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Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis

Highest Rated: 97% Knives Out (2019)

Lowest Rated: 5% Christmas With the Kranks (2004)

Birthday: Nov 22, 1958

Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA

Actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis's screen career arced from early success as a heroine in peril in horror films like "Halloween" (1979) to critical praise and awards for brassy turns in comedies like "Trading Places" (1983) and "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988) and later, a fearless embrace of middle-aged and senior women with brio to spare in "Freaky Friday" (2003) and "Halloween" (2019). Born November 22, 1958 in Santa Monica, California, she was the daughter of two popular postwar Hollywood actors-Oscar nominee Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh-who divorced when she was four years of age. Though raised in a show business family, she initially showed little interest in following in her parents' footsteps, and focused on life at Westlake School and Beverly Hills High School, before graduating from Choate Rosemary Hall. She found those experiences emotionally draining due to her low self-confidence, and made it through a single semester at the University of the Pacific before dropping out to try her hand at acting. She made her television debut as a military nurse on the short-lived "Operation Petticoat" (ABC, 1977-79), a sitcom based on the 1960 comedy that starred her father, before segueing to guest roles on other series, including "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" (ABC, 1977-79). She was not the first choice to play the teenaged heroine of "Halloween" (1979), a low-budget horror film by USC grad John Carpenter, but her connection to Leigh, who had famously starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960), helped to win her role; the film became a runaway success at the box office and launched not only an enduring film franchise but also the slasher film boom of the 1980s. For Curtis, it led to a string of starring roles in other horror films, including "Halloween II" (1981) and lesser efforts like "Terror Train" (1980), which minted her, for a time, as a scream queen. But Curtis broke free from the label on the strength of critically praised performances in the TV movie "Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story" (NBC, 1981) and a brassy, BAFTA-winning turn as an escort in John Landis' "Trading Places" (1983). These successes led to Curtis moving up to leads in A-list features, though several of these early efforts - "Perfect" (1985), with Curtis as an aerobics instructor - did little more than showcase her dedication to her roles. She finally earned a project worthy of her talents with 1988's "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988), which cast her as a con artist who fell for her mark, a hapless barrister played by John Cleese, who also wrote the script. She continued to work in films but found greater success as the star of "Anything But Love" (ABC, 1989-1992), a wry office comedy with Curtis and Richard Lewis as co-workers who attempted to keep their romance under wraps. For her performance, Curtis earned a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award, and followed it with another Golden Globe nomination, this time for her starring role in a TNT adaptation of Wendy Wasserstein's play "The Heidi Chronicles" (1995) and a second Golden Globes win for playing undercover agent Arnold Schwarzenegger's mousy wife in James Cameron's Oscar-nominated "True Lies" (1994). After a string of minor box office successes - including a return to the "Halloween" franchise for "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" (1998) and "Halloween: Resurrection" (2002) - and recovery from an addiction to painkillers and alcohol, Curtis scored another hit with a remake of "Freaky Friday" (2003), for which she and screen daughter Lindsay Lohan switched personalities. Subsequent efforts, however, failed to generate audience interest, and by 2006, she told interviewers that she had put her screen career on the backburner to concentrate on her family with comic actor-director Christopher Guest of "This is Spinal Tap" (1984) fame. Curtis had also established a popular second career as a children's author, beginning in 1993 with When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of Her Youth (1993). It was soon followed by Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born (1996), which was inspired by the birth of her adopted daughter, Annie, and then earned a New York Times bestseller with Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day (1998). Her literary career and a string of commercial appearances for a probiotic yogurt kept Curtis busy for much of the 2000s until 2012, when she signed on for a recurring role on "NCIS" (CBS, 2003- ). A stint on Ryan Murphy's self-referential horror series "Scream Queens" (FOX, 2015-16) preceded another return to her roots with "Halloween" (2019), which found Curtis's heroine, Laurie Strode, now a grandmother and survivalist with an arsenal waiting for franchise villain Michael Myers' inevitable return. A huge success due largely to Curtis's intensely physical performance, "Halloween" signaled the launch of an all-new franchise with Curtis at its head for two more films announced for 2020 and 2021. While serving as star and executive producer on these projects, Curtis also joined the ensemble cast of Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" (2019), with Daniel Craig as an acerbic detective rooting out a killer from the ranks of a squabbling family that included Chris Evans, Toni Collette, and Michael Shannon.

