She is not an actress. She is not a musician. She did not grow up chasing fame.
Jill Vandenberg Curtis is a horse rescue advocate who spent her most visible years as the wife of one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men. But her story is genuinely more interesting than that simple description suggests.
She grew up loving animals. She worked with horses. She met a legend by accident at a restaurant. She married him years later. She stood beside him through his final chapter. Then she watched his death spark a family controversy that played out in newspapers across the world.
And through all of it, she kept rescuing horses.
That is the through-line of her life. Not the red carpets or the Beverly Hills parties or the headlines about inheritance disputes. The through-line is the horses. Everything else orbited around that central fact.
Her story matters because it shows what a person can do when they have a genuine passion and a partner who helps them act on it. It also shows what happens after that partner is gone. It shows grief, controversy, resilience, and eventually a new beginning in a small Western town that feels nothing like Hollywood.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Jill Vandenberg Curtis (now Jill Curtis-Weber) |
| Date of Birth | February 27, 1971 |
| Age (2026) | 55 years old |
| Birthplace | United States (exact location not publicly confirmed) |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Horse rescue advocate, equestrian, entrepreneur |
| Known For | Sixth wife of actor Tony Curtis; co-founder of Shiloh Horse Rescue |
| First Marriage | Tony Curtis (married November 6, 1998; his death September 29, 2010) |
| Second Marriage | Todd Weber (married around 2013, roughly three years after Tony’s death) |
| Children | No biological children |
| Stepchildren | Jamie Lee Curtis, Kelly Curtis, Brandi Curtis, Alexandra Curtis, Allegra Curtis (Tony’s children) |
| Key Project | Shiloh Horse Rescue and Sanctuary (founded 2003, now in Newell, South Dakota) |
| Business | The Lucky Horse Co., Deadwood, South Dakota |
| Current Residence | Deadwood, South Dakota |
| Estimated Net Worth | Approximately $60 million (inherited from Tony Curtis’s estate) |
| Documentary | The Jill and Tony Curtis Story (2008) |
Growing Up and Early Life
Jill was born on February 27, 1971, in the United States. The specific city or state has never been publicly confirmed. She has consistently kept her childhood details away from media attention.
What is known is that she developed a deep connection with horses very early in her life. This was not a passing hobby. It was a genuine bond. Horses shaped how she saw the world and what she believed mattered.
She became a trained equestrian. She competed. She was award-winning in the sport before she ever became a public figure. The skill and discipline required to compete at a serious equestrian level tells you something about the kind of person Jill was long before Tony Curtis entered the picture.
Some reports describe her as working professionally as a horse trainer before she met Tony. That role fits everything we know about who she was. She was practical, animal-focused, and not chasing celebrity.
Her mother, Sally VandenBerg, would later become part of her business life in South Dakota, which suggests the family remained close across the years. But deeper details about her parents, siblings, or childhood home have never been shared publicly.
Education
No confirmed details exist about where Jill attended school or whether she pursued a university degree.
Given that she worked professionally as a horse trainer and competed in equestrian events at an award-winning level, her education likely included serious equestrian training and practical animal care knowledge.
She may have pursued formal business education at some point, given how she has managed nonprofits and retail operations in her adult life. But this is not confirmed.
Like much of her pre-Tony life, her educational background remains a gap in the public record. She never opened that window to journalists or biographers.
The Meeting That Changed Everything
In 1993, Jill was in her early twenties. She was a horse trainer. She was focused on her work and her animals.
Then she walked into a restaurant in Los Angeles.
Tony Curtis was there. He was already 68 years old at that point. He was a legend. He had made over 150 films. He had received an Academy Award nomination. He had starred in “Some Like It Hot” and “Spartacus” and “The Defiant Ones.” He had been married five times before.
Tony saw Jill. He approached her. They exchanged numbers.
The age gap was staggering. Tony was roughly 45 years older than Jill. He was older than her parents would have been. He was older than most people’s grandparents.
And yet something clicked between them.
Tony later said he could not have imagined how much she would change his life. He described her as a calming presence. He said the age difference simply did not register between them the way outsiders assumed it would. He told interviewers that she was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
The Wedding and Life as Mrs. Curtis
On November 6, 1998, Jill and Tony married at the MGM Grand Hotel. She was 27. He was 73.
The ceremony was held in Las Vegas. It was a real event, not a quiet courthouse affair.
Tony had been married five times before Jill. His most famous previous marriage had been to Janet Leigh, the actress who starred in Psycho. Tony and Janet went on to have two daughters together: Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee went on to become one of the most recognizable actresses of her generation.
Tony also had other children from his subsequent marriages and relationships. By the time Jill joined his life, he had a complicated and at times fractured family history.
