Jamie Lee Curtis is a famous actress whose career spans five decades, but has she ever managed to bag an Oscar?
Despite her hugely successful career, having starred in several popular movies and won awards from Golden Globes to BAFTAS, Jamie Lee Curtis has never received an Oscar.
Read more about Jamie Lee Curtis’ life and career below, including her history with the Academy Awards.
Who is Jamie Lee Curtis?
Jamie Lee Curtis has entertainment in her blood as the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, both successful actors.
Tony Curtis was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the movie ‘The Defiant Ones’, which was released in 1958. Janet Leigh appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock classic movie ‘Psycho’, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for best actress in a supporting role.
Curtis is under no illusion about how fortunate she is. She accepts that her circumstances have benefited her career.
“It’s important for me, given that I’m this bougie princess from Los Angeles—even if I claim I worked hard, I’ve never really worked hard a day in my life,” she told The New Yorker.
Academically, she did not excel, a weakness that she compensated for with her personality. She did not foresee a career in acting and thought perhaps she would become a police officer.
She attended college for a single year, and claims this institution, which her mother also attended, was the only college that would accept her given her low grades. “It was the only school that took me with my D average plus 840 combined SAT.”
During the Christmas break from college, she met a talent manager by chance who suggested that she audition for the role of Nancy Drew. She didn’t manage to get cast on this occasion, but it marked the beginning of her acting career.
The talent manager suggested that she persist with acting, and after realizing she could get college credits for attending a drama class for a month, Curtis decided to persevere.
“So, during that month, I ended up auditioning a hundred times for things and not getting much,” she recalls.
Career in Film
Curtis’ breakout role came in the 1978 horror movie ‘Halloween’. The movie was hugely successful, making $47 million in box office sales.
Accounting for inflation, the sales would be worth more than three times that amount today.
She admits that her famous parents may have helped her to get the role. “I’m sure the fact that I was Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis’s daughter, and that my mother had been in “Psycho”—if you’re going to choose between this one and this one, choose the one whose mother was in “Psycho,” because it will get some press for you.”
Her other notable movies include the 1988 hit ‘A Fish Called Wanda’, ‘Blue Steel’, released in 1990, and the 2003 movie ‘Freaky Friday’.
Aside from film, she has also developed a career in writing. She is the author of multiple children’s books and contributes as a writer for the Huffington Post.
Oscars History
The Oscar database shows that Jamie Lee Curtis has not been recognized with the prestigious award.
She has, however, been involved in the awards for several years. In 1995, she presented the scientific and technical award, honoring innovative individuals in the sci-tech community.
In 2019, the Academy Awards proposed changes to the show in order to cut the length of the event, including announcing some winners during TV commercial breaks. The move was met with criticism, with Curtis becoming a vocal defender of the awards.
“Obviously they made a couple of missteps but they’ve made some huge strides in diversity and inclusivity, so you have to remember it’s a moving machine, it’s not something rigid…They’re trying some new things. It didn’t go well, they’re pulling it back, and they’ll figure it out,” she said at the time.