Kelly Curtis, a film and TV star and Jamie Lee Curtis’s sister, has died (Picture: Brian To/FilmMagic)
Kelly Curtis, an actress who was the beloved sister of Jamie Lee Curtis, has died aged 69.
Freak Friday icon Jamie Lee, 67, has confirmed that her older sibling died this morning but did not share details of the cause.
Paying tribute, the Halloween film legend wrote on Instagram alongside an old snap of Kelly: ‘A warm aloha to my older sister, Kelly Lee Curtis. She passed away this morning. In her home. In nature. At peace.
‘She was my first friend and lifelong confidant. She was jaw droppingly beautiful, and a talented actress. She played a mean game of hearts, collected turtles, loved her family, nature, music, thrifting, travel, Facebook, and Pokémon Go. She was proud of her Danish roots and Hungarian Jewish ancestry and was a devoted American patriot.’
Jamie Lee added affectionately that Kelly ‘will be remembered for her loving generosity, fierce opinions, endless curiosity, unique style, and her powdered, almond, crescent cookies at Christmas, hence her name, Auntie Cookie’.
And in a final nod to her late sister, she concluded: ‘Kelly always signed off any message or fare thee well with a Hungarian blessing… Isten Veled, God is with you.
‘Isten Veled to my sister of the sun and the moon, my Tai. I’ll see you on down the line.’
Jamie Lee’s post was quickly flooded with comments of condolence, with Ariana DeBose writing: ‘Sending you so much🤍’
Writer Heidi Clements said: ‘She will always be with you.’
Chris Connelly also shared a sweet tribute: ‘I’m so terribly sad to see this and so sorry for your loss. She joined our high school class senior year, and it was as if she’d stepped off a meteorite. Walked in beauty, like the night. Quoted lyrics from Tumbleweed Connection on her senior page in our yearbook. Into our NYC world, she was the coolest breeze of fresh air ..and always to be remembered.’
Born in Santa Monica, California, Kelly graduated with a business degree and briefly worked as a stockbroker. She began acting when she was young, with her first silver screen appearance being The Vikings (1958), which co-starred her parents.
Her best-known on-screen work includes the 1983 comedy-drama film Trading Places and the TV series The Sentinel as Lieutenant Carolyn Plummer.
Kelly pictured in 2003 with sister Jamie Lee, step-father Bob Brandt, and her mother, actress Janet Leigh (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Janet Leigh (centre) had a film career spanning 50 years (Picture: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch via Getty Images)
She had smaller roles in the German comedy movie Magic Sticks (1987) and in Italian horror flick The Devil’s Daughter (1991).
TV-wise, she appeared in episodes of The Equalizer, Kojak, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Her final role came in 1999 in an episode of the legal television drama Judging Amy.
Off-camera, Kelly was a children’s author.
What’s more, she was a producer and is credited as a production assistant on Jamie’s famous films Freaky Friday (2003) and You Again (2010).
She is survived by her husband, playwright and producer Scott Morfee, whom she wed in 1989.
Pictured here at the premiere of Freaky Friday, Kelly was a production assistant on the comedy (Picture: Carlo Allegri/Getty Images)
Jamie Lee said her sister was ‘at peace’ when she died (Picture: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
Kelly and Jamie Lee’s parents were also in showbiz – Oscar nominees Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, who were married from 1951 to 1962.
Jamie Lee, whose films have grossed over $2.5billion (£1.9bn), certainly followed in her mother’s footsteps, as Janet Leigh was established as one of the earliest scream queens for her horror film roles and had a career lasting 50 years.
Most notably, she played Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
She died in October 2007, aged 77, after a battle with vasculitis, a group of rare conditions that damage the blood vessels.
As for Tony, his career spanned six decades, and he appeared in over 100 films in various genres, including Some Like It Hot (1959).
In September 2010, he died at his home from a cardiac arrest. Five months prior, he rewrote his will, leaving his entire estate to his sixth wife, horse trainer Jill Vandenberg, and disinheriting all five of his surviving children by name, leaving no explanation for why.
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