Jamie Lee Curtis watched 'movie star' parents Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh 'get face and neck lifts'

As an iconic actor in her own right, it’s easy to forget that Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of Old Hollywood royalty.

The 62-year-old Halloween star is the progeny of screen legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh and during an appearance on the People in the ’90s podcast Jamie talked openly about watching her parents get ‘face and neck lifts.’

Jamie said she was ‘mindful’ about aging in Hollywood after watching her movie star parents lose rolls as they got older and worked hard to avoid the ‘humiliation’ of begging for work.

Learning from the past: Jamie Lee Curtis said during the People in the 90s podcast that she was ‘mindful’ about aging in Hollywood after watching her movie star parents lose rolls as they got older  (Seen in February)

‘I’m the child of movie stars. I watched my parents get face lifts and neck lifts,’ Jamie Lee said.

Jamie’s parents – Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh – were two of the most famous actors of their time and starred together in the critically acclaimed 1953 film Houdini.

Tony’s career spanned six decades and he headlined the iconic classic films Some Like it Hot and Spartacus.

Janet Leigh was an early screen siren whose most famous role was, without question, as Marion Crane in Psycho. She also starred in Bye Bye Birdie, The Manchurian Candidate and Little Women. 

‘I’m the child of movie stars. I watched my parents get face lifts and neck lifts,’ Jamie Lee said. ‘I watched their work diminish, I watched their fame not diminish. And the contradiction of a lot of fame, but not a lot of work, is really hard to navigate for people.’ (L-R Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Jamie Lee Curtis)

Curtis and Leigh were wed from 1951 to 1962 and had two daughters, Jamie Lee and Kelly Lee. 

‘I watched their work diminish, I watched their fame not diminish. And the contradiction of a lot of fame, but not a lot of work, is really hard to navigate for people,’ Jamie said.

‘Very hard to be famous but not be doing the thing that made you famous,’ she continued. ‘And that for the rest of your life, you’re famous for something you did a long time ago, and you chase that attention.’

She used her parents experiences as a teaching moment for how she would approach her own career. 

‘I wanted to be mindful, as the daughter of stars,’ the actress explained. ‘And so, I was hedging my bets, ’cause I don’t want to be the person pining away for work and not getting it. It’s humiliating and it’s a hard business. It’s all about what you look like.’ 

‘I wanted to be mindful, as the daughter of stars,’ the actress explained. ‘And so, I was hedging my bets, ’cause I don’t want to be the person pining away for work and not getting it. It’s humiliating and it’s a hard business. It’s all about what you look like.’ (Tony Curtis L with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot)

Jamie Lee Curtis burst onto the scene with her career making 1978 role in Halloween – which she has reprised several times over the last four decades. 

The scream queen went on to star in a string of horror flicks in the 80s and then expanded her career significantly in the 1990s and into the 2000s with titles like True Lies, A Fish Called Wanda and My Girl.

More recently she starred in Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens and the 2019 whodunit Knives Out.

Jamie Lee married mockumentary filmmaker Christopher Guest in 1984, making her a Baroness. They share two adopted children. 

Curtis will reprise her most famous role again this fall in Halloween Kills which premieres October 15, 2021. 

On screen: Curtis will reprise her most famous role again this fall in Halloween Kills which premieres October 15, 2021 (Seen in March)