Academy Award-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis received congratulations from everyone, everywhere on Sunday, but one message stood out: From a former star quarterback at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville and University of Maryland alum.

The friendship between Curtis and Tim Strachan began in 1993, after his spinal cord was injured while swimming at Bethany Beach.

At the time, Curtis was filming “True Lies” with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the District, where Strachan’s brother, beau, was working as a grip.

After the Washington Post ran a lengthy story about Strachan’s injury and his rehabilitation, Curtis walked up to Beau and said she wanted to visit him. She ended up visiting Strachan several times and even exchanging phone numbers and emails.

“One day back then a friend of mine came by the hospital room to see me and was most surprised to see Jamie Lee there,” Strachan recalled recently. “Jamie Lee decided that I needed a VCR in my room and had brought it in and was mounting it herself. She was just such a normal person.”

Curtis and Strachan have continued to correspond over the years and he visited with her in person at a book-signing in Bethesda in 2018. After Curtis won the Oscar Sunday, he texted her congratulations:

“I have never had the chance to congratulate an Oscar winner directly, so here it is. Well deserved!”

On Tuesday, Curtis responded, using Strachan’s old football nickname in a Facebook post:

“I love you T! You are the exemplar of life on life’s terms, and you sit up and show up with LOVE and SUPPORT and DEDICATION to FAMILY.”

Support the Wire and Community Journalism
Make a one-time donation or become a regular supporter here.