Kelly Curtis, actress and sister of Jamie Lee Curtis, dies at 69

Key points

• Kelly Curtis died Saturday, May 30, at 69.

• The actress’ sister, Jamie Lee Curtis, announced the news on social media.

• Curtis, who starred in projects like Trading Places and The Renegades, was the eldest daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.

Kelly Curtis, the actress and eldest daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, has died. She was 69.

The actress’ sister, Jamie Lee Curtis, announced that her sibling died at her home on Saturday. She did not provide a cause of death.

“A warm aloha to my older sister, Kelly Lee Curtis,” the Halloween star wrote on Instagram. “She passed away this morning. In her home. In nature. At peace.”

The Freaky Friday actress shared fond memories of her sister. “She was my first friend and lifelong confidant,” she wrote. “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.”

She added, “She 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.”

The Everything Everywhere All at Once actress noted that her sister “always signed off any message or fare-thee-well with a Hungarian blessing… Isten Veled, God is with you.”

She concluded her remarks with that same phrase: “Isten veled to my sister of the sun and the moon, my Tai. I’ll see you on down the line.”

Born in Santa Monica in 1956, Kelly Curtis made her screen debut as a baby in 1958’s The Vikings, which starred both of her parents. She did not return to screen acting for 25 years, instead studying business at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Curtis also studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. She relaunched her screen career in 1983 when she appeared alongside her sister in Trading Places and acted opposite Patrick Swayze in an episode of the short-lived ABC action show The Renegades that same year.

In 1987, the actress appeared in the George Kranz comedy Magic Sticks as well as Checkpoint, a politically charged drama from Iranian actor and filmmaker Parviz Sayyad. She also acted in two episodes of The Equalizer and a Kojak TV movie in the late ’80s.

Curtis acted in numerous projects throughout the 1990s, including an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and seven episodes of the UPN action series The Sentinel. She headlined the 1991 film The Devil’s Daughter, which was co-written and produced by legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento, and also appeared on shows like Silk Stalkings, LateLine, and Hunter.

Curtis’ last screen-acting credit came in a 1999 episode of Judging Amy. She then worked as an assistant to her sister Jamie on three films: 2003’s Freaky Friday, 2004’s Christmas With the Kranks, and 2010’s You Again.

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The actress also directed a handful of projects, including the 2018 documentary Marby Jets Are Go, which followed an Australian high school track team, as well as The Night She Came Home, an hourlong documentary featured on the Halloween DVD that chronicled Jamie’s appearance at a horror convention in Indianapolis.

Curtis is survived by her husband, producer Scott Morfee, whom she married in 1989, as well as her half-siblings, Alexandra, Allegra, Ben, and Nicholas.

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