Who were your heroes in those days? The great screen actors?
0:03:38 > 0:03:43To me, any guy who made it in the movies was a hero to me.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47How you could take somebody and make him a movie actor was incredible.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53I didn't even know the mechanics of it. I just saw them. Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Jimmy Cagney,
0:03:53 > 0:04:00Humphrey Bogart. I mean really great. And Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra.
0:04:01 > 0:04:07I've worked with these people. Yul Brynner. These are wonderful people that I've been able -
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Jack Lemmon - to work with. Sidney Poitier.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Really an incredible amount of actors that I've worked with.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20I find that to be part of that family, part of that profession,
0:04:20 > 0:04:25is...is about as nice as I can have it!
0:04:25 > 0:04:29And yet, you see, it wasn't all sort of...
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Stop tapping my notes!
0:04:31 > 0:04:34It wasn't all...
0:04:34 > 0:04:38It wasn't all roses, was it, when you first started?
0:04:38 > 0:04:42- You were processed in a rather callous way.- Yes.
0:04:42 > 0:04:48Hollywood in those days was like an envelope. And in it everything was fed.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54When some young person came along to get started, he was signed and assigned to the publicity department
0:04:54 > 0:05:01and they'd change your name, try to figure out a gimmick to dangle in front of an audience.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05"I've got to go see that girl with the big knockers."
0:05:05 > 0:05:11Or, "I've got to see that guy with the long hair." Or, "I've got to see that horse." Or that dog.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15Anything to draw an audience into the theatre.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21They needed that. That's the way they built players. But they introduced you to agents,
0:05:21 > 0:05:28to business managers, to attorneys and, before you know it, you had 37 people working for you.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31And you're making 28.60. LAUGHTER
0:05:31 > 0:05:34As bad as that?
0:05:34 > 0:05:40- Right. And I find now that the least people running your business, the better.- Yeah.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45Have the minimum amount of people doing it for you.
0:05:45 > 0:05:51- I recommend that to a lot of actors and actresses.- What was the breakthrough for you in Hollywood?
0:05:51 > 0:05:57- The thing that made people take you seriously.- I think... It was just the quality of the films.
0:05:57 > 0:06:03That's all that changed. In those early pictures, I did as good a job as I could at that age.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08They weren't bad performances, but what I needed was a quality film
0:06:08 > 0:06:15to step out of the Universal films I was making, which critics put in a B or C category,
0:06:15 > 0:06:21which was OK. I didn't care. I had an audience in those days who wanted to see me in pictures.
0:06:21 > 0:06:26That's all I cared about. I felt that affinity to the audience who paid to see me.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31The critic who liked or didn't like me, up his! I didn't care.
0:06:31 > 0:06:37What have I got in common with some critic sitting writing, "I rather didn't like him..."
0:06:37 > 0:06:40- Somebody must have liked it. I was getting paid.- Yeah.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44So the best thing to do was to pay no attention to that criticism.
0:06:44 > 0:06:51Just learn my work on the floor from other actors, from people in the job itself.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56And that was my purpose. That's all I tried to do in those early days.
0:06:56 > 0:07:02And before you know it, it's 25 years, 24 years later. It's incredible to me.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06I feel like I'm starting today and I've done it for 25 years!
0:07:06 > 0:07:12Who did you particularly learn from? Who was the actor or actress you watched and admired most?
0:07:12 > 0:07:17Well, at the beginning, I liked Cary Grant very much.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21And I still do. But then as I started to watch other actors work,
0:07:21 > 0:07:28I realised each one had his own very special way of bringing a little magic to each moment.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30And that's the name of the game.
0:07:30 > 0:07:36That's the ball game for me. How each person can bring his own little imperfections
0:07:36 > 0:07:42that fill out a scene. It's like blowing up a balloon. It gives it a three-dimensional quality.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46You see people's weaknesses, their strengths.
0:07:46 > 0:07:48What you have to avoid is acting.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52You mustn't act. The words do the acting.
0:07:52 > 0:07:58When the guy says, "I love you," that's acting. "I love you." I've transmitted some information.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03That's not acting to me. That's just reading a line well.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07A lot of people for years have always thought, and rightly so,
0:08:07 > 0:08:14that Shakespeare was a wonderful tool to work in, but it's very restricting.
