The icons always pass away in threes, people. I know it’s an old-wives’ tale, but it’s so, so true. First it was Eddie Fisher, then Gloria Stuart, and now Tony Curtis. Curtis passed away last night at his Las Vegas home. He was 85 years old, and it looks like he died of a heart attack/cardiac arrest. MSNBC has an extensive biography here.

Tony Curtis, the Bronx tailor’s son who became a 1950s movie heartthrob and then a respected actor with such films as “Sweet Smell of Success,” “The Defiant Ones” and “Some Like It Hot,” has died. He was 85.

The actor died at 9:25 p.m. MDT Wednesday at his Las Vegas area home of a cardiac arrest, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Thursday. Entertainment Tonight first reported the news of Curtis’s death, citing a representative for the actor’s daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis.

After a series of frivolous movies that exploited his handsome physique and appealing personality, Curtis moved to more substantial roles, starting in 1957 in the harrowing show business tale “Sweet Smell of Success.”

In 1958, “The Defiant Ones” brought him an Academy Award nomination as best actor for his portrayal of a white racist escaped convict handcuffed to a black escapee, Sidney Poitier. The following year, he donned women’s clothing and sparred with Marilyn Monroe in one of the most acclaimed film comedies ever, Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot.”

“He was great fun to work with. He had a great sense of humor, wonderful ad-libs. We had the best of times. He was a very fine actor,” Sir Roger Moore, the former Bond star who worked with Curtis on the television show “The Persuaders!,” told Britain’s Sky News.

“I shall miss him. I find it very difficult to sum up my emotions here in a couple of seconds.”

Asked in a 2008 interview with Matt Lauer on NBC News’ TODAY if his good looks were a blessing or a curse, Curtis drew laughs by saying “I never found them a curse. No, I loved it.”

His first wife was actress Janet Leigh of “Psycho” fame; actress Jamie Lee Curtis is their daughter.

In addition to movies, Curtis secured a place in popular culture, appearing on the cover of The Beatles’s “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” album and by voicing the character “Stony Curtis” on the cartoon “The Flintstones.”

In later years, he returned to film and television as a character actor after battling drug and alcohol abuse. His brash optimism returned, and he allowed his once-shiny black hair to turn silver. He also became a painter whose canvasses are displayed in galleries around the world.

“I’m not ready to settle down like an elderly Jewish gentleman, sitting on a bench and leaning on a cane,” he said at 60. “I’ve got a helluva lot of living to do.”

Curtis perfected his craft in forgettable films such as “Francis,” “I Was a Shoplifter,” “No Room for the Groom” and “Son of Ali Baba.”

Other prestigious films followed: Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” “Captain Newman, M.D.,” “The Vikings,” “Kings Go Forth,” “Operation Petticoat” and “Some Like It Hot.” He also found time to do a voice acting gig as his prehistoric lookalike, Stony Curtis, in an episode of “The Flintstones.” “The Defiant Ones” remained his only Oscar-nominated role.

He had married Janet Leigh in 1951, when they were both rising young stars; they divorced in 1963.

“Tony and I had a wonderful time together; it was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood,” Leigh, who died in 2004, once said. “A lot of great things happened, most of all, two beautiful children.”

[From MSNBC]

Yes, poor Jamie Lee Curtis – I’m sure she’s probably heartbroken, although she insinuated throughout the years that she kind of thought her father was an a–hole, but she still loved him a lot.

My favorite of Tony’s films is, of course, Some Like It Hot. The behind-the-scenes stories on that one are almost as good as the film – Curtis and Marilyn Monroe absolutely hated each other, but Curtis and Jack Lemmon were lifelong friends. I think it was on TCM that I also heard Tony Curtis speak about his lifelong admiration for Cary Grant, whom he worked with a handful of times. They worked together on my second favorite Tony Curtis film, Operation Petticoat.

Sigh… rest in peace, you mensch.

Photos courtesy of WENN.