Jamie Lee Curtis gave a final message to ex-boyfriend Robert Carradine, who took his own life on Monday at 71.
In her Instagram post memorializing the actor, Curtis recalled her first encounter with the man she has described as her “first love.”
“I met him on television on the Dinah Shore Show when they had a bunch of second generation actors, we would call them now Nepo babies,” Curtis, 67, said. “Bobby and I came on last and Bobby rearranged where we were all sitting so that he could sit next to me and he kissed me, live on television. A very public meet cute.”
Curtis, the daughter of actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, began dating the Revenge of the Nerds star, who was the son of actress Sonia Sorel and legendary character actor John Carradine.
On Monday, Carradine’s family revealed the actor’s death in a statement to Deadline. He took his own life after a “valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder.”
Curtis recounted meeting Carradine’s daughter, Ever, 51, calling it her “first experience with domesticity and motherhood and partnership.”
“His three year old daughter, Ever, now a talented actress, had suffered a terrible burn from hot water and was in the burn unit and I met her for the first time there, this little girl wrapped in gauze with the biggest smile on her face and the most beautiful eyes,” the Oscar winner said. “We became a little family, in a dirt floored house in Laurel Canyon.”
Curtis wrote that she also met her now “ride or die best friend,” Melanie Griffith, when Carradine and the actress starred in Joyride together. Griffith and Carradine would date following his and Curtis’s separation. The Everything Everywhere All At Once actress revealed that it was Griffin who had informed her of his death.
Looking back, Curtis recalled fond memories in cars alongside the Revenge of the Nerds star, whom she said “drove fast and furious.” It was in the car with Carradine that she realized that he had been her first crush.
“One day I remember the sun hitting his face and me turning and looking at him and saying ‘Wait, were you in the movie The Cowboys? Were you Slim?’ He was my first crush in the movies and I didn’t realize it,” she said.
Curtis said that she maintained her friendship with Carradine even after their breakup. She is also still friends with Ever, who has her own career in acting, including roles in The Handmaid’s Tale and Goliath.
“Rest in speed and humor and love, Bobby,” she concluded.
If you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.
