Hollywood Film Star Tony Curtis dies at 85

Hollywood star Tony Curtis has died of a cardiac arrest at his US home in Nevada aged 85.




The Oscar-nominated actor, who starred in Some Like it Hot opposite Marilyn Monroe, passed away peacefully in bed, a family spokesman said.



The star received an Oscar nod in 1959 for The Defiant Ones, in which he starred with Sidney Poitier.




His career spanned six decades and he made more than 120 films including Trapeze, Spartacus and
The Vikings.


Clark County coroner Mike Murphy told the Associated Press that the actor died at 2125 local time on Wednesday.



Born Bernard Schwartz on 3 June 1925 in New York, the actor served in World War II before taking on the name Tony Curtis when he began his film career in 1949.



'A fine actor'



He began his career as a heart-throb, but became a respected actor after starring in more substantial roles, starting in 1957 with harrowing showbusiness tale Sweet Smell of Success.

Tony Curtis Jerry Lewis - Boeing Boeing (1965)

He went on to appear in The Defiant Ones as an escaped racist convict handcuffed to a black escapee.





Tony Curtis was married to actress Janet Leigh, with whom he had actress daughter Jamie Lee Curtis But he became best known for his role in Billy Wilder's acclaimed comedy Some Like It Hot, where he donned women's clothing.



After his star faded in the late 1960s, Curtis shifted to lesser roles and fell into drug and alcohol addiction.



In the 1970s he turned to television, starring in a number of TV series including The Persuaders! opposite Sir Roger Moore, and Michael Mann's Vegas.

Tony Curtis and Sir Roger Moore are The Persuaders

Sir Roger led the tributes to the actor, calling him "a fine actor".



"We had a lot of laughs together for about 15 months, working together every day. He was great fun to work with, a great sense of humour and wonderful ad libs. We had the best of times."



'Wonderfully indiscreet'



Sir Michael Parkinson, who interviewed Curtis several times, said his performance in Some Like It Hot would live forever.



"Some Like It Hot is one of the greatest comedies of all time," he said.



"Billy Wilder, did not suffer fools so for Tony Curtis to work with him and make that film shows just how good he was. He was an extraordinary man.



"Hollywood tried to make him into a sex symbol in the 1950s and 1960s but he was his own man. He was a great chatshow guest and was wonderfully indiscreet but he was very bright and did not take himself too seriously," he added.



After recovering from addiction in the early 1980s, he later became a painter whose canvasses sold for as much as $20,000 (£12,600).



The actor was married six times, including to Psycho star Janet Leigh, with whom he had two children including daughter and actress Jamie Lee Curtis.



He is survived by his wife, Jill Vandenberg Curtis, and six children

Tony Curtis Interview

Batmobile for £100,000 ( $149,999 )

The original Batmobile from the 1960s TV series starring Adam West is still the ultimate screen car for an entire generation of caped crusader fans. Now anybody with a spare $149,999 (£95,000) can buy one.

American company Fiberglass Freaks is producing officially licensed, road-legal 1966 Batmobiles. And yes, the flamethrower works.



Each car takes six months to build and features an array of working gadgets, including a red flashing beacon, a radar screen called 'Detect-a-scope', a retractable, gold-coloured 'Batbeam' and a dashboard DVD player.

The flamethrower in the original Batmobile was the result of the car's turbine engine, but the replica uses a propane tank - mounted in the boot - to create the same effect.




The astonishing car is the brainchild of Fiberglass Freaks founder Mark Racop. He decided he wanted to build a Batmobile at two years old.

"I fell in love the show, fell in love with the action, the color, the music - everything. But the best feature was the Batmobile, speeding out of the Batcave," he said.



The Lincoln Futura on which the Batmobile is based was never actually put into production, but after finding a body shell on eBay in 2004, Racop had the basis of his replica.

The chassis and running gear come from a Lincoln Town Car, onto which a fibreglass body is placed. The licence from D.C. Comics limits the company to making just eight per year, which renders it one of the world's most exclusive production cars.



Racop says that buyers are generally in their forties and fifties and fans of the original show - some drive their cars every day. "Wealth seems to breed that eccentricity. This was their childhood dream car, just as it was for me," he commented.