0:08:14 > 0:08:20And you are bringing to those parts really the author's intent, which is very strong and powerful,
0:08:20 > 0:08:25but some actors can bring those little unfinished moments
0:08:25 > 0:08:30that give it a mystery that I'm sure Shakespeare meant at the beginning.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34And I think that's what acting should be. Things unsaid, you know.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36Left unsaid.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41You did, of course, do a marvellous impersonation of Cary Grant.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47AS CARY GRANT: I always do Cary Grant. Everywhere I go. I think everybody does.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52- LAUGHTER - You did him in Some Like It Hot, one of my favourites.- Thank you.
0:08:52 > 0:08:58- That was a super film, which you starred in with...- Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Joe E Brown.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03- How was Marilyn?- She was very, very difficult.- Was she?- Yeah, really.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06- Really very difficult working.- Why?
0:09:07 > 0:09:12Her personal madnesses were so...so...so destructive
0:09:12 > 0:09:18that it made her unhappy and anyone who surrounded her. Consequently, it cost her her life.
0:09:18 > 0:09:24- Nothing to do with the picture business.- You think not?- Not at all. - It was no matter what she'd done?
0:09:24 > 0:09:30Billy Wilder, who directed Some Like It Hot, said she was a mean seven-year-old girl.
0:09:30 > 0:09:36- And I've got a feeling that's about as good a description of Marilyn as any, you know.- Yes.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42And... But, you know, she could bring to a scene a lot of power.
0:09:42 > 0:09:48- She had a lot of power.- Yes. - But it was difficult for her to put them together,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50to make moments last, you know.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55Takes would be 35 and 40 takes for one line or two lines.
0:09:55 > 0:10:02Billy Wilder said to Jack Lemmon and I, "Now look, as soon as Marilyn gets it right, whenever,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06"that's the shot I'm going to print."
0:10:06 > 0:10:13Lemmon and I would get in in the morning at 7.30, 8, get in our trusses and silk stockings,
0:10:13 > 0:10:18get in all the undergarments, then 45 minutes in Makeup,
0:10:18 > 0:10:2425-30 minutes Hairdressing, by the time we got done it was 2½ hours.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30We'd get on the set ready to shoot at nine and she'd show up at 11.30, 12. We were in these shoes.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34We'd try to find places to sit down, kick off our shoes, put 'em up.
0:10:34 > 0:10:39We had to stay like that all day long and finally Marilyn showed up.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44We'd go and rehearse it a couple of times. She'd say, "I'm ready," and we had to do it.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48We'd come clobbering in, trying to get our makeup in order.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52We'd been like that now for 12 hours or some ridiculous time.
0:10:52 > 0:10:58We'd do the scene and Jack, in one of the takes, tripped, just stumbled.
0:10:58 > 0:11:04We printed it. Marilyn came in, did it right, he said, "Cut! Print!"
0:11:04 > 0:11:06LAUGHTER
0:11:08 > 0:11:12That's right. So you see the picture...
0:11:12 > 0:11:17- Isn't there an army expression that you go as slow as the weakest man? - That's right.
0:11:17 > 0:11:24That's tough when your mind wants to get it done. You don't want to spend all your life making one movie.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30A movie is made, you close it and that's it. You look at it maybe five, six years later.
0:11:30 > 0:11:36It shouldn't became a way of life to you. That used to be the weakness of Hollywood, I felt.
0:11:36 > 0:11:42They made everything so dependent on each other, people were knocked off left and right and no one cared.
0:11:42 > 0:11:47They said, "The stakes are high." It should never have been.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52But maybe it helps, maybe it makes people a little bit fruitier than they would have been,
0:11:52 > 0:11:59- which gives them that little extra wanting to be successful.- Drive. - Yeah, that last minute.
0:11:59 > 0:12:05That's a fascinating anecdote about Monroe. What an extraordinary way to have to work, though.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Your finger up your nose and that's it printed because she got it right.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14I've never forgiven the system for that. Not only for me,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18but for other actors as well. That's a very bad thing to do.
0:12:18 > 0:12:25No one is considered except one person. They've got them so psyched out that whatever that person does
0:12:25 > 0:12:29has got to be good for everyone else. It's not true. Shouldn't be.
0:12:29 > 0:12:35When I get on a set in the morning, the only guy I listen to that gives instructions is the director.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40And everybody around me, we're all part of the same group.
0:12:40 > 0:12:44There can be no other games played. Any time actors play star games,
0:12:44 > 0:12:51they only disrupt their own working ability because the next time it's not that easy to get a job.
0:12:52 > 0:12:57When Curtis returned for another chat with Parkinson in 1978,
0:12:57 > 0:13:04his star was on the wane, but his reputation as that chat show gold was enduring.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10But when you got to Hollywood, when you went there as a young, aspiring actor,
0:13:10 > 0:13:15did you have to do a lot of hustling, play the company game?
