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NEWS / TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Friends, family honor actor Tony Curtis' legacy and life
ASSOCIATED PREC
LAS VEGAS — Actor Tony Curtis was buried Monday with a melange of his favorite possessions — a Stetson hat, an Armiani scarf, driving gloves, an iPhone and a copy of his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," a book that inspired his celebrity name and launched a robust film career that spanned decades and genres.
cades and gener-
ated actor who starred in such films as "The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot" died Wednesday at his home in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, after suffering cardiac arrest.
More than 400 celebrities, fans, friends and family members gathered to say goodbye at a public funeral service Monday in Las Vegas honoring Curtis' life.
honoring carers.
The funeral was to be followed by the burial and then a reception for 200 invited guests at the Luxor hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
A montage of Curtis' famous film roles opened the sometimes solemn, sometimes mirtful farewell service attended by California
Gow. Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor Jamie Lee Curtis, porn star Ron Jeremy and Vera Goulet, widow of Broadway singer Robert Goulet. The crowd laughed as an animated Curtis appeared
three black-and-white drawings by Curtis stood on easels while a photo of the young, dark-haired actor was projected on a screen. The coffin was draped with an American
"All of us got something from him. I, of course, got his desperate need for attention."
flag.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
Tony Curtis'daughter and actress
Curtis appears in a scene from the television series "The Flintstones" and sparred with actor Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus."
actor Rik Henkel
Friends and fans lined up outside Palm Mortuary & Cemetery well before the funeral, with more than a dozen photographers and television journalists watching the scene. Inside, seven colorful paintings and
Jamie Lee Curtis, Curtis' daughter from his first marriage with "Psycho" actress Janet Leigh, teared up as she described a man who was, she said, "a little mushagua" — but always full
Yiddish for crazy -but always full of life.
"All of us got something from him. I, of course, got his desperate need for attention," she joked.
The father and daughter were estranged for a long period but eventually reconciled. Curtis took pride in his daughter's on-screen credits
that include "Perfect," "Halloween," "True Lies" and new comedy "You Again"
Rabbi Mel Hecht called Schwarzenegger to the front of the room for an impromptu farewell. The Austrian native recalled Curtis as a generous mentor who encouraged his budding Hollywood career when others told him his foreign accent and name were too much of a handicap.
Curtis, whose native Bronx accent initially earned him similar criticism, could sympathize.
"You are going to make it." Schwarzenegger recalled Curtis telling him. "Don't pay any attention to those guys. I heard the same thing when I came here."
thing when I came home.
Schwarzenegger said Curtis refused to feel old.
fused to feel out.
"I mean, who has the guts to take off their clothes at the age of 80?" Schwarzenegger said, recalling Curtis naked photo shoot in Vanity Fair in 2005.
Curtis' sixth wife, Jill Curtis, eulogized her husband of 12 years. She recalled how he easily dismissed their 45-year age difference when friends asked if he was worried about keeping up with a younger wife.
"If she dies, she dies," she said her husband would deadpan in reply.
hers husband. She urged family and friends to dwell not on his death, but on his extraordinary life.
"He was, as one fan put it, a once-in-a-lifetime man," she said.
Hecht led the room in a series of Jewish prayers.
"He is one of those greats of our culture and our society who you always knew, regardless of what character he was playing, that he was Tony Curtis." Hecht said.
Known for his transformation from a pigeonholed pretty boy in the late 1940s and early '50s to a serious actor, Curtis reshaped himself over decades of work and made himself impossible to typecast. The
metamorphosis was completed in 1957's "Sweet Smell of Success," in which he played a sleazy press agent manipulated by a ruthless newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster).
In person, Curtis loved giving friends and fans extra touches that made their face-to-face moments more memorable, longtime friend and palbearer Gene Kilroy told The Associated Press.
the Association he had a certain way of making everybody feel like they were Spartacus, Kilroy said.
Spartacus, Rexy Heywood
Kilroy, an executive at Luxor, said
billionaire investor Kirk Kerkoriian, actor Kirk Douglas and singer Phyllis McGuire were among seven honorary pall bearers.
As the funeral ended Monday, a second film reel flashed before the crowd.
crowd.
The montage finished with the words "The End" cast on an image of Curtis shaking his head, as if he were disputing his own epitogue.
ODD NEWS
Injured deer makes a crash entrance
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — A deer that crashed through a window and romped around a house in East Tennessee left a family with thousands of dollars in damages and a mess that included blood stains from the homeowner shooting the animal.
