Famous or Interesting Curtins Worldwide
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CONTEMPORARY CURTINS
Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up'
Company sent DVD so Huntington Beach girl, 10, could watch it.
By ANNIE BURRIS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments 48 | Recommend 68
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.
From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue. The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.
The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.
Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.
With her daughter’s vigil planned for Friday, Lisa Curtin reflected about how grateful she is that Pixar – and "Up" – were a part of her only child’s last day.“When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie,” said Curtin, 46. “I just know that word ‘Up’ and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven.”
Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved.
THE PREVIEWS
Colby was diagnosed with vascular cancer on Dec. 23, 2005 after doctors found a tumor in her liver. At the time of her death, her stomach was about 94 inches around, swollen with fluids the cancer wouldn’t let her body properly digest. The rest of her body probably weighed about 45 pounds, family friend Carole Lynch said.
Colby had gone to Newport Elementary School and was known for making others laugh, family friend Terrell Orum said. Colby loved to dance, sing, swim and seemed to have a more mature understanding of the world than other children her age, Orum said.On April 28, Colby went to see the Dream Works 3-D movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens" but was impressed by the previews to "Up." “It was from then on, she said, ‘I have to see that movie. It is so cool,’” Lynch said.
Colby was a movie fan, Lisa Curtin said, and she latched onto Pixar’s movies because she loved animals.
Two days later Colby’s health began to worsen. On June 4 her mother asked a hospice company to bring a wheelchair for Colby so she could visit a theater to see "Up." However, the weekend went by and the wheelchair was not delivered, Lisa Curtin said. By June 9, Colby could no longer be transported to a theater and her family feared she would die without having seen the movie. At that point, Orum, who desperately wanted Colby to get her last wish, began to cold-call Pixar and Disney to see if someone could help. Pixar has an automated telephone answering system, Orum said, and unless she had a name of a specific person she wanted to speak to, she could not get through. Orum guessed a name and the computer system transferred her to someone who could help, she said.
Pixar officials listened to Colby’s story and agreed to send someone to Colby’s house the next day with a DVD of "Up," Orum recalled. She immediately called Lisa Curtin, who told Colby. “Do you think you can hang on?” Colby’s mother said. “I’m ready (to die), but I’m going to wait for the movie,” the girl replied.
THE MOVIE
At about 12:30 p.m. the Pixar employee came to the Curtins’ home with the DVD. He had a bag of stuffed animals of characters in the movie and a movie poster. He shared some quirky background details of the movie and the group settled in to watch Up.
Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film. At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said. The employee left after the movie, taking the DVD with him, Lynch said. “He couldn’t have been nicer,” said Lynch who watched the movie with the family. “His eyes were just welled up.”
After the movie, Colby’s dad, Michael Curtin, who is divorced from Lisa Curtin, came to visit. Colby died with her mom and dad nearby at 9:20 p.m.
Among the Up memorabilia the employee gave Colby was an “adventure book” – a scrap book the main character’s wife used to chronicle her journeys. “I’ll have to fill those adventures in for her,” Lisa Curtin said.
Contact the writer: aburris@ocregister.com or 949-553-2905
Historical Figures:
John Curtin - Prime Minister of Australia during WWII
John Joseph Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945), Australian politician and 14th Prime Minister of Australia, led Australia when the Australian mainland came under direct military threat during the Japanese advance in World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the country's greatest Prime Ministers.[1] General Douglas MacArthur said that Curtin was "one of the greatest of the wartime statesmen".[2] His Prime Ministerial predecessor, Arthur Fadden of the Country Party wrote: "I do not care who knows it but in my opinion there was no greater figure in Australian public life in my lifetime than Curtin."[3]
Andrew Gregg Curtin - Governor of Pennsylvania during the American Civil War
Andrew Gregg Curtin (April 22, 1817 – October 7, 1894) was a U.S. lawyer and politician who served as Governor of Pennsylvania during the American Civil War.
Jeremiah Curtin (September 6, 1835 – December 14, 1906, Vermont) was an American translator and folklorist.
