Discovered by actress Norma Shearer, Leigh secured a contract with MGM and began her film career in the late 1940s. She appeared in several popular films over the following decade, including Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Living It Up (a Martin and Lewis-film from 1954).
From the end of the 1950s, she played more dramatic roles in such films as Safari (1958) Touch of Evil (1958) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962), but she achieved her most lasting recognition for her performance as the doomed Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). For this role 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 two performances with her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in 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. 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.
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.
Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil (1958).
Leigh had starring roles in many other films, including the Orson Welles film-noir classic Touch of Evil, 1962's The Manchurian Candidate with Frank Sinatra and the 1963 musical Bye Bye Birdie based on the hit Broadway show.
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 (1959) and Who Was That Lady? (1960).
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 in the (1953) film Walking My Baby Back Home. 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 NY 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". Interestingly, daughter Jamie Lee Curtis is also an actress and popular author.
At the age of 16, Leigh married John Kenneth Carlisle in 1943. The marriage was annulled the same year. She married Stanley Reames in 1946 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, both who 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.
Death
Leigh died at her home on October 3, 2004, after suffering cardiac arrest. She suffered from vasculitis and peripheral neuropathy, which caused her right hand to become gangrenous.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 Forsythe | 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 | Universal film |
| 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) Nominated - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Won - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture 2nd place - Golden Laurel for Top Female Supporting Performance | |
| Pepe | Herself | Columbia film Cameo appearance Won - 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 | |
| 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 |
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