Posted on 10/04/2004 1:59:22 AM PDT by kattracks
Actress Janet Leigh, whose gruesome and bloody murder in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" scared millions of female moviegoers out of the shower, died yesterday at her Beverly Hills home. She was 77.Leigh had been battling vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, for a year.
"She died peacefully, surrounded by her family," including actress-daughters Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis, said Heidi Schaeffer, Jamie Lee Curtis' spokeswoman.
Born Jeanette Helen Morrison to parents who often moved from town to town, Leigh was "discovered" when MGM's Norma Shearer saw her picture at the front desk of a California ski resort, where her father worked the front desk and her mom was a maid.
The pretty and curvaceous actress went on to capture ingenue roles in a number of films, working with such leading stars as Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Orson Welles and Judy Garland.
Her career would included a number of successful movies, including "Little Women," "Angels in the Outfield," "Scaramouche," "Houdini," "The Black Shield of Falworth," and "The Manchurian Candidate."
She co-starred with Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1980 horror flick "The Fog." Her last movie was "A Fate Totally Worse Than Death" in 2000.
Although Leigh played in every type of film, from comedies and musicals to westerns and dramas, the high point of her 63-movie career was undeniably the role of Marion Crane, the doomed embezzler in "Psycho."
Leigh earned just $25,000 for her 45 minutes on the screen in the Hitchcock thriller, but her performance as the slashing victim of Tony Perkins earned her a Golden Globe, an Academy Award nomination and a place in Hollywood history.
When asked if "Psycho" had actually made her shower shy too, Leigh said, "It's actually, honestly true. Not because of the shooting of it. It was the seeing of it. It never dawned on me how truly vulnerable we are."
Leigh, who skipped several grades and finished high school at 15, was considered a bright but lonely child who eloped with a boyfriend at 14. The marriage was annulled.
Another marriage ended in divorce and in 1951 Leigh married actor Tony Curtis, father of her daughters.
She and Curtis were celebrated as Hollywood's Perfect Young Couple, but their marriage ended in divorce in 1962. Leigh took her fourth husband that same year.
In the 1970s, Leigh appeared in a number of made for TV movies and in 1984 published an autobiography. Empire magazine named her one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history in 1995.
Originally published on October 4, 2004
That's sad. Oddly, I was just thinking of Janet Leigh yesterday. She was really hot in "Touch of Evil." I recommend that one. Chuck Heston is in it too, playing the mexican Vargus. The first shot of the film is one of the best shots in film history.
"Touch of Evil." I recommend that one.
You make it sound quite interesting. Turner and/or Fox will probably show a bunch of her movies in commemoration. I'll look for this one.
Yeah, you'll like it. "Touch of Evil" was an Orson Welles film. One of his best. Janet was good in "Psycho" too, but as I recall she gets killed off early in the picture.
Thanks for the memories, Janet.
RIP.
Caught the shower seen in Psycho on TCM a very few days ago. Just watched through Leigh's scenes, watching the build up. Not a single knife wound on camera. She was a cutie.
Hitchcock knew Leigh was the picture of vulnerability.
And Touch of Evil is shown quite frequently on TCM, and it's available on DVD, I think. Worth it to see one of Welles' better performances, and an great picture of corruption.
God rest her soul.
She's just been on TCM narrating a short clip on being "discovered" by Ms. Shearer. Their friendship seemed to mean a lot to Ms. Leigh, and went on for quite a while.
Great actress!
Ah, Norma Shearer, she was so great, so beautiful. A woman from another age, really. I'm glad I'm old enough to have seen some of the great old movies re-run in actual movie houses.
Now we will have to live the rest of our lives in the future. I always loved the Jetsons, but I'm not really sure I'm happy about having to live there.
The internet is pretty cool though.
.
"There's a FOG-bank out there"
.
For years, I was always watching for shadows on the shower curtain.
RIP.
One of the classic drive-in movie quotes, even more so because it's delivered by a cop to the patrons at a drive-in movie...
It is so wonderful that TCM has most of her films and shows them on a regular basis. She had become something of an unknown today. I love all her work, even the silent films
Shower time!
"Attention! Attention! There's a herd of giant, killer rabbits coming this way and we desperately need your help!"
Wow! Maybe it was one of THAT herd that Carter fought off with the paddle in his boat!
(for those clueless, President Jimmy Carter...yes, OUR ex-president...claimed that he had to whack a 'killer rabbit'with the paddle from his rowboat in order to keep it from climbing in and attacking him! look it up!)
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