Janet Leigh (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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Janet Leigh (born Jeanette Helen Morrison; July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004) was an American actress. She was the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Discovered by actress Norma Shearer, Leigh secured a contract with MGM and began her film career in 1947. She appeared in several popular films over the following decade, including Little Women (1949), Holiday Affair (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), and Living It Up (1954).

In 1951, she married actor Tony Curtis, her third husband, with whom she co-starred in five films: Houdini (1953), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Vikings (1958), The Perfect Furlough (1958) and Who Was That Lady? (1960). During the latter half of the 1950s, she played mostly dramatic roles in such films as Safari (1955), Touch of Evil (1958) and Psycho (1960), for which she was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She continued to appear occasionally in films and television, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and two films with her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

Early life

The only child of Helen Lita (née Westergaard) and Frederick Robert Morrison, Leigh was born as Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced, California, and grew up in Stockton, California. Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from Denmark. In winter 1945, she was discovered by actress Norma Shearer, whose late husband Irving Thalberg had been a senior executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Shearer showed talent agent Lew Wasserman a photograph she had seen of Leigh while vacationing at Sugar Bowl, the ski resort where the girl's parents worked. Shearer later recalled that "that smile made it the most fascinating face I had seen in years. I felt I had to show that face to somebody at the studio." Leigh left the University of the Pacific, where she was studying music and psychology, after Wasserman secured a contract with MGM, despite having no acting experience. She was placed under the tutelage of drama coach Lillian Burns.

Career

Leigh made her film debut in the big budget film The Romance of Rosy Ridge in 1947, as the romantic interest of Van Johnson's character. She got the role when performing Phyllis Thaxter's long speech in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) for the head of the studio talent department in 1946. During the shooting, Leigh's name was first changed to 'Jeanette Reames', then to 'Janet Leigh' and finally back to her birth name 'Jeanette Morrison', because 'Janet Leigh' resembled Vivien Leigh too much. However, Johnson did not like the name and it was finally changed back to 'Janet Leigh'. Leigh initially left college for a film career, but enrolled in night school at the University of Southern California in 1947.

Immediately after the film's release, Leigh was cast opposite Walter Pidgeon and Deborah Kerr in If Winter Comes (1947) in the summer of 1947. Furthermore, due to the box office success of The Romance of Rosy Ridge, Leigh and Johnson were teamed up again in a film project called The Life of Monty Stratton in August 1947. The project was eventually shelved and released in 1949 as The Stratton Story, starring James Stewart and June Allyson. Another film that Leigh was set to star in, before being replaced, was Alias a Gentleman, in which she was cast in April 1947. By late 1947, Leigh was occupied with the shooting of the Lassie film Hills of Home (1948), the first film in which she received star billing.

In late 1948, Leigh was hailed the 'No. 1 glamor girl' of Hollywood, although known for her polite, generous and down-to-earth persona.

Many movies followed, notably the title role in the musical comedy My Sister Eileen, co-starring Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett and Dick York. She proved versatile, starring in films as diverse as the baseball farce Angels in the Outfield in 1951 and the tense western The Naked Spur in 1953. The following year, she had a supporting role in the Martin and Lewis comedy Living It Up, later starring with Jerry Lewis once more in Three On a Couch.

Her initial roles were ingenues based on characters from historical literature, for example in Scaramouche opposite Stewart Granger. By 1958, she moved to more complex roles.

She co-starred with third husband Tony Curtis in five films, Houdini (1953), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), The Vikings (1958), The Perfect Furlough (1958), and Who Was That Lady? (1960).

In 1958, Leigh starred in the Orson Welles film-noir classic Touch of Evil (1958).

Her best-known performance was as "Marion Crane" in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho (1960). The fact that the star died early in the movie violated narrative conventions of the time. She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leigh had starring roles in many other films, including The Manchurian Candidate (1962) with Frank Sinatra, and Bye Bye Birdie (1963) based on the hit Broadway show.

In 1975, Leigh played a retired Hollywood song and dance star opposite Peter Falk and John Payne in the Columbo episode Forgotten Lady. The episode utilizes footage of Leigh from the film Walking My Baby Back Home (1953). Some of her TV appearances include The Man From U.N.C.L.E. two-part episode, "The Concrete Overcoat Affair", in 1966, and the Murder, She Wrote 1987 episode, "Doom with a View". She also appeared in two horror films with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, playing a major role in The Fog (1980), and making a brief appearance in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

Leigh is also the author of four books. Her first, the memoir There Really Was a Hollywood, was a New York Times bestseller. This was followed by the novels House of Destiny and The Dream Factory and the non-fiction book Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller. Leigh's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis is also an actress and popular author.