Jill brought something different into Tony’s later years. She was not a performer. She did not compete with him or need his fame to validate her own. She had her own passion. She had her own purpose. And Tony became one of her greatest supporters.
Their marriage lasted until Tony’s death in 2010. That means they spent 16 years together as a couple. It was the second-longest marriage of Tony’s six.
The Shiloh Horse Rescue: Her Greatest Achievement
One day, Jill sat at her computer and read about horse slaughter.
What she learned devastated her. Over 100,000 horses per year were being shipped abroad, often healthy animals, to be killed for human consumption in Europe and Asia. These were not sick animals. They were horses in good condition being sent to slaughterhouses for foreign meat markets.
Jill broke down crying.
Then she made a decision.
During a car ride one evening, she told Tony she wanted to do something about it. She wanted to save horses. Tony did not hesitate. He told her to go ahead and do it.
In 2003, they founded Shiloh Horse Rescue together. They purchased 40 acres of desert land outside Las Vegas in Sandy Valley, Nevada. They brought in volunteers. They dug wells. They built fences and stables. They turned dry, empty land into a working sanctuary.
Tony supported the mission financially and used his celebrity to draw attention to the cause. A percentage of his income from the sale of his paintings was directed toward saving horses.
Jill ran the day-to-day operations. She managed the care of the animals. She built systems for intake, rehabilitation, and adoption.
By the time Tony died, Shiloh had already saved hundreds of horses. The number would eventually surpass 700.
The documentary “The Jill and Tony Curtis Story,” released in 2008, captured the couple during a significant milestone at the ranch. It showed their life together and the depth of the rescue mission they had built. The film gave millions of viewers a window into who Jill actually was, separate from the celebrity marriage narrative.
The Death of Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis passed away on September 29, 2010, at their home in Henderson, Nevada. He died of cardiac arrest. He was 85 years old.
Jill was with him.
She later said they had spent 16 years together and that losing him was one of the most emotionally difficult experiences she had ever faced. She could not stay in the house they had shared. The memories were too present in every room.
She moved out to the Shiloh ranch. She said the rescue work genuinely saved her life during that period. Having animals that needed daily care gave her a reason to get up. Having a mission gave her something to channel her grief into.
The Estate Battle and Family Drama
After Tony died, a storm broke loose.
It turned out that Tony had rewritten his will and his trust in the year before his death. The updated documents effectively removed all five surviving children from his inheritance. The estimated value of his estate was around $60 million.
That money went to Jill.
Tony’s children reacted publicly and with anger. His daughter Allegra Curtis spoke to the press about her hurt and frustration. The situation was described in some outlets as a textbook celebrity elder financial abuse case, with the new wife accused of influencing the will.
Jill pushed back on that characterization. She stated publicly that Tony had told his children himself that he was changing his will. She said the estrangement between Tony and his children long pre-dated her arrival in his life. Tony himself had admitted in interviews that he had been a poor father during his children’s younger years.
The controversy created years of tension. It was painful and public.
Jill has never appeared to waver from the position that Tony’s final decisions were his own. And she has not sought sympathy from the public. She simply moved forward.
Notably, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony’s most famous daughter, has reportedly handled the situation with more restraint than some of her siblings. There are no reports of open conflict between her and Jill.
A New Love and a New Life
Three years after Tony died, Jill met Todd Weber.
She found him at a country and western club in Las Vegas. Six months later they were married. She became Jill Curtis-Weber.
Jill has said that Todd never felt he had to be Tony Curtis. He did not try to fill that role or compete with it. He accepted who she was and where she had been. That freedom was something she clearly valued.
She has also said that Todd and Tony share certain qualities. The same humor. The same kindness. The same intelligence. Tony, she believes, would have genuinely liked Todd.
In 2019, Jill and Todd sold the Nevada ranch and the Las Vegas home. They packed up and moved to Deadwood, South Dakota, a historic old frontier town famous for gold rush history and outlaws like Wild Bill Hickok.
Jill had said she and Tony used to watch the television series “Deadwood” together. Moving there felt like honoring that memory while also opening a completely new chapter.
Life in South Dakota Today
Jill relocated Shiloh Horse Rescue to Newell, South Dakota, about 30 minutes from Deadwood, in 2019. The rescue now operates on a 28-acre property and has saved and rehabilitated over 700 horses across its entire history.
The work continues just as it always has. Horses are received. They are cared for. They are rehabilitated. They are placed in new homes where possible.
Jill and Todd also run a business on Main Street in downtown Deadwood called The Lucky Horse Co. The shop sells handmade Western-themed items, including decorative horseshoes crafted by Todd using his welding skills. Todd also teaches gold panning to visitors. The shop funds a portion of the rescue’s ongoing costs.
