Janet Leigh
Known For
Acting
Born
1927-07-06 in Merced, California, USA
Died
2004-10-03
Biography
Janet Leigh (born Jeanette Helen Morrison; July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leigh appeared in radio programs before her first formal foray into acting, making her film debut in the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947). With MGM, she appeared in many films which spanned a wide variety of genres, which include the crime-drama Act of Violence (1948), the drama Little Women (1949), the comedy Angels in the Outfield (1951), the romance Scaramouche (1952) and the western drama The Naked Spur (1953). She played dramatic roles during the late 1950s, in such films as Safari (1956) and Orson Welles's film noir Touch of Evil (1958). With RKO Radio pictures she co-starred in the romantic comedy Holiday Affair (1949) with Robert Mitchum. Leigh achieved her biggest success starring as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Psycho (1960). For her performance, Leigh won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Intermittently, she continued to appear in films, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979). She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in a production of Murder Among Friends. She would also go on to appear in two horror films with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). In addition to her work as an actress, Leigh also wrote four books between 1984 and 2002, two of which were novels. Leigh had two brief marriages as a teenager (one of which was annulled) before marrying actor Tony Curtis in 1951. The pair's highly publicized union ended in divorce in 1962, and after starring in The Manchurian Candidate that same year, Leigh remarried and scaled back her career. She died in October 2004 at age 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels.
Most Known For
Columbo
as Grace Wheeler Willis
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
Murder, She Wrote
as Cornelia Montaigne Harper
The Love Boat
as Joan Philipps / Gail
Golden Globe Awards
as Self
The Twilight Zone
as Barbara LeMay
What's My Line?
as Self
What's My Line?
as Self - Panelist
Touched by an Angel
as Vera King
The Oscars
as Self
Intimate Portrait
as Self (archive footage)
Intimate Portrait
as Self
Psycho
as Marion Crane
Tales of the Unexpected
as Joan Stackpole
The Colgate Comedy Hour
as Self
The Ed Sullivan Show
as Self
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
as Miss Diketon
Ghost Story
as Carol
Matt Houston
as Ramona