0:13:15 > 0:13:19- Sure. I did all of it. - What was that like? Tell me.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21Well, I quickly surmised
0:13:21 > 0:13:27or kind of figured out what I thought was necessary for me to become successful.
0:13:27 > 0:13:33Once I got out there, I realised that I was allowed in and no one was getting me out.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38Cos I looked around and I saw all the people surrounding me
0:13:38 > 0:13:42and I didn't see anyone that was better or worse than I.
0:13:42 > 0:13:46I found myself amongst many ignorant people.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52And I, being an ignorant person at the time, felt that I had as much chance as anyone else,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56but you had to play the game. You had to find a way of...
0:13:56 > 0:14:02..influencing the people around you to use you a bit more than someone else.
0:14:02 > 0:14:09And the way you did that was by observation, to see what the mores and requirements were for you.
0:14:09 > 0:14:14And you quickly decided what you were willing to do and willing not to do.
0:14:14 > 0:14:20And each one of us - myself and maybe 1,500 young players...
0:14:20 > 0:14:26I speak now only of actors and actresses. I'm sure this process works for writers, directors
0:14:26 > 0:14:32and also, I'm sure, in other professions. I decided quickly where I should put the emphasis
0:14:32 > 0:14:35and what I should de-emphasise.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41I found everybody used to poke themselves and say, "Wait until you hear how this guy talks.
0:14:41 > 0:14:47"Here comes the gangster." They liked that New York sound, so I embellished it,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52made it sound even tougher than it did. And if I felt I was in a circle of people
0:14:52 > 0:14:58that didn't like it so much, I'd tone it down, but I did realise that I must improve myself.
0:14:58 > 0:15:04- In what way improve yourself? - In every way. In understanding of human behaviour,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08in my own understanding of myself, in my relationship with women.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13This was beginning for me. I joined the navy when I was 16½.
0:15:13 > 0:15:19With the exception of Sweet Ann, who I mentioned to you before, there were very few women I knew,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22- or girls I knew.- But you were a very beautiful young man.
0:15:22 > 0:15:27But that doesn't help you, pal, if you don't have a nickel.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30That and a nickel will get you on any subway.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35- So you had more passes made at you by fellas than women.- Well...
0:15:35 > 0:15:42LAUGHTER Possibly. But I found that I was very attracted to women.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48You know? But I found that it didn't help. You could create a relationship.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53For me it was very important to be in the arms of somebody soft and fragile and gentle.
0:15:53 > 0:16:00And while I was trying to sort that out for myself, I was trying to create a career for myself.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04And at the same time improve myself in my speech, my behaviour.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08I realised that my manners needed to be toned down a bit,
0:16:08 > 0:16:15that I needed more experience of living and understanding of foods, how to dress,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20what to say, what not to say. There are a lot of funny, subtle things that go on
0:16:20 > 0:16:25- in growing up.- What about when you were back in these early days?
0:16:25 > 0:16:31You, in fact, didn't struggle for all that long because you very shortly got picked up
0:16:31 > 0:16:37- and became a very, very big star almost overnight. - I got there in the summer of '48.
0:16:37 > 0:16:41And by the summer of '50, which was two years,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44I had...I had...
0:16:44 > 0:16:48My first two years wee six-month options.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52I started off at 50 bucks a week, then went to 75, 100,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54125 and then 150.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58And by that time I had worked in 16 movies, Michael.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02I went from one movie to another, bit parts here and there.
0:17:02 > 0:17:07But an audience seemed to be somewhat attracted to me. Knock wood.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12And I found myself getting bigger and better parts.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Before 18 months were over, I got my first lead in the movies.
0:17:16 > 0:17:22So it was quite quick for me. I didn't have to work and struggle as much as some other actors did.
0:17:22 > 0:17:28- You were very much presented as the beefcake.- Yes.- The very attractive young sex symbol.
0:17:28 > 0:17:34- Did you have any problems with ladies then? Nice problems. - Yes. I wouldn't say problems.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39I found that I was sought after in a way, but little did they know
0:17:39 > 0:17:43I sought after them more than they sought after me!
0:17:43 > 0:17:47I didn't play my cards laid back, if you know what I mean.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51I let it all hang out, if you'll excuse the vernacular.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55- I could ask for a demonstration, but...- Please!
