United Pictures Corporation · Public domain

Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx to Hungarian-Jewish immigrants, he became one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s and pushed for serious dramatic roles against studio typecasting, earning an Academy Award nomination opposite Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones. He is best remembered for disguising himself as a woman alongside Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, released the same year as the submarine comedy Operation Petticoat. Curtis married six times; his daughters with first wife Janet Leigh include actresses Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis.