| Real Name: | Jamie Lee Curtis |
| Birthday: | November 22, 1958 |
| Net Worth: | $70 million |
| Height: | 170 cm |
| Occupation: | American Actress, Author, Activist |
Ask Jamie Lee Curtis whether she watches horror movies, and she will say NO. The famous actress cannot understand how people watch movies that scare them. Well, that is some nice dose of irony. Jamie made her fortune thanks to the mega-popular Halloween movie franchise.
Curtis is an American actress, producer, and author. As of June 2020, Jamie Lee Curtis wealth is over $60 million.
She started her career as a young actress in the Halloween movie in 1978. Since then, she portrayed different characters in drama, thriller, comedy, and horror movies. She is also a successful author with several books. Let’s take a look at her career path
Career Summary
Jamie had her breakthrough role and film debut in the same movie. In the 1978 horror movie Halloween, she portrayed Laurie Strode. The movie earned instant success and got recognized as the highest-grossing independent movie of its time. She portrayed several other characters in horror movies, earning the title “Scream Queen”.
After Halloween, she got cast in The Fog, a movie by Halloween director John Carpenter. Again, she played in a horror movie but this time with mixed reviews. She followed that with movies like Prom Night, a low-budget Canadian slasher movie. Fun fact: This movie earned her a Genie Award nomination for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress.
In many of the horror movies, Curtis had a similar function. She played the main character whose friends get killed and is the only protagonist to survive. She portrayed Laurie Strode five times in Halloween II, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Halloween: Resurrection, and Halloween, a remake of the movie in 2018.
Other movie roles include My Girl, My Girl 2, Freaky Friday, You Again, Perfect, Christmas with the Kranks, Forever Young, Virus, and more. In October 2006, she retired from acting to focus on her family. But in June 2007 she returned to the Disney live-action animated movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
She then reprised her leading role of Laurie Strode in the sequel Halloween in 2018. The movie debuted with $76.2 million earnings, making it the second-best ever opening weekend of October. It is also the best opening performance for the Halloween franchise.
Jamie Lee Curtis also has a successful television career. She made her debut in 1977 in an episode of the drama Quincy, M.E.
And from there, she had a few small roles in Charlie’s Angels, Columbo, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and more.
But her biggest television role came in the comedy-drama show New Girl. There, she played the mother of lead character Jessica Day, played by Zooey Deschanel. She also appeared in five episodes of the police drama series NCIS in 2012.
During her entire movie and television career, Jamie wrote books. She worked with illustrator Laura Cornell to write many children’s books. HarperCollins published her books. Curtis wrote close to 20 books. Her best is Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods that Make My Day. Published in 1998, the book listed on the New York Times best-seller list for 10 weeks.
Jamie Lee Curtis’s fortune is more than $60 million. A small part of that is thanks to her blogging. She is a regular blogger for The Huffington Post online newspaper. In her columns, Jamie tells young readers about her life as an actor, photographer, and closet organizer.
Net Worth, Earnings and Income
Jamie Lee Curtis’s biggest success is the Halloween franchise. This might come as a surprise, but the first Halloween paid her only $8,000. At the time, she was a 19-year old young actress. She got paid $2,000 per week, and since the filming took four weeks, she made $8,000.
At the same time, she got $200 to find her wardrobe. So, she had to go to the store and look for clothes for the movie. The movie with a budget of $300,000, made more than $47 million at the US Box Office. In today’s money, that would be more than $150 million.
In total, Jamie’s movies earned more than $759 million with her as a supporting actress. Her leading roles grossed a total of $359 million worldwide.
Fun fact: her most successful box office movie is True Lies. Released in 1994, the movie earned more than $365 million worldwide. Knives Out, another original movie, grossed $307 million. Her Halloween remake in 2018 is third on the list with $255 million.
Awards and Achievements
Jamie Lee Curtis is an outstanding and versatile actress. She can adapt to different genres. So far, she won a couple of awards, including a Golden Globe and People’s Choice Award.
In total, Jamie has 7 Golden Globe Award Nominations. She won the award in 1995 for True Lies and in 1990 for Anything but Love.
She also got nominated by Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries in 1998 for Nicholas’ Gift. Trading Places and A Fish Called Wanda earned her BAFTA Awards nomination.
Personal Life
Philanthropy is the signature feature of her personal life. Starting from 1990, Jamie and her father Tony, took a renewed interest in their Hungarian Jewish heritage. As a result, they helped finance and rebuild the Great Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary.
Today, she also speaks openly about her drug and alcohol addiction and struggles. She struggled with opiates after having plastic surgery. She says “I was wildly controlled drug addict and alcoholic”. But she never did alcohol or drugs while working, she did it after work. In 2003, Jamie was a guest of honor at the 11th annual gala and fundraiser for Women in Recovery.
Curtis also supports charities like Children Affected by AIDS Foundation.
Curtis got married to Christopher Guest in 1984. The young actress saw a picture of him from the movie “This Is Spinal Tap” and wanted to marry him. They got married five months later. They adopted two children. She is the godmother of Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
When her father-in-law died in April 1996, her husband got the title 5th Baron Haden-Guest. That made her a baroness.
Jamie Lee Curtis is also a fan of the MMORPG game World of Warcraft. She regularly attends Comic-Con and Blizzon incognito. One time, she helped her son enter a cosplay contest as Kael’thas Sunstrider.
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