0:17:55 > 0:18:00But during this time, when you were doing all this,
0:18:00 > 0:18:06- did the studio, in fact, try to process you and package you as a sex symbol?- Yes.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10- They did. What did they do to you? - Well, I'd go out on tour.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14They sent me out on tours with pictures I wasn't even in!
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Audie Murphy would make a film or Scott Brady
0:18:18 > 0:18:23and I'd find myself on the road selling that picture.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27I'd go to different theatres. Girls were there for autographs from me.
0:18:27 > 0:18:33What the studio used to do was they made me some suits that were basted only.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39And they'd get some of the girls that worked at the local distributor for Universal in San Francisco,
0:18:39 > 0:18:44St Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, whatever city I was travelling in,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49and they'd rig these girls so that when I came out, they'd pull that sleeve off
0:18:49 > 0:18:55and tear my clothes off. Shirt, tie and everything. "Luckily" enough,
0:18:55 > 0:19:01they'd have a cameraman there. "Young actor had his clothes torn off." Anything to create attraction.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07- To attract attention, I should say. - What did you feel about it at the time?- Well, I loved it.
0:19:07 > 0:19:14Listen... I was so surprised that people were interested in helping me become a star in films.
0:19:14 > 0:19:20I couldn't imagine why. Not that I didn't think... I was very practical about it.
0:19:20 > 0:19:26I felt I had as good a chance as anyone else, but in the final analysis I just couldn't...
0:19:26 > 0:19:32Well, perhaps they saw in me a chance that it wouldn't be as difficult and perhaps they saw
0:19:32 > 0:19:38that I wasn't a difficult person to be around. That helped too, I think.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42How much in your private life did the studio interfere?
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- Quite a bit.- It did?- Quite a bit.
0:19:45 > 0:19:52I think I'm right in saying that your marriage to Janet Leigh, they disapproved of that.
0:19:52 > 0:19:58Well, they acted as if they didn't like it at the beginning. The motive I still haven't figured out.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04I realised that after we were married, they couldn't wait to rush us into pictures together
0:20:04 > 0:20:10because they were exploiting that. Maybe the word "exploit" isn't proper, but it didn't bother them.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16I remember there was some opposition to it by two or three people at the studio
0:20:16 > 0:20:20who said, "Why encumber yourself at this time in your career?"
0:20:20 > 0:20:26I think it was the very fact that they found they didn't like the idea that made it attractive to me.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30- Mm, yes.- Maybe it was my own way of rebelling in a sense.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35Perhaps I hastily married earlier than I should have.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38- Perhaps, perhaps not. I don't know.- Yes.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43Did you, in fact, at this time always know that you'd break out of this system
0:20:43 > 0:20:49- and become the good actor that you undeniably are in films? - Thank you, Michael, very much.
0:20:49 > 0:20:56I never gave it any specific thought. I was an instrument for the studio at that time.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00I went from picture to picture, I didn't argue with anyone,
0:21:00 > 0:21:06but I needed to create myself. I needed experience and wasn't going to get it other than in movies.
0:21:06 > 0:21:12You don't get it in bed, walking down at the beach or lifting weights in a gym or in an acting class.
0:21:12 > 0:21:20You get it in front of a camera. I remember once in a movie, those early colour films I made,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24they used to use the Technicolor system and this producer said,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29"Tony, every time a second goes by, that's 4.50." I said, "For what?"
0:21:29 > 0:21:33He said, "For the film. So you better get it right."
0:21:33 > 0:21:37So there were all these pressures put upon you to get your job right.
0:21:37 > 0:21:43And you learned to live under those pressures. The camera rolls and you've got to be smooth and easy
0:21:43 > 0:21:47and take the girl's brassiere and throw it over the shoulder...
0:21:47 > 0:21:53While inside you're really boiling with the tension of trying to calm. So learn these things.
0:21:53 > 0:21:58Learn your physical sense more than anything else.
0:21:58 > 0:22:05- Tony Curtis, come back as often as you will. Thank you very much. - Thank you so much.- Tony Curtis.
0:22:06 > 0:22:12Six years later, it was Curtis's Jewish heritage being discussed
0:22:12 > 0:22:17on a BBC documentary series called The Golden Land.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23My father was a Jew and a tailor, Hungarian. And he broke his ass all his life to make a living.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27He was prejudiced against and that had an effect on me.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33Whenever somebody mentioned my name Schwartz or heard the name, there was a kind of a tension.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37I couldn't understand it for years, what that meant.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41And so I avoided it. I had no feeling for it.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Now when you go on the high days and holy days to the synagogue,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50- do you feel anything special? - I enjoy that very much.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Because I remember my father loved it. My father loved it.
