When Tony Curtis died in 2010, the headlines weren't just about the passing of a Hollywood titan who once wore a dress in Some Like It Hot. They were about the money. And the kids. And, mostly, the wife. Tony Curtis and Jill Vandenberg spent sixteen years together, a fact that often gets lost in the tabloid noise surrounding his sixth and final marriage.
Most people look at the numbers first. He was 73; she was 28. That’s a 45-year age gap. In the cynical world of celebrity gossip, that usually suggests a "gold digger" narrative or a "mid-life crisis" cliché. But if you actually look at how they lived their lives in the Nevada desert, far away from the Sunset Strip, the story gets a lot more complicated. And honestly, a lot more interesting.
The Restaurant Meeting That Changed Everything
They met in 1993. It wasn't on a movie set or at an awards show. It was a restaurant in Los Angeles. Jill Vandenberg wasn't some aspiring starlet looking for a screen test. She was a "horse girl" from San Diego. In fact, she later admitted she wasn't even particularly interested in movie stars back then.
Tony, ever the charmer, approached her. They exchanged numbers. They started dating. For four years, they were just a couple before they finally tied the knot in Las Vegas on November 6, 1998.
By the time they married, Curtis was already entering a different phase of his life. He was focused on his painting—which he took very seriously—and he was looking for a sense of purpose that the film industry could no longer provide. Jill became the catalyst for that. She didn’t want the Hollywood glitz; she wanted to save horses.
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The Reality of Shiloh Horse Rescue
The couple eventually traded the Los Angeles chaos for the wide-open spaces of Sandy Valley, Nevada. This wasn't a "hobby" for them. They founded the Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary.
Jill had discovered the grim reality of horse slaughter in the United States—thousands of animals being shipped overseas for human consumption. She told Tony she wanted to do something about it. His response? "Let's go do it."
- They acquired 40 acres of desert.
- They built corrals and shelters, often using donated materials.
- They rescued over 400 horses during their time together.
- They even took in a paralyzed chicken named Ernesto.
This wasn't a sanitized, PR-friendly charity. It was gritty work. Jill and her mother, Sally Vandenberg, were the ones at the auctions, pulling horses out of the "kill pens." Tony was the benefactor and the loudest advocate. He used his remaining fame to lobby in Washington, D.C., alongside people like Bo Derek, pushing for legislation to ban horse slaughter.
That Controversial Will
You can't talk about Tony Curtis and Jill Vandenberg without addressing the elephant in the room: the inheritance.
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When Tony passed away at 85 from cardiac arrest, his will sent shockwaves through the industry. He disinherited all five of his surviving children, including Jamie Lee Curtis. The document specifically stated that he had intentionally and with full knowledge chosen not to provide for them. Instead, the bulk of his $40 million estate went to Jill.
Critics were ruthless. There were whispers of undue influence, especially since the will had been revised just months before his death. Jill maintained that these were private family matters, but the public nature of the disinheritance made privacy impossible.
The kids didn't take it sitting down. Kelly Lee Curtis, his eldest daughter, even attempted to have Jill removed from the estate. It didn't work. The courts upheld Tony’s wishes. Was he a bitter old man, or was he simply rewarding the woman who had spent sixteen years caring for him while he struggled with his health? It depends on who you ask, but the reality is that Tony was always a volatile personality. He lived life on his own terms, right up to the end.
Life After Tony: The Move to Deadwood
A lot of people expected Jill to take the money and disappear into a life of luxury. She didn't.
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After Tony's death, she stayed in the world of horse rescue. She eventually met Todd Weber at a country club in Vegas. They married in 2013, and together with Jill's mother, they moved the entire operation—horses and all—to South Dakota.
Today, they run The Lucky Horse Co. in historic Deadwood. It’s a shop that sells "horseshoe art," with the proceeds going back into the rescue. The Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary still exists, now located on a 40-acre ranch on the South Dakota prairie.
Why Their Legacy Still Matters
The relationship between Tony Curtis and Jill Vandenberg proves that celebrity marriages aren't always what they look like on the surface. While the age gap and the will remain the "clickable" parts of their history, their real impact was in animal activism.
If you’re looking to support their work or learn from their journey, consider these points:
- Check the Source: Celebrity estates are messy. Don't believe every tabloid headline about "feuds" without looking at the court filings.
- Support the Cause: Shiloh Horse Rescue is still active. If you care about equine welfare, they are a 501(c)(3) that actually does the legwork.
- Look Beyond the Age: People judged this couple from day one. Yet, they stayed together until his final breath. Sometimes, the most unlikely pairings are the ones that actually last.
Tony was buried with his favorite scarf and his driving gloves. He died a "star of the people," but for the last decade and a half of his life, he was mostly a man on a ranch, helping his wife save one horse at a time. Whatever you think of his final will, you can't deny that Jill Vandenberg was the one there for the "ride of a lifetime."
To understand more about the current state of their mission, you can visit the official Shiloh Horse Rescue website to see how the sanctuary has evolved since its move to the Black Hills. You can also find the 2008 documentary, The Jill & Tony Curtis Story, which offers a raw look at their life on the ranch before the legal battles began.