Jamie Lee Curtis Reflects on Her ‘Comfortable, Not Fancy’ Childhood Despite Famous Parents

In a recent interview with Variety, Jamie Lee Curtis looked back on her childhood and described it as “comfortable, not fancy.” Despite growing up as the daughter of Hollywood legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, her early years in Los Angeles were far from glamorous.

Tony Curtis was one of the biggest movie stars of the 1950s and 1960s, known for films like Some Like It Hot and The Great Escape. Janet Leigh, meanwhile, made her mark in Hollywood with her unforgettable role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. But even with such famous parents, Curtis says her childhood was surprisingly normal.

Her father, Tony Curtis, left the family when she was young to be with a 17-year-old, leaving her mother and her Marine stepfather to raise her. “Show business wasn’t evident to me as a child. I mean, there are a couple pictures of me on sets with my sister, but I don’t have a memory of any of it — any of it, just none of it,” Curtis recalled.

Growing up, she didn’t see herself as especially talented. “I was kind of a weirdo. I was this girl at 16, full of energy and personality. But I had no intelligence. You know, I wasn’t an athlete, I wasn’t in the plays. I was a D+ student — C- if you graded on a curve. I was a cheerleader. And I became an actor by accident.”

Curtis credits the strong women around her for helping her grow into the person she is today. She points first to her mother, Janet Leigh, who was not only a famous actress but also deeply involved in charity work.

Leigh joined Share, a group started by the wives of Hollywood stars in the 1950s to raise money for children’s causes in Los Angeles. Each year, Leigh performed in star-studded shows like the Boomtown Party, which Curtis watched as a little girl.

Seeing her mother dance in a cowboy outfit with Neile Adams McQueen, the wife of Steve McQueen, and Altovise Davis, married to Sammy Davis Jr., left a lasting impression on her. “It stuck with me,” Curtis said, “seeing them all working to help kids less fortunate than myself.”

Leigh was also friends with Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics. Curtis grew up attending events at UCLA where celebrities helped support the games. When she was 15, she suggested getting Polaroid cameras to take pictures of the athletes with celebrities.

“I raised my hand when I was 15. What if we call Polaroid and get them to donate cameras? I’ll set up a booth, and then we can take Polaroids of the athletes with a celebrity and give them the Polaroid,” Curtis explained.

Her idea worked, and she ran the booth for several years. By the time she was 19, Shriver invited her to appear in the photos herself, saying, “We’d like you to be in the pictures this year, because you were on TV.”

Curtis’ entry into acting came almost by chance. During a Christmas break from college, she visited a friend in Beverly Hills who had tennis lessons with a man named Chuck Binder.

Binder was now managing actors, and he suggested she audition for a role in Nancy Drew at Universal. “Show business, right? You’re a tennis teacher; now you’re managing actors,” Curtis laughed. She agreed to try out, and that marked the start of her career.

Despite her Hollywood lineage, Curtis’ story shows that fame doesn’t guarantee a glamorous childhood. Instead, it was a mix of normal teenage struggles, strong female role models, and unexpected opportunities that shaped her path.

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