The actor Tony Curtis died today. He was 85.

The man made scores of movies, but I remember him, really, for one: the 1960 epic Spartacus.

In it, Curtis played the soft “singer of songs” among Kirk Douglas’s army of slaves. Douglas was Spartacus, of course, and Spartacus was a historical figure and leader of a Roman slave revolt, the Third Servile War, from about 73-71 BC. Which is fairly accurately depicted in the film, aside from the screenwriters’ attempt, two millennia later, to project “brotherhood of man” sentiments on a slave band probably most interested in booty, followed by just wanting to get out of Italy and go home.

Curtis was excellent as the overly handsome, way-too-cultured Antoninus, meant to offset the coarse Douglas character, Spartacus, a man who had been in training to become a gladiator.

Antoninus serves as a sort of advisor to Spartacus, useful because he can read; tutoring children had been among his soft jobs.

And the Curtis character was central to perhaps the most famous scene in the movie, the “I’m Spartacus” episode in which we get to see, in a span of about 90 seconds, Tony Curtis, Laurence Olivier and Kirk Douglas emote like mad, with Curtis holding his own against those two heavyweights.

(Though we have to score it as “Olivier a winner on points” because he “says” about a page of dialogue simply with the shifting of his eyes and the slight parting of his lips.)

It is Curtis’s Antoninus who gives up a chance to return to slavery — and live — by standing up and insisting that he is Spartacus, thereby condemning himself to crucifixion. And after him, every other survivor of the slave army stands up and declares he is Spartacus, as well. The scene ends with a deeply moved Spartacus shedding a tear; it bounces down Kirk Douglas’s left cheek, and it makes you wonder how many takes that required.

(Only two principals of that film remain alive: Douglas, who is 93 and in poor health, and John Gavin, who played Julius Caesar. The rest — Charles Laughton, Jean Simmons, Peter Ustinov, Woody Strode and Tony Curtis — are dead.)

Tony Curtis did comedy. He did tragedy. And everything in between, and often was quite good. Far better than his reputation when he was a star … which was something like “lightweight pretty boy.”

In “Spartacus” I wonder if Tony Curtis and the character he played, Antoninus, came to enjoy being one of the guys. A man among fighting men, seen at the end to be as brave as any gladiator.

Perhaps some day I will appreciate Tony Curtis for more than that one movie. But in my own little pantheon of film, he holds a place of honor for his role as Antoninus, singer of songs who stands up and shouts, “I’m Spartacus.”