Tony Curtis to promote Hungary in tourism ads

Tony Curtis began preparing Monday for a new leading role — helping promote tourism in Hungary, the country of his forefathers.

The 78-year-old actor said he wanted to put some merriment into ads aimed at attracting tourists, to show how welcoming the country is to visitors.

"The commercials will be loaded with humor, and I'm going to be chasing lots of girls around," Curtis told journalists in Budapest before filming begins later this week.

Curtis said he volunteered to do the television ads for free because he wanted to honor his parents.

Both his father and mother were Hungarian Jews who emigrated to the United States. His father, Emanuel, came from Hungary and his mother, Helen, from what is now Slovakia.

"My father worked as a tailor to pay for me to grow up and I'll never forget that," said Curtis, whose real name is Bernard Schwartz. "He was a really good guy."

But Curtis, the star of 1950s Hollywood classics including "Some Like It Hot" and "Sweet Smell of Success," acknowledged that he knew little about Hungary as a child.

"The only thing I knew about as a kid was Hungarian salami," he said.