CURTIS, JAMIE LEE

CURTIS, JAMIE LEE (1958– ), U.S. actor. Daughter of Jewish actor tony curtis (Bernie Schwartz) and Janet Leigh, Curtis spent her high school years at the Choate School in Connecticut. After graduation, she attended the University of the Pacific in California for one term before dropping out. Universal signed Curtis to a seven-year contract in 1977 that got her bit parts on television shows like Operation Petticoat, Quincy, and Columbo. She made her big-screen debut in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), and became known as the "queen of scream" with such follow-up horror films as The Fog (1980), Prom Night (1980), Terror Train (1981), and Halloween II (1981). After portraying the lead in the TV film Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story, Curtis followed with comedy roles in the films Trading Places (1983) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988). She married actor-director Christopher Guest in 1984, with whom she has a daughter, Annie, and a son, Thomas, both adopted. In 1989–92, she starred opposite Richard Lewis in the sitcom Anything But Love, winning a 1990 Golden Globe for best actress in a television comedy. A memorable performance in the film True Lies (1994) opposite Arnold Schwarznegger won her another Golden Globe (1995), the same year that she appeared in the screen version of wendy wasserstein 's The Heidi Chronicles (1995). She reprised her role as Laurie Strode in Halloween H20 (1998). Curtis had a major hit with the Disney remake of Freaky Friday (2003) and continued her family-friendly roles with Christmas with the Kranks (2004). Curtis is also a successful children's book author, publishing When I Was Little (1995); Tell Me Again about the Night I Was Born (1996); Today I Feel Silly (1998); Where Do Balloons Go? (2000); I'm Gonna Like Me (2002); and It's Hard to Be Five (2004). (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)