Kelly Lee Curtis Dies at 69 in Bellevue, Idaho
Kelly Lee Curtis died Saturday morning at her home in Bellevue, Idaho, at 69. Jamie Lee Curtis announced the death and called her sister “my first friend and lifelong confidant.”
Jamie Lee Curtis Posts Tribute
“She was my first friend and lifelong confidant,” Jamie Lee Curtis wrote after the death. She also described Kelly as “jaw droppingly beautiful, and a talented actress,” adding that she “played a mean game of hearts, collected turtles, loved her family, nature, music, thrifting, travel, Facebook, and Pokémon Go.”
Kelly Curtis worked across film, television, stage, and documentary production. Her credits ranged from a small role in Trading Places in 1983 to a recurring part as Lieutenant Carolyn Plummer on the first season of The Sentinel from 1996 to 1999, plus work on The Equalizer, Hunter, Silk Stalkings, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Judging Amy.
From Skidmore To Screen
Born in Santa Monica on June 17, 1956, Curtis graduated from Skidmore College in 1972 with a degree in business before studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and joining The Actors Studio. She first appeared onscreen in The Vikings in 1958, later starred in Magic Sticks in 1987 and The Devil’s Daughter in 1991, and directed the 2018 documentary Marby Jets Are Go.
Her career also included stage work in Say Goodnight, Gracie in 1982 and assistant work for Jamie Lee Curtis on Freaky Friday, Christmas With the Kranks, and You Again. The family connection gave her filmography extra visibility, but her credits show a working actor who moved between jobs rather than a single defining role.
John Marsh And The Family
Survivors include her second husband, John Marsh, a filmmaker, producer, and professor emeritus at the College of Southern Nevada. Kelly and Tony Curtis also helped raise money through the Emanuel Foundation to refurbish and restore the historic Dohany Street Synagogue in Budapest.
Jamie Lee Curtis wrote that her sister was “proud of her Danish roots and Hungarian Jewish ancestry and was a devoted American patriot,” then closed her tribute with “In nature. At peace.” That leaves the industry with a plain measure of her legacy: a 69-year-old performer whose credits reached from early screen work to late-career documentary direction, and whose death now closes a long, varied career.