0:22:54 > 0:23:02And I loved him. Something must have attracted him. I don't know any more because I have no access to him,
0:23:02 > 0:23:07but I can remember him standing next to me, davening in the shul.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12Really, really so involved in it. And I loved him for it.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17The inequities of being an American, coming to America, not being able to make a living for his family,
0:23:17 > 0:23:22yet on those holy days and on Friday nights he would go to a synagogue,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26or early in the mornings, the early morning prayer.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31All of a sudden it took him out of his depression.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35It was like shooting up. All of a sudden he got a surge of life.
0:23:35 > 0:23:41Maybe today will be a little bit better. That's where religion or philosophy means a great deal,
0:23:41 > 0:23:45and not just Judaism. All of the religions.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50A Jewish mother gave her son for Christmas a blue tie and a red tie.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55So he shows up on Friday night with the red tie and she says, "You don't like the blue tie?"
0:23:55 > 0:24:01- That's a good Jewish joke. - You can say it as a French joke. You don't have to be Jewish.
0:24:01 > 0:24:09- You don't have to be Jewish to love a bagel.- Did your father and mother take pleasure, as any mother would,
0:24:09 > 0:24:15- but as particularly Jewish parents always have, out of your success here in Hollywood?- Yes.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21- I think my mother never forgave me because I never married a Jewish girl.- You married out three times.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Not only the three, but the ones I took out for dinner!
0:24:25 > 0:24:29- All non-Jewish.- The shiksa is a long-time Jewish tradition.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33Well, yes, right. But my mother wasn't that orthodox.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38She wasn't that Jewish in that sense. My father was.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42My father was so pleased I went out with a nice girl, period.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46Everybody was so afraid their son was going to be a fegele!
0:24:46 > 0:24:50"Just go out with a girl! It's all right by me."
0:24:50 > 0:24:54Two mothers were talking and one says, "How's your son Irving?"
0:24:54 > 0:25:00She says, "With Irving I've got a lot of mitzvah and tsuris." Good luck and trouble.
0:25:00 > 0:25:07She said, "What's the mitzvah?" She says, "Well, the tsuris is that he's a homosexual,
0:25:07 > 0:25:11"but the mitzvah is he's going with a nice Jewish boy."
0:25:11 > 0:25:16The playful Tony Curtis was much-loved by TV audiences
0:25:16 > 0:25:21and continued to delight the following year on the Wogan programme,
0:25:21 > 0:25:27but the interview also went on to explore the darker side of his life.
0:25:27 > 0:25:33Good to see you. We haven't met before, but we have seen you quite a lot on these shores.
0:25:33 > 0:25:39- Is this a place you've run to? - Yes, I come to England a lot. I like it here.- What is it about it?
0:25:39 > 0:25:42I like your fish and chips. LAUGHTER
0:25:42 > 0:25:49- I like your ladies. - Not the fish and chips!- The ladies! - Tell me about, looking back,
0:25:49 > 0:25:55to those '50s and '60s you were the trendsetter. People copied everything you did.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00- Were you conscious that you were setting trends?- I was unconscious!
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Really unconscious. I really never planned anything.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Everything has always been somewhat spontaneous. I just let it happen.
0:26:08 > 0:26:13I didn't try to imagine myself as a trendsetter, one way or another.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18- I just wanted to get through the day. The meaning comes after the work.- Yeah.
0:26:18 > 0:26:24Life... The only way you can come to any conclusion about life is after you've lived it.
0:26:24 > 0:26:30- But then you're dead!- People asked me to write an autobiography. I said, "I don't know how it ends!"
0:26:30 > 0:26:33But it'll be too late!
0:26:33 > 0:26:38- And who would want to read it? - A lot of people are writing Hollywood exposes.
0:26:38 > 0:26:44Yes. Jackie Collins wrote Hollywood Wives. I've had more Hollywood Wives than she has!
0:26:44 > 0:26:48- It's crazy! - Boasting again, eh?- Right on!
0:26:49 > 0:26:53- It's not like that anyway.- No... - Of course not. It's worse!
0:26:53 > 0:26:58- Worse, worse, worse. And you, Terry, how are you? - I'm bearing up.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04- It's the throat, you know. - How many shows have you done? AUDIENCE "Awww"
0:27:04 > 0:27:10- They couldn't care less about me. - No?- I went down and breathed on them and they all ran out.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13It's the barber you go to.
