Anthony Perkins Biography

(born April 4, 1932, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 12, 1992, Hollywood, Calif.) American actor who was best remembered for his portrayal of murderous motel owner Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho (1960); he reprised this role in three sequels (1983, 1986, and 1990).

Perkins made his film debut in The Actress (1953) while studying at Columbia University in New York City. The following year he starred on Broadway as the sensitive adolescent, Tom Lee, in Tea and Sympathy. He earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a young Quaker in the film Friendly Persuasion (1956). Perkins specialized in playing awkward young men, notably in Fear Strikes Out (1957), The Tin Star (1957), and Desire Under the Elms (1958), before attracting international notice for Psycho. He then appeared in several films in Europe, including The Trial (1963), The Champagne Murders (1968), and Ten Days Wonder (1972), and in such American films as Pretty Poison (1968), Catch-22 (1970), and WUSA (1970). Some of his other screen credits included The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Edge of Sanity (1989). Perkins also appeared in such plays as Look Homeward, Angel; Harold; Steambath; and Romantic Comedy, as well as the television movie In the Deep Woods (1992), which was broadcast after his death.