Shanghai Noon - script - corresp., 2000

The Curtis Armstrong papers document Armstrong’s career as a theater, cinema, and television actor and as a screenwriter and author. The collection was donated by Armstrong to Oakland University in March 2019.

The collection has been organized in 12 series: Theater; Film; Screenwriting; Television; King of the Nerds; Books; Personal; Articles and clippings; Photographs; Oversize; Realia; and Audiovisual.

The first five series are generally arranged chronologically by project. The Film series contains productions in which Curtis Armstrong held a role while the Screenwriting series is for projects in which he and his friend John Doolittle worked and sold scripts in the 1990s. For each project, all relevant materials are included -- such as photographs and clippings -- except for audiovisual materials. Materials for each project are roughly organized chronologically from pre-production to post-production activities. Researchers interested in a specific project should also look in folders for projects Armstrong conducted simultaneously or soon after, as references to it may be included. This project-based organization corresponds to the way Armstrong sorted the materials when doing research for his autobiography.

The remaining series contain materials not generated for specific projects. The Books series contains drafts, proofs and miscellaneous materials relating to Armstrong’s two books, A Plum Assignment: Essays about P. G. Wodehouse (2018), and Revenge of the Nerd, his autobiography (2017).

The Personal Files contain documents and photographs from Armstrong’s years at Berkley High School, Western Michigan University, and Oakland University’s Academy of Dramatic Art (ADA), as well as miscellaneous items relating to other personal matters. Of particular note are letters Armstrong sent to his parents, then working and living in London, that document his experience at the ADA in detail. The Personal Files also hold Armstrong’s business correspondence and personal notebooks. His notebooks contain notes on personal and professional topics, including notes about roles and the character bios that Armstrong drafted to prepare for a role. Occasionally, journal entries are also found in the notebooks. One notebook includes a bio for Goov, his Clan of the Cave Bear character. It also includes, by Armstrong’s own admission, a list of things he suggested to cut his screen time on Revenge of the Nerds, because he was embarrassed about his role and wanted to appear as little as possible in it.

The Articles and Clippings series contains newspaper and magazine clippings discussing various aspects of Armstrong’s career that are not related to a specific production. Likewise, the Photographs series contains photographs that are not limited to any specific production or whose topic have not been identified. Some photographs are loose while others are in scrapbooks, left in the order in which the donor arranged them.

The Oversize series contains posters, including a poster for Risky Business’s 30th anniversary, signed by director Paul Brickman.

Realia is a small series that contains an intertitle from a Moonlighting episode, a Moonlighting fan club pin, and an oversized Revenge of the Nerds VHS tape box.

The Audiovisual series includes all recordings, including commercial DVDs, demos, ads, interviews, and personal recordings by Armstrong and others. Commercial DVDs have been separated out.