Highest rated movies

97% 92% Knives Out 96% 84% A Fish Called Wanda 96% 89% Halloween 93% 79% Everything Everywhere All at Once
92% 62% Road Games
89% 85% Trading Places 88% 58% Freaky Friday
86% 54% Daddy and Them

Filmography

Movies

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet Freakier Friday Tess Coleman (Character),
Producer
- 2025
10% 52% Borderlands Tannis (Character) $15.5M 2024
No Score Yet No Score Yet Dinner Party Diaries with José Andrés Self - 2024
80% No Score Yet The Last Showgirl Unknown (Character) - 2024
37% 84% Haunted Mansion Madame Leota (Character) $67.6M 2023
40% 58% Halloween Ends Laurie Strode (Character),
Executive Producer
$64.0M 2022
93% 79% Everything Everywhere All at Once Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Character) $76.7M 2022
39% 66% Halloween Kills Laurie Strode (Character),
Executive Producer
$92.0M 2021
No Score Yet No Score Yet How We Sleep at Night: The Sara Cunningham Story Sara Cunningham (Character),
Director
- 2021
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Sleepless Executive Producer - 2020
85% 94% Best Summer Ever Executive Producer - 2020
97% 92% Knives Out Linda Drysdale (Character) $165.4M 2019
12% 71% An Acceptable Loss Rachel (Character) $30.2K 2018
79% 72% Halloween Laurie Strode (Character),
Executive Producer
$159.5M 2018
88% 79% 78/52 Self $30.3K 2017
56% 82% Spare Parts Principal (Character) $3.6M 2015
No Score Yet 95% Halloween 35th Anniversary Unknown (Character) - 2013
No Score Yet 73% The Little Engine That Could Bev (Voice) - 2011
19% 43% You Again Gail (Character) $25.7M 2010
40% 52% Beverly Hills Chihuahua Aunt Viv (Character) $94.5M 2008
5% 39% Christmas With the Kranks Nora Krank (Character) $73.7M 2004
88% 58% Freaky Friday Dr. Tess Coleman (Character) $110.2M 2003
10% 24% Halloween: Resurrection Laurie Strode (Character) $30.3M 2002
86% 54% Daddy and Them Elaine Bowen (Character) - 2001
75% 46% The Tailor of Panama Louisa Pendel (Character) $13.5M 2001
No Score Yet 43% Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys Unknown (Character) - 2001
29% 47% Drowning Mona Rona Mace (Character) $15.4M 2000
12% 23% Virus Kit Foster (Character) $14.0M 1999
56% 49% Halloween H20: 20 Years Later Laurie Strode/Keri Tate (Character) $55.0M 1998
44% 50% Homegrown Sierra Kazan (Character) $271.4K 1998
No Score Yet 69% Nicholas' Gift Maggie Green (Character) - 1998
53% 58% Fierce Creatures Willa Weston (Character) $9.2M 1997
10% 45% House Arrest Janet Beindorf (Character) $7.0M 1996
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Heidi Chronicles Heidi Holland (Character) - 1995
43% 29% Mother's Boys Judith "Jude" Madigan (Character) $531.4K 1994
70% 76% True Lies Helen Tasker (Character) $146.3M 1994
27% 46% My Girl 2 Shelly Sultenfuss (Character) $16.7M 1993
54% 53% Forever Young Claire Cooper (Character) $55.0M 1992
55% 77% My Girl Shelly DeVoto (Character) $60.2M 1991
30% 35% Queens Logic Grace (Character) $301.6K 1991
75% 36% Blue Steel Megan Turner (Character) $7.7M 1990
96% 84% A Fish Called Wanda Wanda Gershwitz (Character) $60.0M 1988
78% 74% Dominick and Eugene Jennifer Reston (Character) $843.9K 1988
43% 69% Amazing Grace and Chuck Lynn Taylor (Character) - 1987
50% 57% A Man in Love Susan Elliott (Character) $25.6K 1987
No Score Yet 50% As Summers Die Whitsey Loftin (Character) - 1986
18% 28% Perfect Jessie (Character) - 1985
66% 69% The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Sandra Banzai - Buckaroo's Mother (scenes deleted) (Character) - 1984
No Score Yet 39% Grandview, U.S.A. Michelle `'Mike'` Cody (Character) - 1984
No Score Yet 19% Love Letters Anna Winter (Character) - 1983
89% 85% Trading Places Ophelia (Character) - 1983
No Score Yet No Score Yet Money on the Side Michelle Jamison (Character) - 1982
33% 63% Halloween II Laurie Strode (Character) - 1981
92% 62% Road Games Pamela "Hitch" Rushworth (Character) - 1981
No Score Yet No Score Yet Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story Dorothy Stratten (Character) - 1981
No Score Yet 40% She's in the Army Now Pvt. Rita Jennings (Character) - 1981
75% 65% The Fog Elizabeth Solley (Character) $69.5K 1980
44% 37% Terror Train Alana Maxwell (Character) - 1980
48% 34% Prom Night Kim (Character) - 1980
96% 89% Halloween Laurie Strode (Character) $47.5M 1978
No Score Yet No Score Yet Life in the Pink Lt. Barbara Duran (Character) - 1977
No Score Yet No Score Yet Operation Petticoat Lt. Barbara Duran (Character) - 1977

