Curtis’ funeral: Admiration and affection

Few people could depart this world with the star-power panache of Tony Curtis.

Smiling down upon his audience from a video monitor as the impossibly handsome movie god he was and described as a fearless 80-year-old nude magazine model in rather bawdy terms -- by the governor of California, no less -- the late actor, artist and raconteur was bid farewell Monday at a memorial service that was, by turns, warm, funny, poignant and affectionate.

An entertaining send-off featuring a range of emotions that would make an actor proud.

An overflow crowd of more than 400 family, friends and perfect strangers who admired him squeezed into a Palm Mortuary chapel Monday morning to pay their last respects to the screen legend, who had made Henderson his home and Las Vegas his playground.

Curtis died Wednesday night at age 85, after suffering cardiac arrest at his home. Burial and an invitation-only reception at Luxor followed the memorial, attended by Curtis' children and grandchildren and celebrity pals including impressionist Rich Little, comic Steve Rossi, Robert Goulet's widow, Vera, and Luxor casino executive Gene Kilroy, who served as a pallbearer, with the Review-Journal's Norm Clarke.

Once family and friends were seated for the memorial, the doors were opened to the public, who streamed inside to standing-room-only capacity and snapped photos throughout the service.

A Navy honor guard accompanied the American flag-draped coffin into the chapel. Curtis joined the Navy when he was 17. Paintings by Curtis bookended the podium, and a director's chair was placed near the casket.

Rabbi Mel Hecht, founding rabbi of Temple Beth Am, led the service, which was peppered with Hebrew prayers and the rabbi's cheerful one-liners, including referring to Curtis as having been "85 going on 21."

Curtis' widow, Jill VandenBerg Curtis; his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis; and visiting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed the audience. And audience, as in movie audience, was the right term, as lights dimmed in the chapel as if in a theater for a highlight reel of Curtis' storied career, from the depths ("Son of Ali Baba") to the heights ("Some Like It Hot") to the cartoonishly hilarious (voicing "Stony Curtis" in a "Flintstones" episode, which brought a roar of laughter from the crowd).

Recalling meeting Curtis at a 1976 fundraising dinner, Schwarzenegger said that when he was having trouble gaining traction in his career as people told him he would never make it in Hollywood, Curtis encouraged him: "They're all full of crap. You're gonna make it."

The governor, noting that actors are hesitant to work with first-time directors, remembered that Curtis immediately agreed to be in his directorial debut, a 1992 TV movie version of "Christmas in Connecticut," and always called with congratulations after one of his films was released.

"He said no matter who you are or who you meet, you help that person. That's the way he was."

The California governor broke up the crowd, mentioning how Curtis had the courage to pose nude for Vanity Fair magazine to celebrate his 80th birthday. "Who has the guts to have a naked photo taken at age 80 standing at the swimming pool naked?" he said. "Normally men have a fig leaf to cover their private parts, but Tony's private parts were so big he had two dogs covering them!"

Pronouncing both Schwarzenegger and her father tough acts to follow, Jamie Lee Curtis -- who co-starred with Schwarzenegger in "True Lies" -- took the podium wearing sunglasses and amused the congregation imitating her dad's unique Bronx rumble of a voice.

"Last night, the children and grandchildren of Tony arrived, and we sat together and we all did our imitations of Tony," she said, prompting chuckles when she said of her father: "He was life. He was a little meshuggeneh (Yiddish for "crazy"), but he was life."

She said that "we walk the walk led by him. All of us have something of Tony -- for me it's my desperate need for attention."

Near the end of her eulogy, after reciting a poem, she choked up, telling the crowd that when they leave, "just take love with you on behalf of my dad."

As the final speaker, VandenBerg-Curtis teared up as she began her eulogy. Saying her husband "bridged the gap between old Hollywood and new Hollywood," she also quoted him to the delight of the audience, mentioning that when he was asked if it were dangerous to marry a much younger woman such as her, he quipped: "Well, if she dies, she dies."

She pointed out how she encouraged a love of animals in Curtis, from their Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary to caring for "a paralyzed chicken named Ernesto," and the actor's widow enumerated the long list of items Curtis had been buried with, including the following:

The white shorts, white sweater, Armani scarf and white Stetson he preferred wearing around town; his favored driving gloves; a yarmulke from a Hungarian synagogue; a DVD of his films; a poem he wrote to his dog, Bronx; paintbrushes; a fencing saber; Percocet pills; and seven packs of Splenda -- exactly the number he used for his sweet tooth.

"Thank you, sweetheart," his widow said, "for taking a San Diego horse girl on the ride of a lifetime."

Reminding the audience that Tony Curtis had sometimes expressed frustration at not being recognized more by his peers for his acting, Rabbi Hecht said he had something "no Oscar could convey: He was a star of the people."

Those admirers showed up in droves to say goodbye.

"He was a down-to-earth person and really humble," said Emily S. Arena. "He lived a full life. We wanted to come out and pay our respects."

Anne Dunham said she met the actor at appearances around town. "I'd go wherever he was at," she said. "We would talk and shake hands. He remembered his fans. He was a great person."

Though famous for both his acting and, in his later years, his artwork, fewer people knew of his poetry. But attendees were handed programs that, through one of his compositions, gave Tony Curtis the last word:

"Crimson shadows

"Dark unyielding

"Secrets lost

"Thoughts and words

"Disappearing in the folds of black

"Unforgiving night

"Then the glimmer of dawn

"Cracks the black

"Turning everything into gray, then white

"The light has come at last."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.