Tony Curtis, 1925-2010

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Tony Curtis, 1925-2010

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Rest in Peace, Tony Curtis. Not only a Hollywood icon, a former WW 2 Navy sailor.

Tony Curtis passed away today at age 85. He was always a good one, enjoyable to watch in those movies back in the late 50s like “Some Like It Hot“, as the Great Leslie in “The Great Race” and, of course “Operation Petticoat”, the yarn of the US Navy submarine USS Sea Tiger and its mad cap adventures in the opening days of WW2 – highlighted by its ending up being painted pink..

In addition to being a pretty good actor (Academy Award nomination in 1958 for The Defiant Ones), Curtis was also a Navy man, serving aboard USS Proteus, a submarine tender, during WW2 and watched the surrender of Japan from his ship about a mile away.

Rest your oar, sailor. Thanks for your service and all that you did to make us smile.

Some photos of the submarine used in Operation Petticoat, USS Balao, are over on my Instapinch blog. The sail of the Balao is now on display on the Washington Navy Yard - painted in Navy gray, unfortunately.

Posted by Pinch on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

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