Janet Leigh

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Janet Leigh (1998)
Janet Leigh (center) with her daughters Kelly Curtis (left) and Jamie Lee Curtis (right) in 1979

Janet Leigh (* 6. July 1927 as Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced , California , † 3. October 2004 in Beverly Hills , California) was an American actress . which celebrated its greatest successes in the 1950s and 1960s. She will be remembered for a long time as a murder victim in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho (1960).

life and career

Janet Leigh was the only child of Robert Morrison and Helen Lita Westergard and grew up in a simple family. While studying psychology at the University of the Pacific , she worked at a ski resort to earn some money for her family. There she was discovered by former retired film star Norma Shearer at the age of 20 . Shearer arranged her screen tests in Hollywood . Then Janet Leigh was from Lew Wasserman at MGM under contract taken. After beginning her acting career, Leigh ended her studies prematurely and made her debut in the lavish film drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge, in which she received a major role alongside Van Johnson and Thomas Mitchell . She later attended night school at the University of Southern California to complete her education.

Other screen appearances followed, which increased their level of awareness. In 1948 a magazine named it “No. 1 glamor girl ”, although she mostly played down-to-earth characters. In 1949 she worked under the direction of Mervyn LeRoy in Little Brave Jo , the film adaptation of the novel Little Women and in Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum . In the 1950s she played leading roles in several successful films, such as the comedy Angels in the Outfield (1951), the coat-and-sword film Scaramouche, the gallant Marquis (1952), the western Naked Violence (1953), the Musical film Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) and the comedy Der sympathische Hochstapler (1954). She starred in five films with her husband Tony Curtis , including the adventure films The Iron Knight of Falworth (1954) and The Vikings (1958). Leigh, who at first primarily embodied the figure of the young naive or female lover, was looking for more complex roles in the late 1950s. Her role in Orson Welles ' crime film In the Sign of Evil (1958), where she falls victim to juvenile delinquents, testifies to this .

During this search for character roles, the film that was probably the most famous of her film career also fell: Alfred Hitchcock hired her for his classic film Psycho as the secretary Marion Crane, who embezzled money and was the victim of a brutal knife attack on the trip to her lover in a motel becomes. The so-called "shower scene", which resulted in death, shocked the audience and is still one of the most cited and famous film scenes to this day. Leigh received a Golden Globe for the role and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress . The success of Psycho was followed by roles in films such as Ambassador of Fear , in which she played alongside Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury , and the musical Bye Bye Birdie , which was based on a Broadway hit .

When Leigh had herself photographed with a mushroom wig in 1964 , she made the Beatles famous with this “mop hairstyle” .

From the late 1960s, Leigh played primarily in television films or series. For example, she had a leading role alongside Peter Falk in the series Columbo's Forgotten Lady in 1975 . She also had guest appearances in other series such as The People of Shiloh Ranch or Murder is Her Hobby . Her cinema appearances in later years included the one in John Carpenter's film The Fog, alongside her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis . In Halloween: H20 , the penultimate film she starred in, she stood next to her daughter Jamie Lee in front of the camera one more time. She played her last role as a lady in a retirement home in the horror comedy Zickenterror at High School (2005), which was only released in theaters after her death.

Grave of Janet Leigh and Robert Brandt in Westwood Memorial Park

In 1942, Janet Leigh married John Carlisle at the age of 15, but the marriage was divorced that same year. Her second marriage to Stanley Reames (1945–1949) also ended in divorce. Leigh's third husband was actor Tony Curtis , whom she was married to from 1951 until they divorced in 1962. From this marriage the actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis come . From 1962 until her death, Janet Leigh was married to Robert Brandt (1927-2009).

She died of cardiac arrest in 2004 at the age of 77 with her family . She found her final resting place in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles .

Awards

Filmography (selection)

Works

  • Janet Leigh: There Really Was a Hollywood. Doubleday, New York 1984, ISBN 0-385-19035-2 (English).
  • Janet Leigh, Christopher Nickens: Psycho. Behind the scenes of Hitchcock's cult thriller. Heyne, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-10863-9 .
  • Janet Leigh: Dream Factory. Mira, Buffalo 2002, ISBN 1-551-66874-2 (English).

literature

Web links

Commons : Janet Leigh  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brian Roylance, Nicky Page, Derek Taylor : The Beatles Anthology. (Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2000). German translation: Ullstein, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 116.
  2. ↑ Entry at filmreference.com
  3. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Janet Leigh
personal data
SURNAME Leigh, Janet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morrison, Jeanette Helen (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film actress
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Merced , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 2004
Place of death Beverly Hills , California , United States