Jamie Lee Curtis

Actor / Writer

Jamie Lee Curtis made her movie debut in the original Halloween (1978). The second child of movie star parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, she had TV jobs as a teen, including one season of Operation Petticoat (1977-78). The success of Halloween led to an early career as a plucky heroine in horror films, including The Fog, Terror Train and Prom Night (all 1980). She showed her comedy talent and her bosom in the Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places (1983), then was off on her way to a respectable career as a leading lady. A hint of androgyny and a careful strategy of revealing her admired physique made her a sex symbol, especially in comedies like A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and True Lies (1994, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger). As Curtis matured she made fewer movies, but emerged as an unofficial spokesperson for being proud of an aging body -- in 2002 she appeared in More magazine without make-up, and as she turned 50 AARP magazine boasted about a "topless" photo (in fact, it was a cropped photo of Curtis in a strapless dress). Since 1995 she's been publishing children's books with illustrator Laura Cornell, including Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (2000) and Is There Really a Human Race? (2006). Her other films include Love Letters (1984), Drowning Mona (2000, starring Casey Affleck) and Freaky Friday (2003, starring Lindsay Lohan).

Extra credit: Curtis grew up with her mother, Janet Leigh, and stepfather... She married comedy writer and filmmaker Christopher Guest (Best in Show) in 1984... A long-standing, out-of-left-field rumor -- unproven -- is that Curtis was born a hermaphrodite.