Sergeant Anthony Curtis is a fictional character from the 1995 film Dead Presidents, played by Larenz Tate. He is loosely based on Haywood T. Kirkland whose story was told in Wallace Terry's book Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans. The film Dead Presidents is based on this book.

Biography

Curtis was born into an African American family in the north-eastern part of The Bronx in New York City, in 1951. His father, Edward, was a Korean War veteran and his brother, Andrew, was a college student. Anthony worked as a milk man in 1968. He graduated from high school in 1969 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, much to the disappointment of his family who wanted him to go to City College on a financial aid program like his older brother. Before leaving for the military, he worked for Kirby, a local criminal, and impregnated his girlfriend, Juanita Benson.

He was deployed to Vietnam in 1971 alongside his school friends, Skip and Jose, who were drafted. He eventually became a member of Team Cobra, a Force Recon unit and earned a Silver Star for valor. He rose to the rank of Sergeant and completed two tours of duty before returning home in late 1973. With his unit, he experienced the horrors of war first hand: seeing his friend D'Ambrosio disemboweled and castrated alive by the North Vietnamese and his own team decapitating and executing enemy soldiers. Curtis gave D'Ambrosio a morphine overdose to spare him the suffering. Jose was sent home from the war after being wounded and Skip's tour of duty ended six months before Anthony's in April 1973.

Upon returning to the Bronx in 1973, he finds that Juanita has given birth to their daughter, Sarah, and that Skip was a heroin addict and dying from an unknown disease (possibly HIV/AIDS or from exposure to Agent Orange). He also found returning to civilian life difficult and that Cutty, a pimp, had been supporting his family while he was away. For a while, he worked in a butcher shop but it eventually closed down. Unable to support his family, he was then forced to turn to crime. After meeting with Juanita's younger sister, Delilah, who is a member of the Black Power movement, he gets a team together to rob an armored car. The team (made up of Anthony, Skip, Jose, Kirby, Delilah and Cleon, a member of Team Cobra who committed atrocities during the war but is now a preacher) rob the car as it makes a stop at the Federal Reserve Bank early one morning. It goes wrong and ends with the deaths of four security guards, a policeman, Jose and Delilah, as well as the destruction of the van. They still salvage around $300,000, however.

After handing out money to people at his church, Cleon attracts the police's attention and is arrested. He eventually gives up the identities of the other robbers and the police round them up one by one. Skip is found dead of an overdose after police raid his apartment, and Anthony and Kirby are caught at a pool hall as they plan their escape to Mexico. In court, Curtis is sentenced to fifteen years to life imprisonment and the film ends with him on a bus heading to prison.