Curtis' wife, Jill Curtis, planned to eulogize her husband of 16 years Monday in Las Vegas, longtime friend and pallbearer Gene Kilroy said. The 85-year-old Oscar-nominated actor who starred in such films as "The Defiant Ones," "Spartacus" and "Some Like It Hot" died Wednesday at his home in Henderson after suffering cardiac arrest.
Known for shifting from a pigeonholed pretty boy in the late 1940s and early 1950s to a serious actor, Curtis reshaped himself over decades of work and make himself impossible to typecast. The transformation was completed in 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," in which he played a sleazy press agent who is manipulated by a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster).
In person, Kilroy said, Curtis loved giving friends and fans extra touches that made their face-to-face moments more memorable. «He had a certain way of making everybody feel like they were Spartacus," Kilroy said.
An hourlong funeral is to be followed by burial and then a reception for 200 invited guests at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
Kilroy, an executive at the casino, said billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire are among seven honorary pallbearers.
