Jamie Lee Curtis Pays Emotional Tribute to ‘First Crush’ Robert Carradine Following His Death

Jamie Lee Curtis is mourning the loss of Robert Carradine, her first boyfriend and “first crush,” following the Lizzie McGuire actor’s death at age 71.

The Oscar-winning actress, 67, took to social media after Carradine’s family announced on Monday that the actor had died by suicide after a 20-year struggle with bipolar disorder, remembering their “very public meet cute” and time as a “little family” in the 1970s.

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“I woke up to the news that Robert Carradine died,” she wrote on Instagram alongside throwback photos of her late ex. “I met him live on television on the Dinah Shore show when they had a bunch of second generation actors, we would call them now Nepo babies, Veronica Cartwright, and Bobby and I came on last and Bobby rearranged where we were all sitting so that he could sit next to me and he kissed me, live on television. A very public meet cute.”

Curtis recalled meeting Carradine’s daughter, actress Ever Carradine, when she was in the burn unit at 3-years-old after suffering a “terrible burn from hot water,” recalling seeing “this little girl wrapped in gauze with the biggest smile on her face and the most beautiful eyes.”

“We became a little family, in a dirt floored house in Laurel Canyon, and it was my first experience with domesticity and motherhood and partnership,” the Freaky Friday star remembered. “I remember walking with Ever to the little Canyon market and bringing our laundry down to the laundromat below and folding her little clothes for the first time and the simplicity and beauty of Laurel Canyon in the late 70s.”

She continued, “Bobby had made a movie with Melanie Griffith and they were lovers and later in my life Melanie and I became colleagues and ride or die best friends and we remain so to this day and she was the one who told me about his passing.”

Looking back on a specific memory with Carradine, Curtis wrote, “Bobby was a racecar driver and he drove fast and furious in a Corvette on Mulholland. It’s a miracle we weren’t killed. One day I remember the sun hitting his face and me turning and looking at him and saying ‘Wait, were you in the movie The Cowboys? Were you Slim?’”

“He was my first crush in the movies and I didn’t realize it,” she continued. “He also starred in a movie with my husband, Christopher Guest The Long Riders where a group of different sets of brothers all portrayed these real life historical brothers.”

Even after they broke up, Curtis said she and Carradine “remained friends,” and that she’s still close with his daughter as well. The Halloween actress concluded, “The long and winding road. Rest in speed and humor and love, Bobby.”