Jamie Lee Curtis's Life in Photos

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis turns 65 years old on Nov. 22: take a look at her life in photos

Jamie Lee Curtis once called herself the "OG Nepo Baby." The daughter of screen stars Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, she grew up under a microscope, but made her name her own thanks to her acting talents in films like Halloween, True Lies, My Girl and beyond.

"I'm proud of my parents," she told PEOPLE in a 1978 interview. "But I'm me."

Her dedication to "me" is why fans love her, whether she's supporting her daughters, cheering on former costars like Lindsay Lohan or going all-in in her guest role on The Bear (and don't forget that Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cameo).

"I love actors. I love acting. I love the job we get to do. I love being a part of a crew. I love being part of a cast. I love what we do with each other," she said during her acceptance speech at the 2023 SAG Awards. "The truth of the matter is I'm 64 years old and this is just amazing!"

As the Oscar winner turns 65 on Nov. 22, 2023, take a look back on her life in photos.

Jamie Lee Curtis Is Born

Jamie Lee Curtis was born to silver screen stars Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis on Nov. 22, 1958, two years after the arrival of big sister Kelly.

The girls' parents divorced when Curtis was just 3; Leigh later got married again, to stockbroker Bob Brandt.

"People may think I don't love Tony," Curtis told PEOPLE in 1978. "But I just don't know him that well." (In 1983, she spoke of their relationship, saying, "I've gotten over needing him to be a father figure. He's my friend, and when he's in town we play.")

In that same 1978 interview, she discussed how her parents' stardom affected her ability to make friends. "You lose something growing up, because your friends grow up at a slower pace," she said, adding that "many people want to be your friends just because you have famous parents."

Jamie Lee Curtis as a Child

"I was not pretty. I was cute. I had a lot of personality. My lack of any school success I made up for in personality," Curtis recalled of her childhood in a 2019 interview with The New Yorker. "I was a jokester from a very young age. And I was surrounded by a lot of people in show business. I never thought I’d be an actor, ever, ever, ever, ever. I was going to be a police officer, because I thought I would be good and you didn’t need a lot of schooling for it."

Jamie Lee Curtis's Star Starts to Rise

Though her mother urged her not to hop into acting right away, Curtis landed a part on Operation Petticoat in 1977, not long after a string of one-off parts on Quincy M.E., The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries and Columbo.

"I got one line a week," she recalled to PEOPLE of the part the next year.

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Halloween'

What really put Curtis on the map, however, was her part as protagonist Laurie Strode in the Halloween horror franchise.

Operation Petticoat was canceled and "I was devastated," Curtis recalled to The New Yorker. "I thought my career was over. And two weeks later the audition for Halloween came up. It's one of those good stories for people who've just been let go from their job."

She'd go on to play Strode in seven Halloween films between the 1970s and 2020s.

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Trading Places'

From there, Curtis hardly stopped working, appearing in movies every year, like 1983's Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd. In the film she played Ophelia, a prostitute who is in on a scheme between the men's characters. She won her first BAFTA Film Award for the part.

Director John Landis told PEOPLE she made what could have been a cliché character "fresh, extremely warm and sympathetic."

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'True Lies'

"She's the most well-rounded character I've ever gotten to play," Curtis told PEOPLE of Helen Tasker, whom she portrayed opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1994 action hit True Lies, earning her first SAG Award nomination for her work. ''Helen is a combination of mother, wife and someone who doesn't want to draw too much attention to herself for the sake of her family.''

At that point in time, Curtis was feeling a lot of those same urges, she told PEOPLE, raising her young daughter Annie, relishing in married life with husband Christopher Guest and mourning the loss of her half-brother Nicholas, who died of a drug overdose just before True Lies premiered.

Curtis watched her father struggle with addiction, as well, and she fell into a similar pattern, she recalled during a 2023 interview on Morning Joe.

"I was an opiate addict, and I liked a good opiate buzz," she shared. "I'm lucky. I didn't make terrible decisions high or under the influence that then, for the rest of my life, I regret."

In February of 2023, she celebrated 24 years of sobriety. “I’m breaking the cycle that has basically destroyed the lives of generations in my family,” she said.

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Freaky Friday'

Curtis's hot streak continued in films like A Fish Called Wanda, My Girl and Love Letters and series including Anything But Love, Nicholas' Gift and The Heidi Chronicles.

But she really jumped into the 2000s when she starred alongside Lindsay Lohan in Disney's Freaky Friday.

