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Quick Facts
- NAME: Janet Leigh
- OCCUPATION: Film Actress
- BIRTH DATE: July 06, 1927
- DEATH DATE: October 03, 2004
- EDUCATION: College of the Pacific
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Merced, California
- PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles
- Originally: Jeanette Helen Morrison
Best Known For
Janet Leigh was an American actress. She starred in the 1960s film Psycho. She was the wife of Tony Curtis and mother of Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis.
Janet Leigh. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 12:03, May 23, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160
Janet Leigh [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160, May 23
" Janet Leigh." 2012. Biography.com 23 May 2012, 12:03 http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160
' Janet Leigh', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160 [accessed May 23, 2012]
" Janet Leigh," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160 (accessed May 23, 2012).
Janet Leigh [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 May 23]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160.
Janet Leigh, http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160 (last visited May 23, 2012).
Janet Leigh, http://www.biography.com/people/janet-leigh-9542160 (last visited May 23, 2012).
Synopsis
Janet Leigh (b. July 6,
1927) was an American screen actress. She starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960s film Psycho as the doomed Marion Crane. She was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She also starred in Orson Welles' film noir Touch of Evil. She was the wife of Tony Curtis and mother of Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis. She died at the age of 77.
Profile
Screen actress, born Jeanette Helen Morrison, in Merced, California, on July 6, 1927. Leigh attended grammar and high school in Stockton, California, skipping several grades and graduating at age 15. She studied music and psychology at the College of the Pacific. She was married twice at a young age, first in 1942 to John Carlyle (annulled), and to Stanley Reames in 1946, ending in divorce in 1948.
Leigh was discovered by retired MGM actress Norma Shearer who saw a picture of her at a ski resort and recommended her for a screen test. Leigh landed an MGM contract, and her first film was The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947), with Van Johnson.
Leigh was cast in ingenue roles in a number of films in the late 1940s and early 1950s and worked with many leading stars of the time. In 1951, she married actor Tony Curtis and had two daughters, Kelly Lee (1956) and Jamie Lee (1958). Leigh and Curtis appeared in five films together, most notably Houdini (1953). In 1962, she divorced Curtis and married director Robert Brandt.
Her most successful movies included Little Women (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), and Orson Welles' film noir Touch of Evil (1958). But she is best known for her shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)—one of the most terrifying moments ever committed to film. For her performance, Leigh won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
Her career began to wane in the 1960s. She co-starred opposite Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and with Paul Newman in Harper (1966). She then appeared in a series of made-for-television movies and minor feature films.
Leigh died at the age of 77 in her Beverly Hills home in October 2004 after suffering for a year from vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels.
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