Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis — actor with roots in the Rus/Aust-Hun

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz) was an American actor born in New York to parents who had emigrated from Hungary (in the Russian Empire sphere) and became one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1950s-60s. Some Like It Hot, Spartacus, The Defiant Ones, and Sweet Smell of Success define a remarkable career.

Tracing the roots — Mátészalka (Region)

Born in the Bronx in 1925 to Emanuel Schwartz and Helen Klein, both Hungarian Jewish immigrants whose families came from communities in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empire borderlands, Curtis grew up in poverty speaking Hungarian at home. His rise from Bronx tenements to Hollywood stardom is the immigrant American dream in its purest form.

A career defined by ambition