The couple also operate a horse-drawn stagecoach on Main Street, which has become a tourist attraction for visitors to the historic town.
Jill’s mother Sally VandenBerg is involved in the business too, which gives the operation a real family quality.
Jill’s daily life looks nothing like what most people picture when they think about Tony Curtis’s widow. She drives tractors. She wears jeans and boots. She has been known to work as a bartender alongside Todd. She is as far from red carpets as it is possible to get.
She has said this is exactly where she wants to be.
Net Worth and Money
The main source of Jill’s current wealth is Tony Curtis’s estate.
Tony’s estate was estimated at around $60 million at the time of his death. His updated will left the bulk of that to Jill. After the legal controversy settled, she inherited the significant majority of it.
Tony also had income from the sale of his artwork. A notable painting called “The Red Table” was displayed at the Manhattan Metropolitan Museum in 2007. His art career generated real money during his later years.
Jill has used portions of her inherited wealth to fund the rescue operation, relocate it to South Dakota, and build it into the organization it is today.
She also generates income from The Lucky Horse Co. retail shop and the stagecoach business.
Different sources estimate her current net worth at varying figures, ranging from around $10 million to $60 million depending on assumptions made about asset values and spending over time. The most widely cited figure is around $60 million, though this likely reflects the original estate value rather than current liquid wealth.
What is clear is that she is financially stable and comfortable. She is not chasing money. She is spending what she has on work she believes in.
Why Her Story Matters
Jill Vandenberg Curtis is easy to reduce to a single headline. Young woman marries much older movie star. Gets the money. Moves on.
But that reduction misses everything.
She had a passion for horses before Tony Curtis ever walked into a restaurant. She carried that passion through a Hollywood marriage that could easily have consumed her identity. She built a rescue organization with her own hands and sustained it through grief, controversy, and relocation.
She did not become a celebrity in her own right. She did not use Tony’s name to build a personal brand. She used it to draw attention to horse slaughter.
That is a choice. And it is a choice she has made consistently for over two decades.
The woman who drives a tractor in Deadwood is the same woman who stood on red carpets in Beverly Hills. She just likes the tractor better.
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FAQ Section
1. Who# is Jill Vandenberg Curtis?
She is an American horse rescue advocate and equestrian who became known as the sixth and final wife of Hollywood actor Tony Curtis. She co-founded Shiloh Horse Rescue and now lives in Deadwood, South Dakota.
2. When was Jill Vandenberg Curtis born?
She was born on February 27, 1971. She is 55 years old as of 2026.
3. When did Jill marry Tony Curtis?
They married on November 6, 1998 at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. Tony was 73 at the time. Jill was 27.
4. How much older was Tony Curtis than Jill?
Tony was born in 1925. Jill was born in 1971. The age gap between them was approximately 45 to 46 years.
5. Did Jill Vandenberg Curtis have children with Tony Curtis?
No. Jill has no biological children. She became a stepmother to Tony’s five surviving children when she married him.
6. What happened to Tony Curtis’s money after he died?
Tony updated his will before his death and left the bulk of his estimated $60 million estate to Jill. His children were excluded from the will. This triggered significant public controversy and family conflict.
7. What is Shiloh Horse Rescue?
It is a nonprofit organization Jill and Tony founded in 2003. It rescues, rehabilitates, and rehomes horses that would otherwise face neglect, abandonment, or slaughter. It has saved over 700 horses. It is now located in Newell, South Dakota.
8. Who is Todd Weber?
He is Jill’s second husband. She met him at a country and western club in Las Vegas about three years after Tony’s death. They married roughly six months after meeting. He is a craftsman and welder who contributes to their shared business in Deadwood.
9. Where does Jill Vandenberg Curtis live today?
She lives in the Deadwood, South Dakota area. She and Todd Weber moved there in 2019 after selling the Nevada ranch and Las Vegas home.
10. What is The Lucky Horse Co.?
It is a shop on Main Street in downtown Deadwood that Jill and Todd run together. It sells handmade Western-themed art and decorative horseshoes. Profits help support the horse rescue operation.
11. What is her relationship with Jamie Lee Curtis?
Jamie Lee Curtis is Tony’s daughter from his first marriage to Janet Leigh. Reports suggest Jamie handled the aftermath of Tony’s death and his will with more restraint than some other family members. There is no widely reported open conflict between her and Jill.
12. What is Jill Vandenberg Curtis’s net worth in 2026?
Her net worth is widely estimated at around $60 million, based on what she inherited from Tony’s estate. This figure reflects the estimated estate value at the time of Tony’s death in 2010 and does not account for spending, investment gains or losses, or business income since then.
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