Mark Nichol

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Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool

Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool 55 STOREYS above ground opens
in Singapore

If you fancy a dip in this pool, you'll need a head for heights -

it's 55 storeys up. But swimming to the edge won't be quite as

risky as it looks. While the water in the infinity pool seems to end

in a sheer drop, it actually spills into a catchment area

where it is pumped back into the main pool. At three times the

length of an Olympic pool and 650ft up, it is the largest outdoor

pool in the world at that height.

It features in the impressive, boat-shaped 'SkyPark' perched atop

the three towers that make up the world's most expensive hotel,

the £4billion Marina Bay Sands development in Singapore .

Don't look down: A guest swims in the infinity pool of the Skypark that tops the Marina Bay Sands hotel towers - 55 storeys over the city of Singapore yesterday

To infinity... and beyond! The pool stretches 150 metres, three times the length of an Olympic swimming pool

The view over the side: An artist's impression shows the Skypark that tops the Marina Bay Sands hotel towers, including the infinity pool

 
The hotel, which has 2,560 rooms costing from £350 a night, was officially opened yesterday with a concert by Diana Ross.

The Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi , estimated to have cost £2billion when it opened in 2004, was previously the world's most expensive hotel.

But with its indoor canal, opulent art, casino, outdoor plaza, convention centre, theatre, crystal pavilion and museum shaped like a lotus flower, the Marina Bay Sands has taken its crown.



The infinity pool on the roof is in the 'SkyPark' which spans the three towers of the hotel.


The platform itself is longer than the Eiffel tower laid down and is one of the largest of its kind in the world.


Infinity pools give the effect that the water extends to the horizon. In reality, the water spills over the edge into a catchment below, and is then pumped back into the pool. The pools have two circulation systems. The first functions like that of a regular pool, filtering and heating the water in the main pool. The second filters the water in the catch basin and returns it to the upper pool.
 

The resort from across the bay. The three towers were based on a deck of cards, according to designer Moshe Safdie

A skydiver parachutes pass the Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Sands casino resort as part of the venue's opening celebrations yesterday

Extreme: Left, relay teams scale one of the towers in a race commemorating the opening yesterday. Right, a newly-wed couple enjoy a canal ride inside the resort's shopping centre

TheMarina Sands resort was designed by architect Moshe Safdie who based it on a deck of cards.Inside shoppers can ride along an indoor canal in Sampan boats styled on traditional Chinese vessels from the 17th century.

The owners have also commissioned five well-known artists to create works of art to 'integrate' with the buildings. Among these is a 40m-long Antony Gormley sculpture made from 16,100 steel rods. The whole thing weighs 14.8 tons and it took 60 people to assemble it in the hotel.

Artist Chongbin Zheng created Rising Forest which is 83 three metre high pots with trees in them. The pots were so big the artist had to build a customised kiln the size of a small building to make them in.Last night, the world's most expensive hotel was given a launch party befitting it.

Singing legend Diana Ross performed for 2,500 VIPs in the resort's Grand Ballroom and pop singer Kelly Rowland headlined an outdoor concert.
 

Money-maker: Left, the entrance to the casino, which costs nearly £50 to get in and is attracting 25,000 visitors each day. Right, a man looks through a steel web art structure in one of the towers

 

Just enjoying the sun: Models pose in the pool for journalists at the grand opening yesterday

The opening celebrations also featured a death-defying relay. Seven teams of three participants each scaled the three towers before sprinting across the 340-metre long Sands SkyPark, where the infinity pool is located, to the finish line. The resort will employ 10,000 people directly and generate up to £48m each year.
 
Entrance to the casino alone is nearly £50 a day - but an average of 25,000 people have visited the casino daily since its initial phased opening two months ago.
 
Thomas Arasi, president and chief executive officer of the resort, said he expects to attract an astonishing 70,000 visitors a day once it is fully open.It was due to open in 2009, but was delayed thanks to labour and material shortages, and funding problems due to the global financial crisis.

Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool



light-show-marina-bay-sands-singapore-laser



Marina Bay Sands Hotel - Interior View



Marina Bay Sands (Grand Opening Day)





Marina Bay Sands Infinity pool 55 STOREYS above ground opens in Singapore