"I saw The Parent Trap and I thought it was two girls [playing twins]," Curtis recalled to PEOPLE of learning the casting news. "So when they told me I'd be working with Lindsay Lohan, I said, 'Which girl was she?' Someone said, 'Oh, no, no, that was the same girl!' I really had no idea. She's very good."

Curtis earned her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for her work, while Lohan went on to win Teen Choice and MTV Movie Awards.

Jamie Lee Curtis's Children's Books

Curtis has written a dozen children's books over the years, including Where Do Balloons Go?, Today I Feel Silly and My Mommy Hung the Moon. She began writing shortly after daughter Annie turned 5, inspired by motherhood.

"These are wonderful books," she told PEOPLE in 2000. "You'll never hear me say that about anything else I do, except maybe my Caesar salads. These books are the closest thing to letting anybody know who I am."

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Halloween Ends'

Throughout her career, Curtis returned to the role of Laurie Strode once in a while, but finally said goodbye to the character in 2022's Halloween Ends.

"The whole concept of a horror movie is to stimulate emotions, and the making of it does the same thing," Curtis said in a behind-the-scenes clip shared with EW. "So to have done it three times with a group of people, and knowing that I'm not going to get to do it again with that same group of people, really has been very tough for me. It will be difficult to say goodbye to this group of people. Thank you so much for all of it."

Jamie Lee Curtis and Husband Christopher Guest

Curtis fell in love with filmmaker Christopher Guest after seeing him in an issue of Rolling Stone. She passed her number along to his agent, but it wasn't until a chance encounter at a restaurant in Los Angeles that their paths crossed — and they wed not long after, on Dec. 18, 1984

"It's hard to talk about Chris, because all you're going to hear is the word 'great,' " she told PEOPLE in 1994. ''He's a great listener, a great athlete, a great husband and father."

Jamie Lee Curtis and Daughters Ruby and Annie

Together, Curtis and Guest have two daughters, Annie and Ruby, both of whom they welcomed by adoption. Annie, now 36, is a professional dancer in L.A., earning a BFA in dance in 2009 from Kenyon College in Ohio.

Ruby, 26, joined the family in 1997 and works as a computer gaming editor. In 2021, she publicly came out as transgender. Curtis has spoken about Ruby's journey in the years since.

"This life is about love. Being a parent is about love, and I love Ruby. Love her," she said on a 2023 episode of Morning Joe. "People have said, 'You're so great to accept her love.' What are you talking about? This is my daughter, this human being has come to me and said, 'This is who I am.' And my job is to say, 'Welcome home.' "

She added, "I will fight and defend her right to exist to anyone who claims that she doesn't."

Both of the couple's daughters are married, holding ceremonies in their parents' backyard. Curtis officiated Ruby's 2022 nuptials.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Godson Jake Gyllenhaal

Not only does she have a famous family, but a famous extended family, as well! Curtis is godmother to Jake Gyllenhaal; the two even lived next door to each other for a while during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We've just gotten to know each other," Curtis told PEOPLE at the April 2023 premiere of Gyllenhaal's film, The Covenant. "He made a lot of sourdough bread, a lot," she continued, adding that it was "very good."

Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Knives Out'

Curtis joined the ensemble cast of 2019's mystery thriller, Knives Out. "It is a fantastic, fun, super interesting holiday movie," she said on Today. "It was written beautifully. It's super super super fun at a time when things aren't so fun all around the world. It's just nice to have a movie that's funny and you get to go and have a good time."

Jamie Lee Curtis Wins an Oscar

The actress earned her first Oscar nomination — and win! — for her supporting role in 2022's beloved Everything Everywhere All at Once.

"We just won an Oscar," Curtis said while shouting out various crew members, Everything Everywhere directing duo the Daniels (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan), her agents, her sister Kelly, her "beautiful husband" and their two daughters. "To all of the people who have supported the genre movies I have made all these years, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people, we just won an Oscar together!"

Jamie Lee Curtis on 'The Bear'

Most recently, Curtis earned buzz for her enthralling performance as Sugar and Carmy's struggling mother Donna on an episode of The Bear season 2.

Calling it the "role of a lifetime" in an Instagram post, Curtis said, "There's not a person alive who won't relate to what it feels like to be around someone like Donna Berzatto. I certainly have my own experiences. That's what makes the show so magnificent. We can relate and commiserate and celebrate all of our communal survival in this thing called … life."

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