TV

Credit
No Score Yet 62% The Kelly Clarkson Show Guest 2020-2021 2024
No Score Yet 14% The View Guest 2016 2018-2019 2021-2022 2024
No Score Yet 19% The Late Late Show With James Corden Guest 2015-2016 2018-2023
No Score Yet No Score Yet Great Performances Guest 2023
No Score Yet No Score Yet Variety Studio: Actors on Actors Guest 2016 2023
No Score Yet 28% The Drew Barrymore Show Guest 2022
No Score Yet 41% Jimmy Kimmel Live! Guest 2018 2022
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Graham Norton Show Guest 2018 2022
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Talk Guest 2010 2012 2015 2018-2020 2022
No Score Yet 64% Reno 911! Defunded Lt. Donna Fritzgibbons (Guest Star) 2022
No Score Yet No Score Yet Rachael Ray Guest 2008 2010 2018 2021
No Score Yet No Score Yet Joe Bob's Halloween Hoedown Unknown (Character) 2021
No Score Yet No Score Yet Home & Family Guest 2021
95% 85% New Girl Joan Day (Guest Star) 2012 2014-2015 2018
77% 76% Scream Queens Dean Cathy Munsch (Character),
Director
2015-2016
No Score Yet No Score Yet Harry Guest 2016
No Score Yet No Score Yet Tavis Smiley Guest 2014 2016
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Chew Guest 2015
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Doctors Guest 2013
No Score Yet 83% NCIS Dr. Samantha Ryan (Guest Star) 2012
No Score Yet No Score Yet One Born Every Minute Narrator 2011-2012
No Score Yet No Score Yet Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Unknown (Guest Star) 2011
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Nate Berkus Show Guest 2010
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Bonnie Hunt Show Guest 2008
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Drew Carey Show Unknown (Guest Star) 1996
No Score Yet No Score Yet Anything but Love Hannah Miller (Character),
Director
1989-1992
No Score Yet 58% Saturday Night Live Host 1980 1984
No Score Yet No Score Yet Charlie's Angels Unknown (Guest Star) 1978
No Score Yet No Score Yet Operation Petticoat Unknown (Character) 1977-1978
No Score Yet 81% Columbo Waitress (Guest Star) 1977
No Score Yet No Score Yet Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries Unknown (Guest Star) 1977