0:27:13 > 0:27:19I shouldn't have had that garlic. How did you get on to me? This interview is about you.
0:27:19 > 0:27:25- You think so, huh? OK. All right, pal. I'm here in England for a reason.- Yeah?
0:27:25 > 0:27:31- I'm going to the Cannes Film Festival next week. - That's why you're in England?- Yes!
0:27:31 > 0:27:37It's one way of getting there. I made a film for Nic Roeg, a very fine English director,
0:27:37 > 0:27:43called Insignificance. And it's been selected as the only British entry in the film festival.
0:27:43 > 0:27:50That makes me feel really nice to be part of a British film being entered in the festival,
0:27:50 > 0:27:57so that's a very exciting thing for me. The possibilities of a film like that winning an award
0:27:57 > 0:28:00is a wonderful experience. So I'm on my way there.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05So when you're down there, does it put a lot of pressure on you?
0:28:05 > 0:28:10The pressure comes from the organising committees.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15You're obligated to appear at certain functions, you know, and to get there.
0:28:15 > 0:28:21Then the usual thing comes in. If some actors get more attention than others, people get very nervous.
0:28:21 > 0:28:27Not the actors, but the agents. So you have all this kind of bickering that goes on.
0:28:27 > 0:28:32Do you ever say to yourself, "Here's me, the boy from the Bronx"?
0:28:32 > 0:28:36- No, I don't.- Why not?- Because I didn't come from the Bronx!
0:28:36 > 0:28:38LAUGHTER
0:28:42 > 0:28:47I came from Manhattan. And I was born and raised in Manhattan.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53- I lived in the Bronx once, but that's...- If I wanted a geography lesson, I would have asked for one!
0:28:53 > 0:28:58Why didn't you come from the Bronx? You ruined the whole thing there!
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Well, you've put me... May I stand up? I'll button my jacket.
0:29:02 > 0:29:06You told me something about buttoning jackets and sitting down.
0:29:06 > 0:29:12- In fact, I'll open it.- But if you had come from the Bronx, you'd have done that properly.- Right.
0:29:12 > 0:29:19- Now I forgot what you said. - But when you get down there, remembering the parts that you had,
0:29:19 > 0:29:25- you had a very marked Bronx accent, although you came from Manhattan! - Let me say this.
0:29:25 > 0:29:31Living is living. From the first day you're born, the fact that you end up in the movies doesn't make you
0:29:31 > 0:29:36- any more special than before. - Of course not.- So I don't think,
0:29:36 > 0:29:42"Poor little boy from the Bronx or Manhattan ends up a famous movie actor." Both are distinct, strong
0:29:42 > 0:29:48and positive. One cannot forget your past and your present. And you hope for the future.
0:29:48 > 0:29:54I've learned a very important lesson. I've come through a very serious illness.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58I'm an alcoholic and have a drug addiction.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02This really almost killed me and I didn't know it.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08I thought I was weak-willed. This is usually what people thought of people who drank or used drugs.
0:30:08 > 0:30:14But I have since found out through research done in America that it's a disease.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17And it's a disease that you have to fight as a disease.
0:30:17 > 0:30:22It's an incurable disease that can be cured only by abstinence.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26So therefore I thank God that I'm still alive and able to battle it
0:30:26 > 0:30:30and able to help as many friends as possible in that.
0:30:30 > 0:30:38So the fact that I'm alive talking with you here, with these fine people, that is the blessing.
0:30:38 > 0:30:41It's full marks to you for the strength of character it's taken.
0:30:41 > 0:30:48Character only comes from the researching. And I can't spread the gospel enough.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52There was a time when I said it was all rhetoric and all political.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57Drinking and drugs, they're just saying that for whatever.
0:30:57 > 0:31:03But it's true. It is killing. And doing a lot of damage to a lot of young people.
0:31:03 > 0:31:09And we all somehow have to give a lift and comfort and support to as many young people as possible.
0:31:09 > 0:31:17Good for you. Thank you for saying that. There's something I have to give you, a little surprise.
0:31:17 > 0:31:24- Where did you get that from?- I've been hiding it for years. The old cane and JR hat.- Cor blimey!
0:31:24 > 0:31:28- Where did this come from?- I stole it the last time you were over here.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32- No...- I nicked it from you. - Did you nick it? Bend over!
0:31:32 > 0:31:39- Look at that.- I'm so glad! Isn't that nice? I love it! Where did you find it? Tell me.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43- Let that be my little secret. - Gee whiz. What a fine show!
