Ben lives at the Cape, selling real estate through Robert Paul Properties and teaching drama at a local private school. Ben Curtis has also performed in local theater, including as the Prince in "Cinderella" in 2007 at Eventide Arts in Dennis.

His brother Nicholas, died of a heroin overdose in Provincetown in 1994 at the age of 23. In a 2003 interview with the Cape Cod Times, Tony Curtis said he had "no sadness" regarding his life or career, except that he missed his "sweet boy."

"It's a terrible thing when a father loses his son," he said.

His mother; Leslie Curtis, an interior designer who now lives in Maine, owned Leslie Curtis Designs on Route 6A for more than two decades. She said in a phone interview yesterday that the family had "a wonderful time" in the 1970s when she and her husband vacationed here with their two sons and his four other children, including actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Tony Curtis vacationed on the Cape, including spending time at the Chatham Bars Inn and at a private home, "because I was married to him and I loved Cape Cod," Leslie Curtis said. "By and large, he loved Cape Cod, as most people do."

He visited Cape Cod several times after their divorce and attended Ben's 1991 graduation from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.

Ben Curtis was declining press interviews yesterday about his father's death, Leslie Curtis said. "Ben loved his father very much. He lost a brother. This is a poignant and difficult time for him and his sisters."

"We had many wonderful years," she said. "He was a good and decent man."