Hollywood screen star Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85.
The actor was best known for his role in the comedy Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon.
Curtis, born Bernard Schwartz to poor Hungarian immigrants in New York in 1925, was nominated for an Oscar for his role in The Defiant Ones alongside Sidney Poitier.
According to the Entertainment Tonight show, the actor’s death was confirmed by a representive of his daughter Jamie Lee Curtis.
Curtis, one of the biggest box-office stars of the 1950s, is said to have died at his home in Nevada.
Curtis had a memorable role in the classic gladiator movie Spartacus in 1960 but his career got off to a rough start. His first starring role was in The Prince Who Was a Thief in 1951 and critics were appalled as Curtis, playing an Arabian prince, proclaimed in a thick New York accent, "Yonduh lies de castle of de caliph, my fadder!"
Still, Universal Pictures' star-making machinery and teen fan magazines managed to make Curtis a celebrity and movie-goers loved his dark-haired sex appeal and impish grin.
Within a few years, Curtis had improved enough for Saturday Review magazine to call him "a rare phenomenon, an authentic screen personality who, through hard work, has made himself into an actor of considerable subtlety and some breadth."
Two of his most enduring performances came in Some Like It Hot as he teamed with Jack Lemmon - playing cross-dressers opposite Marilyn Monroe - and The Sweet Smell of Success, in which which he played a fawning press agent.
His Oscar nomination came for the 1959 film The Defiant Ones, in which he played racist escaped con chained to Sidney Poitier.
Other notable films included Houdini, Trapeze, Operation Petticoat, The Boston Strangler, The Vikings and The Great Imposter.
Curtis made more than 140 films, mixing comedies with dramas, but part of his life was plagued by poor movies and struggles with cocaine and alcohol.
In his youth, Curtis quit school to join the Navy in the second World War, serving on a submarine tender, and pursued acting after his discharge.
Curtis was known to be demanding at the height of his stardom and television producer Lew Gallo called him "an impetuous child." As fascinating to fans as his performances was Curtis' private life. He was an inveterate womaniser whose girlfriends included Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood.
He was married six times, starting with actress Janet Leigh in a union he later admitted was partially motivated by publicity value. After divorcing Leigh, he married Christine Kaufman, who was 17 when they met while filming "Taras Bulba." Curtis was once quoted as saying, "I wouldn't be seen dead with a woman old enough to be my wife."
His sixth wife, Jill Vandenberg, was 45 years younger than Curtis.
Curtis' children included actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who was estranged from him for much of his life, and he admitted he was a failure as a father.
As his acting career waned, Curtis concentrated on painting and in 1989 he sold more than $1 million worth of his art in the first day of a Los Angeles exhibition.
"Painting is more meaningful to me than any performance I've ever given," he told an interviewer. Curtis eventually moved to Las Vegas. In 1989, he released an exercise videotape for people past age 50.
He operated the Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary, a refuge for horses that were abandoned or abused, on the California-Nevada border with wife Jill.
Roger Moore led tributes to him, telling Sky News: “He was a fine actor. I shall miss him.”
Additional reporting by Reuters