See more under Artists, Performance Artists and Writers
Artists, Performance Artists and Writers
Jane Curtin - Academy Award Winning Actress
Jane Therese Curtin (born on September 6, 1947 Wellesley, 
Massachusetts, United States ) is an Emmy Award (and 8-time Emmy-Award nominee) winning and Golden Globe winning American actress and comedienne. Curtin is well known for being one of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Curtin was also in a Saturday Night Live inspired movie, The Coneheads.
Jeremiah Curtin - Historical Author & Translator of Famous Works
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (some sources say Detroit, Michigan,[1] Curtin graduated from Harvard College in 1863. In 1864 he went to Russia, where he worked as both a translator and for the U.S. legation. He left Russia in 1877, stayed a year in London, and returned to the United States, where he worked for the Bureau of Ethnology.
His specialties were his work with American Indian languages and Slavic languages.
In addition to publishing collections of fairy tales and folklore and writings about his travels, Curtin translated a number of volumes by Henryk Sienkiewicz. He also published an English version of Bolesław Prus' only historical novel, Pharaoh, under the title The Pharaoh and the Priest (1902).
Dan Curtin - Composer and Techno Musician
For the past ten years Dan Curtin has been one of the most eagerly observed producers in the techno scene, having forged a particularly distinctive and original musical style. Dan Curtin began his music career in 1992. His fascination with music was sparked ten years earlier when he discovered the burgeoning hip-hop movement. Hip-hop, along with new wave, electro, and other sonic innovations of the Eighties began to loom largely in his life, and it was only a matter of time before Curtin began experimenting with music creation himself. When he finally heard the futuristic sounds of house and techno, everything changed. Drawing influence from stargazing evenings with a telescope and late night drives through nearby Cleveland, Ohio; music production became Curtin's primary focus. Cleveland, a city not known as a hub for house music creation, was initially isolating. However, Curtin was able to observe the more prominent scenes of other cities without becoming part of or being identified with any one of them. He began designing a new sound in techno and house music.
John P Curtin - American Writer
Educated at Niagara University and the State University of New York, John P. Curtin spent 35 years teaching history in the Syracuse City School District and is 
presently employed by LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY as a field supervisor of student teachers. Since 1995, he has been a member of the Marcellus Village Board of Trustees. He is also a trustee of the Marcellus Historical Society and a member of the Town of Marcellus Republican Committee. He and his wife Maureen have lived in their house on First Street in the Village of Marcellus for over 30 years, where they raised their children to adulthood. As the parents of four grown children and the grandparents of six, they enjoy spending much time with them and their families. They also have a strong interest in family histories, many of which, including their own, span the history of the Village of Marcellus.
In Business. Education, the Sciences or Other Fields
Philip Curtin - Historian, Anthropologist and Author
Philip D. Curtin (born 1922)[1] is a Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University[2] and historian on Africa and the Atlantic slave trade. He has published an estimate that from the 1500s to 1870, around 9,566,000 African slaves were imported to the Americas. A MacArthur Fellow, Curtin has published a total of 19 books.
Matt Curtin - Computer Scientist
Matt Curtin is a Columbus-based technologist, writer, and entrepreneur. In a professional career of less than fifteen years he has helped to shape our understanding of the benefits and risks of living in a globally-connected world. He helped to develop the technical infrastructure for some of the earliest electronic commerce Web sites and to show others how to use technology such as network firewalls and cryptography to protect their data and their users.
Joseph Curtin - Master Violin Crafter and Instruments
Joseph Curtin studied violin at the University of Western Ontario (1971-73) and music and philosophy (1974-77) at the University of Toronto. He abandoned musical performance for lutherie when he came under the tutelage of violinmaker, Otto Erdesz, in 1977. He apprenticed with Erdesz for several years and worked in workshops in Italy and France. In 1985, he established a workshop with partner, Gregg Alf, with whom he built instruments for twelve years under the name Curtin & Alf. He founded his independent workshop, Joseph Curtin Studios, in 1997. The interesting thing to note is that Curtin's grandparents were refugees during the war and picked the name from the phone book after fleeing from the Nazis!.