In one of his best movies, the actor portrays a slavish entertainment publicist at the mercy of a heartless gossip columnist, played by Burt Lancaster.
The Bronx-born actor makes an appearance in England in 1958 during the height of his fame.
In Stanley Kramer's classic film about fugitives from a chain gang, Curtis and Sidney Poitier portray escaped cons who hate each other but are chained together.
In his most beloved role in his best film, Curtis and Jack Lemmon played musicians on the run from mobsters who hide out in an all-female band, led by Marilyn Monroe.
Playing second-in-command to Cary Grant in this comedy, the actor played a Naval officer on a pink—yes, pink—submarine transporting nurses during World War II.
In this lavish epic about a Roman slave rebellion, the actor shared a bath with Laurence Olivier—a scene charged with sexual tension that was originally cut from the film.
Posing with his wife and daughters in 1961, the actor and his family set sail for Argentina, where he would make the movie Taras Bulba.
Though known as a charming, handsome leading man, the actor took on the challenge of playing a real-life serial killer.
At a 1989 party in his honor, his movie-star daughter is all smiles.