Early life Curtis was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of well-known actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh; her paternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Hungary. Her parents divorced in 1962 and her mother remarried to a Robert Brandt. She has an older sister, Kelly Curtis, who is also an actress, and several half-siblings (all from her father's remarriage), Alexandra, Allegra, Ben, and Nicholas Curtis, who died in 1994 of a drug overdose.

Curtis graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall but had attended both Westlake School for girls and Beverly Hills High School before transferring to CRH. She returned to California in 1976. She attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she considered majoring in social work, but left after a semester in order to pursue an acting career. Universal Studios put her under contract, and she starred in the television series, Operation Petticoat.

Private life Curtis married actor Christopher Guest on December 18, 1984, becoming Lady Haden-Guest when her husband inherited the Barony of Haden-Guest in 1996, upon the death of his father. The couple have two adopted children, Anne Haden Guest (born 1986) and Thomas Haden Guest (born 1996). Curtis is also actor Jake Gyllenhaal's godmother.

Today, Curtis also takes time to support various philanthropic groups. She was Guest of Honor at the 11th annual Gala and Fundraiser in 2003 for Women in Recovery, Inc., a Venice, CA-based non-profit organization offering a live-in, twelve-step program of rehabilitation for women in need. Past Honorees of this organization have included Sir Anthony Hopkins; the 2005 honoree was Angela Lansbury.