Vale Tony Curtis - 3 June 1925 – 29 September 2010

I grew up knowing Tony Curtis only as the Danny Wilde from the slick 1970s television series, The Persuaders!  Years later I began to realise that he was a movie star way before his brief television foray.  Every character I saw him play (up until Spartacus) exhibited something of Danny's irreverant, ironic, and flirty style that resonated with my idea of how fun it might be to be a grown-up.  Back then I had no idea how close Danny's hinted philosophy was to Curtis's.  There's a touching and funny rememberance of the great man by Tom Junod over at the Esquire magazine website*.

As for role models, I think I could probably have done worse.


* A big thank you to Tempus Fugit for bringing this one to my attention.