In this previously unpublished interview from 1992, Tony Curtis looks back over his life Ц and forward to his death.

Do you still enjoy making movies as much as ever?

You donТt get tired of that, like you donТt get tired of working, or eating or taking a good-looking woman out and buying a new car. Each day of your life brings new interests and those new interests are stimulated by making movies. Experience doesnТt make you a better actor; experience just gives you another insight to living.

Do you prefer comedy or high drama?

To me there is no difference. Some go quicker, some go slower, some are funny, some are not. I just like the idea that I can step into different kinds of environment. But all of us can do that: be funny when we want, be tragic. ItТs a matter of a mindset, I think.

Are you satisfied with all your films?

There isnТt a movie that IТve made that I didnТt give the best I could. Even when I made films I had to do, to earn money to support my children, it made no difference. And I donТt look back on them saying, УWell, I could have done this and that.Ф

Do you have a favourite film?

I liked The Boston Strangler. I liked the character I played and it was a very interesting, different movie. I also liked Insignificance , Trapeze and Some Like It Hot.

What is the best compliment youТve ever been paid?

In London, I was walking down the street and this good-looking, well-turned-out woman of about 65 saw me and stopped and said: УYouТre the handsomest man IТve ever seen in my life!Ф Halleleujah!

Does it hurt you that you never won an Oscar?

Nothing hurts me deep inside. That is only one part of my life. I have a cornucopia of living Ц I am a painter, I am an author, I am a father and a lover, and IТve had a lot of girlfriends, a lot of guys I know I like, IТve got six children, IТve got a big living experience. If the movies were the only thing I lived for, I would be devastated. You would die in this community, youТd be checking to see if your name was in the trade papers or what part you were going to get, and whoТs going to get it. But you canТt live like that.

Who have been your favourite co-stars over the years?

Burt Lancaster, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon. Marilyn was a favourite of mine: she was a lovely woman. We had an up-and-down relationship, but everybody has ups-and-downs.

What are your memories of 'Some Like It HotТ?

Well, I remember dragging Jack into the ladiesТ rooms to see if our make-up was working properly, and then I took Marilyn in to have her tell me whether I was fooling the girls in there and if they were looking at me funnily or not! I had to be very, very careful and delicate in the playing of that role.

How did you meet Monroe?

I met Marilyn in 1950 when she was trying to get a contract in one of the studios, and we went out for a little while. She was an interesting and very sweet woman. ItТs a tragedy she died so young. If you ever look at that photograph of her bedroom that she died in, this was the Goddess of the Sixties, you know, considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, living in this shambolic little room somewhere. Where were all those people who professed to be her friends? Where were the ActorsТ Studio people? Where were all these chums of hers?

You had your own problems with drink and drugs - the vices of Hollywood?

Hollywood had nothing to do with it, and I donТt call it a vice. I am a recovering alcoholic and drug-abused person, and thatТs the way I look at it.

What got you into that state in the first place?

It just builds up in you. I do not in any way blame Hollywood, ex-wives, friends, the failure of fortune, whatever. They are not to me anything other than little symptoms that the seed of destruction is in all of us. You know itТs foolish to end your life at 35 because itТs going to end at 85, and youТre going to tell me 50 years makes a difference one way or the other Ц not necessarily.

You seem to have emerged much stronger and wiserЕ

I was always an intelligent person, but I was very erratic in my emotional behaviour, and itТs taken my recovery and my search of myself to examine and open it all out to the sun and weed out all those little worms that were wiggling inside of me. You canТt weed it all out because weТre only human. NobodyТs perfect.

Do you have regrets?

I canТt think of anything IТve done that I would be regretful over. I would be foolish if I thought like that.

Do you fall in love a lot?

Every 20 minutes! In fact, in a couple of hours hopefully I will be in love again!

In Britain youТre perhaps best remembered for the TV series 'The PersuadersТ. Do you look back on that with pleasure?

With great pleasure. I made some wonderful friends there Ц Roger Moore and all my English chums. I bought a home and lived in Chester Square for a long time. My boy Nicholas was born in London. He was born December 31, just two hours before the New Year. Had he been the first child born in the New Year, the Queen of England would have sent him a cable saying: УWelcome to England.Ф

YouТve often been voted best-dressed man. Do such titles mean anything to you?

That was a long time ago, and that was all a scam. All those best-dressed, best-looking, best actors Ц itТs all a scam and ram and a scam and jam! They award you with something, and you just take it with good grace, and thatТs the end of it.

Does vanity play a part in your life, though?

My middle name is vanity! In fact, it should have been Vanity Curtis!

Are you not anxious about getting old?

I have not reflected on it at all, but I am privileged.

In the future when somebody writes an epitaph for you, what would you like it to say?

УNobodyТs perfect.Ф


Interview: Peter Robertson