Kelly Curtis died Saturday morning at 69, and Jamie Lee Curtis said the loss came at her sister’s home. Jamie Lee Curtis announced the death on social media, calling Kelly her “first friend and lifelong confidant.”
That is why readers are searching her name now: the death was just made public, and it closes the story of an actress whose life touched film, television and documentary work. Jamie Lee Curtis also described her sister as “jaw droppingly beautiful” and said she was a talented actress, a tribute that landed with unusual force because it came from family, not from a studio statement.
Kelly Curtis’s career stretched across decades, though she never became a household name in the way her younger sister did. Born in Santa Monica in 1956, she first appeared on screen in The Vikings in 1958, later studied business at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and worked as a stockbroker before turning to acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She went on to appear onstage in Say Goodnight, Gracie in 1982, share a small role with Jamie Lee Curtis in Trading Places in 1983, and take parts in Magic Sticks, The Devil’s Daughter and television shows including The Equalizer, Hunter, Silk Stalkings, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Judging Amy.
She also had a recurring role as Lieutenant Carolyn Plummer on the first season of The Sentinel from 1996 to 1999, directed the 2018 documentary Marby Jets Are Go, and worked as an assistant to Jamie Lee Curtis on Freaky Friday, Christmas With the Kranks and You Again. Jamie Lee Curtis’s tribute pointed to a close bond that ran far beyond show business, and also to a family story that has long been tied to Hollywood through their parents, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh.
No other details of Kelly Curtis’s death were immediately available, leaving the immediate question about what happened unanswered. What is clear is that her husband, John Marsh, and brother-in-law Christopher Guest were among those listed as survivors, along with her half-siblings Alexandra, Allegra, Ben and Nicholas.
