At 83, legendary actor Tony Curtis has been there, done that and consequently has written a tell-all book. "American Prince" exposes the actor, painter and, now, writer's healthy ego, his love of women, his six marriages and his mother's mental illness, as well as the tragic deaths of both of his brothers and his son.

Q: This is an extremely candid book. Was it something you wanted to do or needed to do?

A: Well, my dear woman, why not? Books are written with so much vagaries, you don't know who you are talking about. It becomes innocuous. A lot of people use experiences they never had to try to get over a point they think is important.

Q: You have had so many experiences.

A: Well, that's the kind of man I am. What stood me in good stead, Patricia, is that I was intelligent as a boy, not educated. I never had an education, but intelligent. I learned to know what was genuine, what was shallow.

Q: You faced rumors about your own sexuality throughout your life. Did it ever get to you?

A: It got to me a lot of times. There was an actress who let it be known she wouldn't go out with me because [she thought] I was a [homosexual]. I hated that.

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Q: Your mother was schizophrenic. Did you ever worry you would be like her?

A: Yes, I did. You have to question your own sanity, you know? I know there was nothing wrong with my morality.

Q: Both of your brothers died tragically. Do you think that made you vulnerable and emotionally unavailable for the people who loved you?

A: I think so. Thank you for putting it that way, Patricia. You know, when my brother Julie [Julius] was killed by a truck, it devastated me. It still devastates me today. Then, when my other brother, who was a schizophrenic, was killed somewhere on the streets of Los Angeles, it made it awfully hard for me to accept those realities. So I just avoided them in the best way I could by keeping myself occupied.

Q: You have been married, I think, six times. Did you find it hard to commit or was it something else?

A: I am glad you said that because it was. I would wait, you see, wait until I got married and realize I hadn't done the right thing for me, you know? It seemed all right at the time. But it wasn't good for anybody, and the wives didn't help. I am not bumming them, I am just telling you they fed me that kind of insecurity so that it manifested itself in so many tiny little ways. I thought I loved them. Tiny little subtle things popped up after we were married.

Q: After you divorced your third wife, Penny, you said you were exhausted and empty.

A: I was empty, I was. That woman drove me to such insane feelings about myself like I was letting everybody down. Like not making certain movies and series that I didn't want to do. Just make it for the cash. Up to that point I gave myself good scores for not doing things I shouldn't have done. But during that marriage I found myself giving in to certain movies for the money. Take the money and run.

Q: You said Hugh Hefner helped you a lot after that divorce.

A: He did. He opened up his house to me. It was for a friend, for a brother. He was a good buddy. He is the best.

Q: In the book, you speak candidly about knowing how good-looking you were and even being vain about it.

A: Yeah, but what's vain about it? I wake up and look in the mirror and say, "Gee, that's a nice-looking face." I was a picture of beauty for myself. I wasn't pushing it on anybody. So what was wrong with liking the way I looked, and using it and helping develop me as a person? Maybe I didn't develop properly, that's possible. I remember I was always getting compliments for how nice and good and friendly I was with everybody and that meant a lot to me.

Q: You talk about meeting Marilyn Monroe before she morphed into the breathy sex symbol. You watched it happen.

A: It is so perceptive of you to say that because to see her slowly change from that sweet girl with the innocent persona and to see her slowly begin to change [as a victim of the casting couch] ... that soured her a lot.

Q: We know Hollywood changed her, but did it change you?

A: No, I don't think so. I saw what it was. The Hollywood experience, everything was based on the wrong things.

Q: You did say you could spot a phony.

A: Oh, listen, that was the easiest. I maybe didn't know where Africa was or how to spell "cosmopolitan," but I sure knew a phony when I saw one or heard one.

Q: You talked about how you loved the Navy and it was like the real family you felt you never had.

A: Right, I loved the Navy. I was 16 when I joined the Navy. From then on in, my life got straightened out really nicely. The three years that I was in the Navy, my values, my sense of who I was, all of that changed.

Q: That put you on the right track, but then in the 1970s you got off track with cocaine.

A: Well, you know, I had no history with narcotics. When I ran across a pill that altered my sense of who I was, I thought that was amusing. And when I woke up in the morning with a headache, I didn't think it was diabolical. It took a little doing, Patsy. I stopped early so not to get killed by them.

Q: In the book you regret not being a better father.

A: Yes, but, my dear woman, what would have made me a better father? No career? Taking care of things outside my cave? Growing vegetables? I went out into the world. How can you take care of family when you are out there slaying dragons? I think knowing how to treat family is second nature.

Q: Don't you think some of it is learned? You really didn't have the example growing up.

A: There was nobody. There was absolutely nobody. There wasn't anybody in my life who stood up to help me.

Q: Did anything you wrote surprise your current wife, Jill?

A: A few things, yes. She was surprised by what happened in my youth and couldn't imagine how I could make it through that period in time. I feel that she knows me much better than she did before the book. Some people in the publishing business wanted to soften it up, but I said, "No, if you soften it up, you've got no story."