Personal life

At the age of 15 (pretending to be 18) Leigh married 18-year-old John Kenneth Carlisle in Reno, Nevada, on August 1, 1942. The marriage was annulled four months later, on December 28, 1942.

She married Stanley Reames in 1945 and they were divorced in 1948.

Leigh married her third husband, Tony Curtis, on June 4, 1951. They had two children, Kelly and Jamie Lee, who both subsequently became actresses. Following their divorce in 1962, Leigh married stockbroker, Robert Brandt, in Las Vegas; they remained married until her death.

She served on the board of directors of the Motion Picture and Television Foundation, a medical-services provider for actors.

Leigh was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, on May 14, 2004.

Leigh was a Democrat and appeared alongside Tony Curtis at the 1960 Democratic National Convention.

Death

Leigh died at her home on October 3, 2004, after suffering a heart attack. She suffered from vasculitis and peripheral neuropathy, which caused her right hand to become gangrenous. She was cremated after death and her ashes are interred in a niche in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1947	The Romance of Rosy Ridge	Lissy Anne MacBean	MGM film
	If Winter Comes	Effie Bright	MGM film
1948	Hills of Home	Margit Mitchell	MGM film
	Words and Music	Dorothy Feiner Rodgers	MGM film
	Act of Violence	Edith Enley	MGM film
1949	Little Women	Margaret 'Meg' March/Brooke	MGM film
	The Red Danube	Olga Alexandrova aka Maria Buhlen	MGM film
	The Doctor and the Girl	Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon	MGM film
	That Forsyte Woman	June Forsyte	MGM film
	Holiday Affair	Connie Ennis	RKO film
1951	Strictly Dishonorable	Isabelle Perry	MGM film
	Angels in the Outfield	Jennifer Paige	MGM film
	Two Tickets to Broadway	Nancy Peterson	RKO film
	It's a Big Country	Rosa Szabo Xenophon	MGM film
1952	Just This Once	Lucille 'Lucy' Duncan	MGM film
	Scaramouche	Aline de Gavrillac de Bourbon	MGM film
	Fearless Fagan	Abby Ames	MGM film
1953	The Naked Spur	Lina Patch	MGM film
	Confidentially Connie	Connie Bedloe	MGM film
	Houdini	Bess Houdini	Paramount film
	Walking My Baby Back Home	Chris Hall	Universal film
1954	Prince Valiant	Princess Aleta	Fox film
	Living It Up	Wally Cook	Paramount film
	The Black Shield of Falworth	Lady Anne	Universal film
	Rogue Cop	Karen Stephanson	MGM film
1955	Pete Kelly's Blues	Ivy Conrad	WB film
	My Sister Eileen	Eileen Sherwood	Columbia film
1956	Safari	Linda Latham	Columbia film
1957	Jet Pilot	Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon/Olga Orlief	Made by RKO, released by Universal
1958	Touch of Evil	Susan 'Susie' Vargas	Universal film
	The Vikings	Morgana	UA film
	The Perfect Furlough	Lt. Vicki Loren	Universal film
1960	Who Was That Lady?	Ann Wilson	Columbia film Nominated - Golden Laurel for Top Female Comedy Performance
	Psycho	Marion Crane	Paramount film (later sold to Universal) Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress 2nd place - Golden Laurel for Top Female Supporting Performance
	Pepe	Herself	Columbia film Cameo appearance Golden Laurel for Top Female Comedy Performance
1962	The Manchurian Candidate	Eugenie Rose Chaney	UA film
1963	Bye Bye Birdie	Rosie DeLeon	Columbia film
	Wives and Lovers	Bertie Austin	Paramount film
1966	Kid Rodelo	Nora	Paramount film
	Harper	Susan Harper	WB film
	Three on a Couch	Dr. Elizabeth Acord	Columbia film
	An American Dream	Cherry McMahon	WB film
1967	Grand Slam	Mary Ann	Paramount film Original title: Ad ogni costo
1969	Hello Down There	Vivian Miller	Paramount film
	The Monk	Janice Barnes	made-for-television movie
1972	One Is a Lonely Number	Gert Meredith	MGM film
	Night of the Lepus	Gerry Bennett	MGM film
1975	Columbo: Forgotten Lady	Grace Wheeler Willis	Universal TV
1979	Boardwalk	Florence Cohen	AR film
1980	The Fog	Kathy Williams	AVCO film
1998	Halloween H20: 20 Years Later	Norma Watson	Dimension film
2004	Bad Girls from Valley High	Mrs. Witt	Direct-to-video film filmed in 2000

Books

• There Really Was a Hollywood (Autobiography) (Doubleday, 1984)
• Psycho: Behind the Scenes of the Classic Thriller (Harmony, 1995)
• The Dream Factory (novel) (Mira, 2002)

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