0:31:43 > 0:31:47- Tony Curtis, ladies and gentlemen! - I'm happy to be here. Thank you.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56Three years later, Curtis was back on Wogan.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Having finally overcome his addiction to drink and drugs,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03he had a new passion to unveil.
0:32:03 > 0:32:05Thank you, Terry.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11- Good evening, London! - A whistle-stop tour of Europe?
0:32:11 > 0:32:17Yes, kind of. I've been travelling all over the place. I was in Paris, then I went to Madrid.
0:32:17 > 0:32:23- And here I am in London.- You forgot for a minute!- My old home town. I love this city.
0:32:23 > 0:32:30- You're not one of those Americans who loves London, are you?- But I do! And Madrid, Paris, anywhere I'm at.
0:32:30 > 0:32:36- You seem to have a certain joy, joie de vivre...- Yes, I do. - ..that you haven't lost.- I hope not.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41- What's the secret of it?- I think the secret is keeping your mouth shut.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44This is not the secret of doing a talk show!
0:32:45 > 0:32:49No, I think it's... It comes and goes, I have found in life.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53The joy of living. Sometimes you lose it, sometimes you get it.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59- It's up and down.- And you've had your downs as well as your ups.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05Once you learn or once you appreciate how wonderful it is to be alive, it's like surfing.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10You find the proper balance and you coast through life. I would like to think so.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14- Have you settled down?- Er... - Are you a settled man now?
0:33:14 > 0:33:21- Well, maybe and maybe not. - Less of the hellraiser?- I'm still quite curious about everything.
0:33:21 > 0:33:27But I like living, you know, and I enjoy the curiosity about what goes on in life.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32- What about movies? - Yes, I do occasional movies. I'm not that interested in films.
0:33:32 > 0:33:38I am interested, but I'm really interested in painting now. I'll tell you what I really want to do.
0:33:38 > 0:33:44I think we all should enjoy this or at least expose ourselves to it.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49Travelling, you know. Get around a lot more than we usually do. There's always someplace to go,
0:33:49 > 0:33:55always something to see, always something to stimulate your thoughts, your feelings.
0:33:55 > 0:34:01I think trouble begins in our lives when we get too studied in our living existence,
0:34:01 > 0:34:06- where everything gets to be too patterned.- Break the pattern.
0:34:06 > 0:34:12- Really. I think it's good for everybody.- Is that why you took on to be an ambassador for Los Angeles?
0:34:12 > 0:34:18- Los Angeles needs a little help. - No, it doesn't.- So they come to Tony and they say,
0:34:18 > 0:34:25- "We're going all over the world to tell everybody to come to Los Angeles."- It doesn't need that!
0:34:25 > 0:34:32- Then why did they ask me to come here?- I don't know! - I don't know either!- I mean, why?
0:34:32 > 0:34:38I'm not sure, now that you explained it that way! They told me Los Angeles needed me.
0:34:38 > 0:34:44- Maybe they wanted me out of town. - Los Angeles is where the sun is and where they make the movies.
0:34:44 > 0:34:51- Right.- But it's smog, too. - A lot of smog.- Come on now - you're the ambassador!- A lot of smog.
0:34:51 > 0:34:57- You're being too honest. - But don't let smog stop you. London's got smog.- It hasn't!
0:34:57 > 0:35:03- We've got clean air! - You've got to be kidding - this is El Smogville!
0:35:03 > 0:35:07What do you mean?! Open the door - it'll walk right in on you!
0:35:07 > 0:35:10- That's the smoke from Bananarama! - Oh, I see. OK.
0:35:10 > 0:35:16That's how a kid from London talks and a kid from LA talks.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20But is it part of your duty to clean up the LA image?
0:35:20 > 0:35:26- You know the pictures we get of the gangs and all the rest. - There are gangs.- Is it violent?
0:35:26 > 0:35:30It is a violent city. It has all of these elements to it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34It is America and as far west as you can go. Like the early West.
0:35:34 > 0:35:41And that's part, I feel, of the excitement and interest of Los Angeles.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46There's a lot of wonderful things in that city. It has unique places, wonderful museums.
0:35:46 > 0:35:53- Down at Venice Beach. A beautiful little community.- Do you live there?- I live in Los Angeles.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57I have a condominium in Bel Air, or near it, and I live in Hawaii.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00That's my primary residence now.
0:36:00 > 0:36:05- So you CAN go further west.- You can go to Honolulu. That's where I live.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10I spend a lot of time in Los Angeles and all over now. I want to travel
0:36:10 > 0:36:15- and see all the good-looking girls all over the place. - You're not still at that?!
