Her mother and sister were both writers of crime novels, just like her: Who is Ursula Curtiss?

“I saw what you did and I know who you are” - This sentence is a very famous phrase taken from the movie (“I Saw What You Did”), which was shot twice in a row in 1965 and 1988, based on the novel published by Ursula Curtiss in 1964. It is a line.

Ursula Kieran Reilly Curtiss was born in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Westport, Connecticut, the daughter of Paul Reilly and Helen Kieran Reilly.

Her mother was also a crime novelist, and so was her sister, Mary McMullen.

Ursula Reilly's grandfather was James Michael Kieran, a one-time president of Hunter College. Her uncle was journalist John Kieran. Ursula Reilly graduated from Lauralton Hall, a Catholic girls' high school in Milford, Connecticut.

Ursula Kieran Reilly Curtiss (April 8, 1923 — October 10, 1984) was an American writer of mystery novels. Ursula Kieran Reilly was born in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Westport, Connecticut, the daughter of Paul Reilly and Helen Kieran Reilly. Her mother was a mystery writer, as was her sister, Mary McMullen. 

Ursula Curtiss' novels include Voice Out of Darkness (1948), The Second Sickle (1951), The Iron Cobweb (1953), The Noonday Devil (1953), The Deadly Climate (1954), Widow's Web (1956), The Face of the Tiger (1958), So Dies the Dreamer (1960), The Stairway (1961), The Forbidden Garden (1962), Hours to Kill (1962), The Wasp (1963), Child's Play (1964), Danger: Hospital Zone (1967), Don't Open the Door! (1969), Letter of Intent (1971), Dig a Little Deeper (1976), In Cold Pursuit (1977), The Menace Within (1978), Poisoned Orchard (1980), Graveyard Shift (1982) and Death of a Crow ( 1983). She has also written short stories and some of her novels have been serialized in magazines such as Good Housekeeping and The Australian Women's Weekly.

Three films have been made based on Curtiss's stories, I Saw What You Did (1965), the 1988 television remake, and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969).

She also wrote stories for several television episodes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Curtiss won the Red Badge Mystery Award for best new mystery work in 1948 and the Zia Award as an outstanding New Mexico novelist in 1963.