Leigh, Janet 1927-

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LEIGH, Janet 1927-

PERSONAL: Born Jeanette Helen Morrison, July 6, 1927, in Merced, CA; married John K. Carlyle, 1942 (marriage annulled, 1942); married Stanley Reames (a bandleader), 1946 (divorced, 1948); married Tony Curtis (an actor), 1951 (divorced, 1963); married Robert Brant (a stockbroker), 1964; children: (third marriage) Kelly Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis. Education: Attended College (now University) of the Pacific.

ADDRESSES: Home—1625 Summit Ridge Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Agent—Amsel Eisenstadt & Frazier, 5757 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 510, Los Angeles, CA 90036-3628.

CAREER: Actor in motion pictures, including The Romance of Rosey Ridge, 1947, Hills of Home, 1948, Little Women, 1949, Strictly Dishonorable, 1951, It's a Big Country, 1952, Fearless Fagan, 1952, Houdini, 1953, Living It Up, 1954, Pete Kelly's Blues, 1955, Safari, 1956, Jet Pilot, 1957, Touch of Evil, 1958, Psycho, 1960, The Manchurian Candidate, 1962, Bye, Bye Birdie, 1963, Three on a Couch, 1966, An American Dream, 1966, Hello Down There, Paramount, 1968, The Deadly Dream, 1971, One Is a Lonely Number, 1972, Boardwalk, 1979, The Fog, 1980, and Halloween: H2O, 1998; in television films, including The Monk, 1969, Honeymoon with a Stranger, 1969, and The House on Greenapple Road, 1970; and in television programs, including World Series Murders and Death's Head.

AWARDS, HONORS: Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 1960, for Psycho.

WRITINGS:

There Really Was a Hollywood (autobiography), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984.

House of Destiny (novel), Mira (Ontario, Canada) 1995.

(With Christopher Nickens) Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller, Harmony Books (New York, NY), 1995.

The Dream Factory (novel), Mira (Ontario, Canada), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: For generations of film fans, the quick-cutting chills of a naked, screaming Marion Crane meeting her fate at the hands of a shower-invading, knife-wielding maniac is a quintessential moment in movie history. For Janet Leigh, who played the doomed Marion in Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic Psycho, the role led to a respected career in movies, television, and publishing.

Born Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced, California, Leigh was discovered by actor Norma Shearer in 1946; the young ingénue's marquee name was personally chosen by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer. After getting her start in such films as Houdini and Pete Kelly's Blues, Leigh landed the role of Marion Crane. She went on to appear in such varied features as the musical Bye, Bye Birdie and the psychological thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Leigh's dramatic turn in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil was well received, and the movie itself enjoyed a revival 1998. A member of the celebrity elite in the 1960s, Leigh made headlines for her marriage to actor Tony Curtis. One of the couple's daughters is actor Jamie Lee Curtis, a horror-star in her own right; mother and daughter appeared together in The Fog and Halloween: H2O.

Despite her wide-ranging Hollywood career, Leigh is still most strongly associated with Psycho. Though the movie opened to mixed reviews in 1960, it has come to be regarded as a cult classic and director Hitchcock's grace note. In 1995, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the movie's release, Leigh collaborated with Hollywood biographer Christopher Nickens on Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. In this volume, Leigh offers her impressions of the complicated filming of Psycho, along the way providing "some fascinating glimpses of Hitchcock's on-set technique," according to Gordon Flagg of Booklist. Among the revelations, Leigh comments that, contrary to rumor, the Psycho set was a jovial one; that she wore strategically placed moleskin to film the shower scene; and that making the film led to a new personal habit for the actor: "I stopped taking showers and I take baths, only baths," Leigh remarked in a 1995 New York Times interview with Bernard Weinraub. When only a shower is available, "I make sure the doors and windows of the house are locked, and I leave the bathroom door open and [the] shower curtain open. I'm always facing the door, watching, no matter where the shower head is." Studying the infamous shower sequence, according to Weinraub's article, Leigh noticed "a light, almost an ethereal light, a heavenly light on Marion. It was like she was being purified. Cleansed. The water—it was like she was being baptized. She was cleaning not only her body but also the inner dirt. And this made the attack even more horrible."

Leigh is also the author of two Hollywood-insider novels, House of Destiny and The Dream Factory. Of the former, a Publishers Weekly contributor noted that the actor/author "will never win any prizes for style" but that Leigh "weaves fact and fiction bravely." Booklist's Melanie Duncan said that the story of a young man's show-business ambitions "will appeal to devotees of Hollywood fact and fiction," adding that Leigh "manages to insert personal history in several places."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 1995, Gordon Flagg, review of Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller, p. 1715; September 1, 1995, Melanie Duncan, review of House of Destiny, p. 40.

Books, February, 1996, review of House of Destiny, p. 25.

Entertainment Weekly, June 23, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 49.

Films in Review, September, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 69.

Interview, September, 1998, Patrick Giles, "Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back into the Shower," p. 66.

Journal of American Culture, spring, 1998, review of Psycho, p. 98.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 445.

Library Journal, May 15, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 74; August, 1995, review of House of Destiny, p. 64.

New York Times, May 1, 1995, Bernard Weinraub, "'Psycho' Deep in Janet Leigh's Psyche"; July 6, 1995, review of Psycho, p. C13.

New York Times Book Review, November 4, 1984, pg. 13; June 18, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 20; November 26, 1995, review of House of Destiny, p. 19.

People, August 7, 1995, Cynthia Sanz, "Coming Clean: Janet Leigh, Still Shower-Shy, Tells All about Psycho," p. 85; November 9, 1998, Elizabeth Leonard, "Talking with Janet Leigh," p. 33.

Publishers Weekly, May 22, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 42; July 31, 1995, review of House of Destiny, p. 66; January 21, 2002, review of The Dream Factory, p. 66.

Rapport, February, 1996, review of House of Destiny, p. 33.

Sight and Sound, November, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 37.

Washington Post Book World, August 13, 1995, review of Psycho, p. 11.