Janet Leigh as Marion Crane
Phoenix officeworker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. She has to meet her lover Sam in lunch breaks and they cannot get married because Sam has to give most of his money away in alimony. One Friday Marion is trusted to bank $40,000 by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards Sam's California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into The Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother.
Biography for Janet Leigh:
Janet was an only child of a couple who often moved from town to town. Living in apartments, Janet was a bright child who skipped several grades and finished high school when she was 15. As a lonely child, she would spend much of her time at movie theaters. She was a student, studying music and psychology, at the University of the Pacific until she was "discovered" visiting her parents in Northern California. Her father was working the desk at a ski resort where her mother worked as a maid. Retired MGM actress Norma Shearer saw a picture of Janet on the front desk and asked if she could borrow it. This led to a screen test at MGM and a starring role in 'The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947)'. MGM was looking for a young naive country girl and Janet filled the bill perfectly. She would play the young ingenue in a number of films and work with the leading stars, including, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Orson Welles and Judy Garland. Her career would include a number of successful movies including 'Little Women (1949)', Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), Houdini (1953), 'The Black Shield of Falworth (1954)' and many others. Janet would appear in many types of films, from comedies to westerns to musicals to dramas. Of her more than fifty movies, she would be remembered for the forty-five minutes that she was on the screen in the small budget movie 'Psycho'. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this 1960 thriller would include the shower scene that would become a film classic. Even though Janet is killed off early in the picture, she would be nominated for an Academy Award and receive a Golden Globe. Her next film would be 'The Manchurian Candidate (1962)' where she would star with Frank Sinatra. For the rest of the decade, her appearances in films would be rare, but she would work with Paul Newman in 'Harper (1966)'. In the seventies, she would appear on the small screen in a number of made for Television Movies.
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Trivia
Was 'discovered' by Norma Shearer from a photo on the desk of Janet's father.
In 1950's was known as a "Hollywood badgirl" along with Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood.
There were rumors that Howard Hughes (I), who owned RKO, was romantically interested in Janet, but she wed Tony Curtis.
Mother of Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis (I).
(1995) Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#99).
Eloped at the age of 14 -- marriage was later annulled. Thus, Tony Curtis was her 3rd husband when she married him in her 20s.
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Personal quotes
When asked if it was true that she doesn't take showers: "It's actually, honestly true. And not because of the shooting of it. It was the seeing of it. It never dawned on me how truly vulnerable we are. But that's what Hitchcock did. A shower. A bird. All these things that are absolutely ordinary, he made extraordinary."
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia: Millions of female moviegoers swore they'd never step into a shower again after seeing this pretty, curvaceous blond actress hacked to death in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). The performance earned Leigh an Oscar nomination, and it remains the career high point of a talented actress who survived the studio system to appear in some of the most noteworthy films of the 1950s and 1960s. She was initially signed to MGM after being spotted by Norma Shearer while still in her teens (debuting in 1947's The Romance of Rosy Ridge), but only a handful of her films there were memorable, notably Little Women (1949), the baseball fantasy Angels in the Outfield (1951), and the psycho-Western The Naked Spur (1953).
In 1951 Leigh married Universal contract player Tony Curtis, and they were celebrated as Hollywood's Perfect Young Couple, appearing together in Houdini (1953), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Perfect Furlough and The Vikings (both 1958). She played the luscious younger sib in the musical My Sister Eileen (1955), a Russian flier in the campy Jet Pilot (1957), a newlywed kidnapped by drug dealers in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958), and long-suffering girlfriends in two wildly different films, The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963, in which she performed an energetic dance routine). Leigh was more active on TV than in features from the late 1960s on, as an attractive, mature lead or in strong secondary roles. She costarred with daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in The Fog (1980). In 1984 she published an autobiography, "There Really Was a Hollywood" and her memoir of the filming of Psycho appeared in 1995.
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001) (TV) .... Herself
Fate Totally Worse Than Death, A (2000)
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (2000) .... Herself
Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies (2000) (TV) .... Herself
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius (1999) (TV) .... Herself
... aka Dial H Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman (1999) (TV)
... aka Dial H for Hitchcock (1999) (TV) (Canada: English title)
Unmasking the Horror (1998) (V) .... Herself, Norma Crane
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) .... Norma Crane, Laurie's Secretary
... aka Halloween 7 (1998) (USA)
... aka Halloween: H20 (1998) (USA: promotional title)
... aka Halloween: H20 (20 Years Later) (1998) (USA: promotional title)
In My Sister's Shadow (1997) (TV) .... Kay Connor
Ei, Das (1993) (voice) .... Das Ei
... aka Janet Leigh ist das Ei (1993) (Germany)
Horror Hall of Fame, The (1990) (TV) .... Interviewee/Presenter
Salute to Jack Lemmon, A (1988) (TV) .... Herself
... aka 16th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Jack Lemmon, The (1988) (TV) (USA: complete title)
Fantasy Film World of George Pal, The (1985) .... Herself
Hitchcock: il brividio del genio (1985) (TV)
... aka Thrill of Genius, The (1985) (TV)
Terror in the Aisles (1984) (archive footage) .... Marion Crane (segment "Psycho")
... aka Time for Terror (1984) (Europe: English title: video title)
Fog, The (1980) .... Kathy Williams
... aka John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) (USA: complete title)
Boardwalk (1979) .... Florence Cohen
Mirror, Mirror (1979) (TV) .... Millie Gorman
Salute to Alfred Hitchcock, A (1979) (TV) .... Herself
... aka 7th American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Alfred Hitchcock, The (1979) (TV) (USA: complete title)
Telethon (1977) (TV) .... Elaine Cotten
Murder at the World Series (1977) (TV) .... Karen Weese
... aka Woman in Box 359, The (1977) (TV)
Circus of the Stars (1977) (TV)
Salute to Orson Welles, A (1975) (TV) .... Herself
... aka 3rd American Film Institute Life Achievement Award: A Salute to Orson Welles (1975) (TV) (USA: complete title)
Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975) (TV) .... Grace Wheeler Willis
Murdock's Gang (1973) (TV) .... Laura Talbot
Night of the Lepus (1972) .... Gerry Bennett
One Is a Lonely Number (1972) .... Gert Meredith
... aka Two Is a Happy Number (1972) (USA: changed title)
Deadly Dream (1971) (TV) .... Laurel Hanley
House on Greenapple Road, The (1970) (TV) .... Marian Ord
Hello Down There (1969) .... Vivian Miller
... aka Sub-A-Dub-Dub (1969) (USA: reissue title)
Honeymoon with a Stranger (1969) (TV) .... Sandra Latham
Monk, The (1969) (TV) .... Janice Barnes
Ad ogni costo (1968) .... Mary Ann
... aka Diamantes a gog� (1969) (Spain)
... aka Grand Slam (1968) (USA)
... aka Top Job (1968) (West Germany)
... aka Um jeden Preis (1968) (West Germany)
Spy in the Green Hat, The (1966) .... Miss Diketon
American Dream, An (1966) .... Cherry McMahon
... aka See You in Hell, Darling (1966) (UK)
Three on a Couch (1966) .... Dr. Elizabeth Acord
Harper (1966) .... Susan Harper
... aka Moving Target, The (1966) (UK)
Kid Rodelo (1965) .... Nora
Wives and Lovers (1963) .... Bertie Austin
Bye Bye Birdie (1963) .... Rosie DeLeon
Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) .... Rosie Chaney
Pepe (1960) .... Cameo appearance
Who Was That Lady? (1960) .... Ann Wilson
Psycho (1960) .... Marion Crane
Perfect Furlough, The (1958) .... Lieutenant Vicki Loren
... aka Strictly for Pleasure (1958) (UK)
Vikings, The (1958) .... Morgana
Touch of Evil (1958) .... Susan Vargas
Jet Pilot (1957) .... Lt. Anna Marladovna/Olga
Safari (1956) .... Linda Latham
Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) .... Ivy Conrad
My Sister Eileen (1955) .... Eileen Sherwood
Living It Up (1954) .... Wally Cook
Black Shield of Falworth, The (1954) .... Lady Anne
Rogue Cop (1954) .... Karen Stephanson
Prince Valiant (1954) .... Princess Aleta
Confidentially Connie (1953) .... Connie Bedloe
Houdini (1953) .... Bess Houdini
Naked Spur, The (1953) .... Lina Patch
Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) .... Chris Hall
Fearless Fagan (1952) .... Abby Ames
Just This Once (1952) .... Lucille Duncan
Scaramouche (1952) .... Aline de Gavrillac de Bourbon
Angels in the Outfield (1951) .... Jennifer Paige
... aka Angels and the Pirates (1951) (UK)
Two Tickets to Broadway (1951) .... Nancy Peterson
It's a Big Country (1951) .... Rosa Szabo Xenophon
Strictly Dishonorable (1951) .... Isabelle Dempsey
Act of Violence (1949) .... Edith Enley
Doctor and the Girl, The (1949) .... Evelyn 'Taffy' Corday
Holiday Affair (1949) .... Connie Ennis
How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border (1949)
Red Danube, The (1949) .... Maria Buhlen
That Forsyte Woman (1949) .... June Forsyte
... aka Forsyte Saga, The (1949) (UK)
Little Women (1949) .... Margaret 'Meg' March
Hills of Home (1948) .... Margit Mitchell
... aka Master of Lassie (1948) (UK)
Words and Music (1948) .... Dorothy Feiner Rodgers
If Winter Comes (1947) .... Effie Bright
Romance of Rosy Ridge, The (1947) .... Lissy Anne MacBean
Other Janet Leigh pages on Women of Horror:
The Fog