Janet Leigh
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
127
Gender
Female
Birthday
1927-07-06
Day of death
2004-10-03 (77 years old)
Place of Birth
Merced, California, USA
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
Columbo
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Murder, She Wrote
The Love Boat
Golden Globe Awards
Touched by an Angel
The Twilight Zone
Intimate Portrait
Intimate Portrait
Psycho
Tales of the Unexpected
Matt Houston
What's My Line?
What's My Line?
The Oscars
The Ed Sullivan Show
This Is Your Life
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Family Law
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Ghost Story
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Scaramouche
Little Women
Harper
Holiday Affair
Prince Valiant
Kid Rodelo
The Hollywood Palace
Jet Pilot
Rogue Cop
How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border
Strictly Dishonorable
Bye Bye Birdie
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Rat Pack
Fearless Fagan
Confidentially Connie
Safari
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film
Boardwalk
Pepe
Touch of Evil
Night of the Lepus
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
An American Dream
The Manchurian Candidate
The Fog
The Vikings
Anthony Perkins: A Life in the Shadows
Act of Violence
The American Nightmare
Scene by Scene
A Star Is Born World Premiere
The Perfect Furlough
Houdini
Psycho II
Words and Music
Angels in the Outfield
The Naked Spur
The Spy in the Green Hat
Three on a Couch
That Forsyte Woman
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
The Egg
Hills of Home
My Sister Eileen
The Black Shield of Falworth
Walking My Baby Back Home
Telethon
Who Was That Lady?
Night of 100 Stars
Grand Slam
The Making of 'Psycho'
It's a Big Country
One Is a Lonely Number
The Deadly Dream
Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond
House on Greenapple Road
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Murder at the World Series
Hello Down There
Living It Up
The Red Danube
The Story of Lassie
Two Tickets to Broadway
Just This Once
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
Murdock's Gang
The Horror Show
Bad Girls from Valley High
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
E! True Hollywood Story
Inside the Dream Factory
If Winter Comes
24 Hour Psycho
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius
The Doctor and the Girl
Tales from the Mist: Inside 'The Fog'
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
Honeymoon with a Stranger
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Fear on Film: Inside 'The Fog'
Jerry Lewis: The Last American Clown
The Monk
The Rosemary Clooney Show
In My Sister's Shadow
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
People, Hopes, Medals
Hitchcock: Alfred the Great
Wives and Lovers
Night of 100 Stars II
Bob Hope Christmas Show
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Pete Kelly's Blues
Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
Mirror, Mirror
Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"
Come Back Little Shiksa
Nightmare
Fairfax Avenue
Rat Pack: A Conference of Cool
An Eye for an Eye
Miss Glucksman Visits Hollywood