David and Cheri Ellis told the Cleveland Daily Banner that their daughters had gone upstairs to their bedroom when a six-point buck jumped through a window Wednesday night at the house they are remodeling in north Bradley County.
David Ellis said he saw the deer slide into a drum set and continue a destructive rampage that included ramming its antlers through walls and scattering furnishings.
No one was hurt but deputies arrived to find the deer dying.
Driver loses control; wreck kills student
The bus carrying 14 high school students was traveling south on Highway 113 between Temple and Carrollton, some 50 miles west of Atlanta, about 2 p.m. when it left the roadway and crashed into a ditch, said Georgia State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright.
CARROLLTON, Ga. — The driver of a school bus lost control along a rural northern Georgia highway and overturned Monday, killing a 17-year-old student and sending several others to the hospital, authorities said.
Authorities said James Rashawn Walker of Temple was pronounced dead at the scene. The bus was driven by Kenneth Ross Herringdine, 59, of Roopville, who Carroll County Schools Superintendent Scott Coward said was a trainee.
Associated Press
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CRIME
Former federal judge charged with narcotics and gun possession
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — A veteran federal judge faces drug and firearms charges after an exotic dancer at an Atlanta strip club told authorities he used cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs with her.
Senior U.S. District Judge Jack T. Camp was arrested Friday minutes after he handed an undercover law enforcement agent $160
all recused themselves, so Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody of Alabama was brought in to hear the case. Federal prosecutors from Washington also flew in to handle the government's arguments.
for cocaine and Roxycodone, a narcotic pain medication, that he intended to use with the exotic dancer, authorities said in a court document released Monday. They
The charges against Camp were laid out in a shocking eight-page affidavit released after the emergency hearing was finished.
Camp met the confidential informant, who recently began coop-
"This is really a case between Judge Camp and his wife."
WILLIAM MORRISON Judge Jack Camp's attorney
satd they also found two firearms in the front seat of his vehicle.
Camp, 67, who has presided over some high profile cases, was released Monday on a $50,000 bond. His attorney, William Morrison, said after a brief hearing that the judge intends to plead not guilty. Morrison said Camp would probably take a leave of absence and would not preside over any more cases until the charges are resolved.
"This is really a case between Judge Camp and his wife," said Morrison. "It's not about Judge Camp being a judge. It's about him being a husband."
Camp's arrest set up an unusual domino effect in the federal courthouse. The district's federal judges
erating with the FBI, at the Goldrush Showbar in Atlanta in early 2010 and he soon began paying her for sex and buying cocaine from her at $40 to $50 a pop, according to the
In June 2010, Camp followed the informant to a drug dealer in Marietta to buy Roxycodone. He was also recorded in a wiredtapped telephone call on Sept. 28 talking with her about getting together over the weekend to split more pills and cocaine with her, according to the charges.
records.
he showed up at a Publix parking lot in northeast Atlanta around 7:15 p.m. Friday to meet with the an undercover agent posing as the dealer. When the informant told her she was worried about his safety, the judge told her, "I not only have my little pistol, I've got my big pistol so, uh, we'll take care of any problems that come up" according to the affidavit.
He handed over $160 in cash to pay for the drugs around 7:35 p.m. Ten minutes later, authorities arrested the judge and seized the two guns from the front seat of his vehicle.
vehicle The judge faces four drug-related charges and one count of possessing firearms while illegally using drugs.
Known for wearing suspenders around the courtroom, he handled hundreds of cases before taking senior status in 2008.
In 2004, he sentenced two men accused of killing DeKalb County. Sheriff Derwin Brown to life in prison without parole. He also handled litigation by voting rights groups who sought to block Georgia from asking new voters to prove their identities and citizenship before casting their ballots.
ship before coming. The judge also handled several high-profile drug cases, including the May 2009 sentencing on prescription-related charges of the personal doctor to a professional wrestler who killed himself, his wife and their 7-year-old son.
Camp, wearing a pintripe suit, said little during the brief hearing. Monday but turned to flash a smile at his family after he walked in.
"Judge Camp's wife is an extraordinarily strong woman and she's going to stand by her husband," said Morrison.
ODD NEWS
west of Detroit
Authorities said the man told a records clerk in the building about his warrant. He walked away as she looked up the paperwork, then returned naked.
MONROE, Mich. — A 43-year-old man bared more than the truth while trying to surrender on an outstanding warrant in Michigan. The Monroe Evening News reported that the man was arrested after taking off all his clothing Sunday afternoon in the lobby of the Monroe County sheriff's office, about 35 miles south-
Naked man arrives to turn himself in
By the time Monroe city police arrived, the man had his clothing back on. He was taken to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Associated Press
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