Entertainment Movies Horror & Thriller Movies Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘Halloween’ Through the Years The actress, who has played final girl Laurie Strode since the 1978 original Halloween film, has considered the part synonymous with her name By Kate Hogan Kate Hogan Kate Hogan is Director of Digital Specials and Features at PEOPLE, as well as the editor of Stories to Make You Smile. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2008. People Editorial Guidelines Updated on October 23, 2023 09:52AM EDT Close Photo: Compass International Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection; Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Long before she was an Oscar-winning actress, Jamie Lee Curtis was Laurie Strode. Just a young adult herself, the actress first embodied the teenage babysitter in Halloween in the late '70s, wherein she survives the masked murderer Michael Myers for the first time on All Hallows' Eve. Curtis likely never imagined her fight with Myers would span seven film sequels — including Halloween II (1981), Halloween Resurrection (2002) and Halloween Kills (2021) — let alone culminate 44 years later in a showdown between Laurie and Myers in 2022’s Halloween Ends. “As I play Laurie for the last time, in Halloween Ends, the final installment of the franchise, I am trying to figure out how to say goodbye to Laurie, who has taught me the meaning of the words ‘resilience,’ ‘loyalty,’ ‘perseverance’ and ‘COURAGE,’ ” Curtis wrote in honor of her character in an exclusive essay for PEOPLE in October 2022. “It's now the end for Laurie and me. I'm weeping as I write this. I'm going to miss her. Movies are make-believe, but this is my real life. Mine has been made better by her.” With Jamie Lee Curtis' Halloween days behind her, let’s look back at her long-standing legacy in the franchise that made her a horror icon. 01 of 07 Halloween, 1978 Mary Evans/COMPASS INTERNATIONAL PICTURES/FALCON INTERNATIONAL PRODUC/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection Curtis first stepped into the terrified shoes of Laurie at 19 years old in 1978, playing the Halloween "final girl" with gusto. "What was amazing to me was [it was] an acting part," Curtis told Drew Barrymore at New York Comic Con in October 2022. "She didn't look like me, she didn't dress like me, she didn't think like me. I barely got out of high school. She was like the valedictorian of her class. There was a real opportunity for me to be an actor. I hadn't had that opportunity before. For me, that was incredible." The movie made $47 million worldwide (against a budget north of $300,000) and earned a permanent spot in pop culture history. 02 of 07 Halloween II, 1981 Courtesy Everett Collection Curtis returned to face Myers in the early '80s sequel, which didn't perform as well in theaters but kept the actress' star shining. "I wouldn't have anything in my life without Laurie Strode," Curtis told Barrymore at New York Comic Con in 2022. "Nothing. I wouldn't have a career. I would not have a family." 03 of 07 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, 1998 Dimension Films/Courtesy Everett Collection Curtis took a break from the franchise for nearly 20 years, returning for the Kevin Williamson-penned sixth film alongside then-teen idols Josh Hartnett and Michelle Williams. The movie was a hit, earning more than $55 million at the box office. Speaking at New York Comic Con in 2022, Curtis said she wanted the series to end there, with Myers dying. However, studio execs disagreed. “I said, ‘I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to tease the audience again,’ ” she said. “I came up with an idea to end it." 04 of 07 Halloween: Resurrection, 2002 Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection That idea played out in 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection, after H20 ended with Laurie killing an innocent man and Resurrection began with her being institutionalized. "I said … ‘You have to kill me in the first 10 minutes of the movie because I’ve now killed an innocent man and I can’t live with that,’ " Curtis said at New York Comic Con in 2022. So the filmmakers did. 05 of 07 Halloween, 2018 Ryan Green/Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection But — much to the delight of moviegoers — Curtis couldn't stay away. She returned in 2018 in a film that picked up where the 1978 movie left off, effectively glossing over the previous sequels and kicking off a new trilogy. "[Director David Gordon Green] sent me a script and said she spent 40 years hiding behind barbed wire, emotionally and physically," Curtis explained of the character at New York Comic Con in 2022. "At the expense of her daughter and granddaughter, she knows Michael Myers is coming back. It was this incredible film about Laurie and her trauma." She added: "It was this beautiful movie about a woman taking control of her life and it coincided with the women around the world standing up and taking control of their lives and saying 'Me Too, Me Too, Time Is Up and Me Too.' " 06 of 07 Halloween Kills, 2021 Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection The immediate sequel, Halloween Kills, followed Laurie — now a grandmother — as she led a group of people affected by Myers' killing streak to go after him. "Her life had great purpose. She was a fighter," Curtis told Variety of her character's strengths in 2021. 07 of 07 Halloween Ends, 2022 Halloween Ends (2022). Ryan Green/Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection In what Curtis has called the absolute final film, Halloween Ends picks up four years after the events of Halloween Kills. Here, Laurie attempts to protect her granddaughter from a young man accused of murder who she believes is also haunted by the same evil that continues to stalk her. The ordeal leads to one last face-off between her and Myers. While Halloween Ends might mark the end of the road for Curtis' character, Myers' reign of terror is far from over. In October 2023, Deadline reported that Miramax — which coproduced the 2018–2022 trilogy — secured the rights to adapt a TV series based on the long-running slasher franchise.