Known For
Acting
Born
Jul 06, 1927
Died
Oct 03, 2004
Place of Birth
Merced, California, USA
Credits
139 titles
Janet Leigh
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.
Known For
Filmography
100 Years of the Idiot: A Jerry Lewis Centenary
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
Self (archive footage)
Pictures of Ghosts
Self (archive footage)
Jamie Lee Curtis: Hollywood Call of Freedom
Self (archive footage)
Rat Pack
Self (archive footage)
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
Self (archive footage)
Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"
(archive footage)
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Self (archive footage)
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
Self (archive footage)
The Making of 'Psycho'
Self
Bad Girls from Valley High
Mrs. Witt
Tales from the Mist: Inside 'The Fog'
Self
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film
Self
The American Nightmare
Self
Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies
Self
Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond
Herself
Rat Pack: A Conference of Cool
Self
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius
Self
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
Self
Family Law
Mary Sawyer
Anthony Perkins: A Life in the Shadows
Self
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Norma
In My Sister's Shadow
Kay Connor
Scene by Scene
Self
E! True Hollywood Story
Jerry Lewis: The Last American Clown
Self - Interviewee
Inside the Dream Factory
Self
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
Self
Secret Lives
Touched by an Angel
Vera King
The Story of Lassie
Self
Hitchcock: Alfred the Great
Self
Intimate Portrait
Self (archive footage)
The Egg
The egg (voice) (archive footage)
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Self
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
Self
The Making Of Psycho III
Marion Crane (archive footage)
Psycho III
Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Twilight Zone
Barbara LeMay
Night of 100 Stars II
Self
Murder, She Wrote
Cornelia Montaigne Harper
Psycho II
Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Matt Houston
Ramona
Night of 100 Stars
Self
The Fog
Kathy Williams
Boardwalk
Florence Cohen
Mirror, Mirror
Millie Gorman
Tales of the Unexpected
Joan Stackpole