Full Name Harry Ueberroth Role Film actor Name Alan Curtis | Years active 1936-1951 Occupation Film actor | |
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Born July 24, 1909 ( 1909-07-24 ) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Cause of death complication of surgery Resting place Memorial Park Cemetery and Crematorium, Skokie, Illinois Died February 2, 1953, New York City, New York, United States Spouse Betty Dodero (m. 1950–1951), Ilona Massey (m. 1941–1942), Priscilla Lawson (m. 1937–1940) Movies High Sierra, Hitler's Madman, Mannequin, Gung Ho!, Renegade Girl Similar People Ilona Massey, Robert Siodmak, Priscilla Lawson, Jean Yarbrough, Ray Enright | ||
Alan Curtis (July 24, 1909 – February 2, 1953) was an American film actor who appeared in over 50 films.
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Early life and career
Born Harry Ueberroth or Harold Neberroth in Chicago, he began his career as a model before becoming an actor, appearing in local newspaper ads. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood. He began appearing in films in the late 1930s (including a Technicolor appearance in the Alice Faye-Don Ameche film Hollywood Cavalcade and a memorable role in High Sierra (1941). He is probably best known as one of the romantic leads in Abbott and Costello's first hit film Buck Privates.
His chance for leading-man stardom came when he replaced the unwilling John Garfield in the 1943 production Flesh and Fantasy. Curtis played a ruthless killer opposite Gloria Jean. However, the studio cut their performances from the final film version. The footage was later expanded into a B-picture melodrama Destiny. The film failed to establish Curtis as a major-name star, but it did typecast him in hardbitten roles, like the man framed for murder in Phantom Lady (1944) and the detective Philo Vance. Curtis starred in over two dozen movies and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Personal life
Alan Curtis was married four times, including to actresses Priscilla Lawson and Ilona Massey.
Death
Curtis had a routine kidney operation on January 28, 1953, at Saint Clare's Hospital in New York City. Several hours after the surgery, as he sipped some tea, he "died" for four minutes when his heart failed. He was revived and seemed to be improving but died five days later, aged 43. He is buried in the Ueberroth family plot in Evanston, Illinois.