Curtis Armstrong papers

Collection

Identifier: OU-SC-ARMSTRONG

Staff Only

Scope and Contents note

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.

Dates

1968 - 2021

Creator

Armstrong, Curtis (1953-11-27) (Person)

Access and Use note

A number of files and audio recordings have been restricted and placed in a separate series. They include Curtis Armstrong’s diaries during the making of Risky Business, tapes made by Robert Carradine called “Burden of Nerds”, and another behind the scenes series of tapes by Lycia Naff during the shooting of Clan of the Cave Bear (all open for research March 5, 2049). Recordings of interviews conducted by Curtis Armstrong in preparation for his autobiography are also included (open for research March 5, 2049). Contestant biographies for the King of the Nerds show are also restricted (open for research March 5, 2069).

Copyright

For some materials for which the donor held copyrights, rights were transferred to Oakland University. Copyright of all other materials has not been transferred to Oakland University. Patrons are responsible for determining appropriate use of the materials.

Biographical note

Curtis Armstrong was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1953. From 1964 to 1967 he lived in Switzerland with his parents. Upon their return they settled in Berkley, Michigan. It was at Berkley High School that Armstrong first discovered the theatre and was encouraged by his teachers to pursue this career. In 1972 he first enrolled at Western Michigan University before successfully auditioning for the Academy of Dramatic Art at Oakland University the following year. At this two-year professional acting academy, he learned an actor’s trade, performed in many plays with the Studio Theatre, and made important and lasting connections with teachers and mentors like Terrence Kilburn, artistic director of OU’s Meadow Brook Theatre.

Upon graduation in 1975 he and Lavinia Moyer formed Roadside Attractions, a pop-up theater troupe in Ann Arbor that would eventually become the Attic Theatre. Even as Roadside Attractions produced its own plays, Meadow Brook Theatre’s Terry Kilburn offered Armstrong the role of Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream to open the 1975-1976 season of Oakland University’s Meadow Brook Theatre.

In August 1976 Armstrong moved to the New York area to pursue his theatre career. He started performing regularly in off-Broadway productions, national tours, regional, and summer theaters. He became a member of the Colonnades Theatre Lab and played a role in Wolf Mankowitz’s Irish Hebrew Lesson. In 1979 he did a national tour of the Pulitzer-prize and Tony-award winning Da by Hugh Leonard. It was during the tour that he met his future wife, Cynthia Carle.

Armstrong made his break in the movie industry in 1983 with the role of Miles Dalby in Risky Business, starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca de Mornay. After Risky Business he returned to the stage and held roles in several productions, including How I got That Story at the Attic Theatre in Detroit. Armstrong’s next cinema venture was in Revenge of the Nerds, a comedy that had a huge popular success.

After working regularly for the cinema in the 1980s, Armstrong tried his hand at screenwriting in the 1990s. With writing partner John Doolittle, he sold several scripts but none ended up on the screen, although one went as far as casting and pre-production. They also worked on the script of The Player, directed by Robert Altman, although they did not get credits for it. In 2004 Armstrong played the part of Ahmet Ertegün in the biographical film Ray. He has also appeared in numerous television series, from Moonlighting to Supernatural and New Girl. Along with his former Revenge of the Nerds co-actor, Robert Carradine, he hosted the television show King of the Nerds on TBS in 2013-2016.

In 2017, Armstrong wrote his autobiography, "Revenge of the Nerd: Or...the Singular Adventures of the Man Who Would Be Booger.” He is also an ardent bibliophile who collects – and occasionally writes – articles about authors such as P. G. Wodehouse, Washington Irving and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 2009 Oakland University gave Armstrong a Music, Theatre and Dance Alumni Achievement (MATILDA) Award and in 2016 designated him as an OU Prominent Alum.

Extent

16 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers of Curtis Armstrong, an OU alum, documenting Armstrong’s life and career as a theater, cinema, and television actor and as a screenwriter and author from 1968 to 2021. After a debut in the theater Armstrong launched a successful movie career in “Risky Business”. Materials from his days at Oakland University’s Academy of Dramatic Art are also included. Of particular interest are diaries, correspondence, photographs, AV materials, scripts (some annotated), and press books.