0:36:15 > 0:36:18I'm not? LAUGHTER
0:36:19 > 0:36:24- I thought we were going to see a reformed man.- Yes.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29A man who had eschewed the demon drink, the women...
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Well, drink will kill you, so I don't drink. Drugs will kill you.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39I've changed my life in that sense. I'm a recovering alcoholic and drug abuse person,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44so I don't use those substances. I'm almost five years in my recovery.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48And that's a very important part of my living experience.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54- Does that get any easier to do? - I don't know about easier. I have no desire, no need...
0:36:54 > 0:36:58That's come, Terry, and perhaps my English friends will understand,
0:36:58 > 0:37:04it comes from therapy. It comes from re-examining your whole living experience
0:37:04 > 0:37:09and how you approach your life. It takes a bit of doing.
0:37:09 > 0:37:15But once it's done, OK, it is truly the joy of the living experience.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20- Was the painting a therapy? - Painting's very helpful for me.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24But as soon as you begin to reclaim your life,
0:37:24 > 0:37:31a lot of gifts that you have as a person start to emerge. You become more of a loving person.
0:37:31 > 0:37:37More of a giving person. You find little gifts you had as a kid, you can now encourage -
0:37:37 > 0:37:43- painting, writing.- We've got three of your paintings, by a strange and wonderful coincidence.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47- Isn't it? - Walk to the paintings.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51- Those are covers! - LAUGHTER
0:37:51 > 0:37:55- Come round this side.- The first one we're going to look at is this one.
0:37:55 > 0:38:00- Why didn't we rehearse this? - Come here.- No! Oh, all right.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04- The one in the middle?- Take the end and we'll lift this up.- Careful.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09- Now step back and let everybody see the painting. - Have a look at the painting.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11APPLAUSE
0:38:14 > 0:38:19- What's it called? - What is this called? Goodbye Charlie it's called.
0:38:19 > 0:38:26No, it's called Flowers and... I don't name them. This is a painting that's about a year old.
0:38:26 > 0:38:28I put on the paint quite thick.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33I like the composition and the way colours work against each other.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37Perhaps that's what Hawaii gives me now. The colours.
0:38:37 > 0:38:43I don't paint particularly Hawaiian. I don't paint grass skirts and palm trees as much,
0:38:43 > 0:38:49- but the colours...- It's very bright there. How much would this cost? What price are you putting on it?
0:38:49 > 0:38:53The gallery puts a price of about 20,000 quid.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58GASPS AND LAUGHTER 'Ello! Cor blimey!
0:38:58 > 0:39:00Come over here.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04- All right. - We'll take bids in just a moment.
0:39:04 > 0:39:09- Here, let me show you this one. - Now this is entirely different.
0:39:09 > 0:39:15This is a little bit of an abstract concept. Again it's the colours that I like so much
0:39:15 > 0:39:20- and the shapes and sizes. - How much would the gallery put on that?
0:39:20 > 0:39:25- For you, my dear friend, it'll cost you a Bentley. Do you have one?- No!
0:39:25 > 0:39:29- What kind of car do you drive? - Something very small and simple.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33- What kind of car do you drive? - I got banned.
0:39:34 > 0:39:38LAUGHTER I got him, didn't I?
0:39:38 > 0:39:40All right!
0:39:41 > 0:39:45We've only got a minute. Come on down here, Terry.
0:39:45 > 0:39:51And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the latest, only about three weeks old.
0:39:51 > 0:39:58- Let me just show you this one. - A woman sighed there. That's your favourite.- Yes!
0:39:58 > 0:40:02There's other colours I use. For me it's really appealing
0:40:02 > 0:40:08that you can see how at different times in your life, you express yourself in different ways.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12I didn't know you were banned from driving.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Come here! Where are you going?
0:40:16 > 0:40:21All right. I won't bring that up if you don't bring up my ex-wives.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24All right! It's a deal! Tony Curtis!
0:40:27 > 0:40:31- Terry, I love you. - Wonderful. He's a good man.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36- Nice to have him back. Come back any time.- I will, thank you.
0:40:36 > 0:40:43- With or without the paintings. Among our delights next week... - Keep going.- ..a special programme
0:40:43 > 0:40:49- with Cliff Richard.- And, of course, next Friday the Children In Need appeal. Happy weekend.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53I'll see you on Monday at seven. Terry Wogan here!
0:41:04 > 0:41:06Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd