Janet Leigh
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| Janet Leigh | ||||||
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| Image:Janet Leigh and daughters Kelly Curtis (left) and Jamie Lee Curtis at the National Film Society convention - May 1979.jpg Janet Leigh with daughters Kelly Curtis (left) and Jamie Lee Curtis at the National Film Society Convention (May 1979) | ||||||
| Birth name | Jeanette Helen Morrison | |||||
| Born | July 6 1927 Merced, California, United States | |||||
| Died | October 3 2004 (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, United States | |||||
| Years active | 1947–1998 | |||||
| Spouse(s) | John Caryle (1942-1942) (divorced) Stanley Reames (1946-1948) (divorced) Tony Curtis (1951-1962) (divorced) Robert Brandt (1962-2004) (her death) | |||||
| Children | Kelly Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis | |||||
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Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004) — better known as Janet Leigh — was an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning American actress.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Leigh was born in Merced, California, the only child of Helen Lita (née Westergard) and Frederick Robert Morrison. She was discovered by actress Norma Shearer, whose late husband Irving Thalberg had been a senior executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Shearer showed talent agent Lew Wasserman the photograph she had seen of Leigh while vacationing at the ski resort where the girl's parents worked. She left the University of the Pacific, where she was studying music and psychology, after Wasserman secured a contract with MGM.
[edit] Career
Throughout the 1950s, Leigh starred in movies that well showed off her beautiful presence, most notably taking the leading blonde role in the musical comedy My Sister Eileen, co-starring Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett and Dick York.
Leigh's best-known role was as the morally ambiguous Marion Crane in the Alfred Hitchcock classic 1960 film Psycho. In spite of her outstanding performance as Crane, Leigh went through typecasting and spent most of her career doing guest appearances on TV shows. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe and an Academy award nomination. Years later, she wrote a book about the making of Psycho, in which she dispelled the urban legends which had popped up around it, notably, about the immortal "shower scene."
In 1975, Leigh played a retired Hollywood song and dance star opposite Peter Falk in Columbo: Forgotten Lady. She also appeared in two horror films with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, playing a major role in The Fog (1980), and making a brief appearance in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
[edit] Personal life
Leigh married her third husband, Tony Curtis, on June 4, 1951. They had two children, actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee. Curtis, who admitted to cheating on her throughout their marriage, left Leigh in 1962 for Christine Kaufmann, the 17-year-old German co-star of his latest film Taras Bulba. Leigh was granted a quick divorce, and married stockbroker Robert Brandt later that year in Las Vegas. They remained married until her death. Leigh served on the board of directors of the Motion Picture and Television Foundation, a medical-services provider for actors.
Leigh was awarded an "Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts" degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California on May 14, 2004. She delivered an inspirational speech to graduating students, faculty, and administrators in accepting her award.
She died at her home on October 3, 2004 aged 77 after suffering cardiac arrest. Her family was at her side. Leigh also suffered from vasculitis and peripheral neuropathy, which caused her right hand to become gangrenous.
[edit] Filmography
- Act of Violence (1948)
- Hills of Home (1948)
- Holiday Affair (1949)
- Little Women (1949)
- That Forsyte Woman (1950)
- Angels in the Outfield (1951)
- Scaramouche (1952)
- Just This Once (1952)
- Confidentially Connie (1953)
- The Naked Spur (1953)
- Houdini (1953)
- Walking My Baby Back Home (1953)
- Prince Valiant (1954)
- The Black Shield of Falworth (1954)
- Living It Up (1954)
- Rogue Cop (1954)
- Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
- My Sister Eileen (1955)
- Jet Pilot (1957)
- Touch of Evil (1958)
- The Vikings (1958)
- Psycho (1960)
- Who Was That Lady? (1960)
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
- Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
- Three on a Couch (1966)
- Harper (1966)
- Grand Slam (1967)
- Hello Down There (1969)
- Night of the Lepus (1972)
- One Is a Lonely Number (1972)
- Columbo: Forgotten Lady (TV) (1975)
- The Fog (1980)
- Psycho II (1983) (Cameo/Flashback)
- Terror in the Aisles (1984) (Archival appearance)
- Psycho III (1986) (Cameo/Flashback)
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
[edit] External links
- Janet Leigh at the Internet Movie Database
- Janet Leigh at the Internet Broadway Database
- Janet Leigh at the TCM Movie Database
- Reelclassics.com Page
- Janet Leigh at TV.com
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Susan Kohner for Imitation of Life | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture 1960 for Psycho | Succeeded by Rita Moreno for West Side Story |
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Categories: 1927 births | 2004 deaths | American film actors | American musical theatre actors | American stage actors | American television actors | Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) | California actors | Deaths by myocardial infarction | Hollywood Walk of Fame | People from Merced, California
