Janet Leigh

Acting · 3.6 popularity

Age

Movies

106

Born: July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004
From: Merced, California, USA

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.

Works

106 films

Psycho

19608.4

The Fog

19806.7

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

19986.0

Psycho II

19836.5

Touch of Evil

19587.7

Harper

19666.7

The Vikings

19587.0

The Manchurian Candidate

19627.5

Little Women

19497.4

Psycho III

19865.7

Bye Bye Birdie

19635.9

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

20257.5

Angels in the Outfield

19517.0

Scaramouche

19527.0

The Naked Spur

19537.0

Night of the Lepus

19724.4

Houdini

19536.6

Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood

19876.0

Prince Valiant

19546.1

Hollywood: No Sex, Please!

20185.5

Holiday Affair

19496.9

Night of 100 Stars II

19856.8

Living It Up

19546.5

The Black Shield of Falworth

19546.2

Walking My Baby Back Home

19539.0

Jet Pilot

19575.5

My Sister Eileen

19556.6

Boardwalk

19797.5

Night of 100 Stars

19825.8

Act of Violence

19496.9

People, Hopes, Medals

19604.6

Words and Music

19485.8

The Perfect Furlough

19586.8

Pepe

19606.3

The Spy in the Green Hat

19676.6

A Star Is Born World Premiere

19548.0

Rogue Cop

19545.7

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

19837.0

The Fabulous Allan Carr

20174.5

Safari

19565.6

Rat Pack

20229.0

It's a Big Country

19515.9

Hollywood: The Dream Factory

19727.3

Confidentially Connie

19535.8

Who Was That Lady?

19606.4

Hello Down There

19695.9

Bad Girls from Valley High

20054.0

Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special

19996.9

Wives and Lovers

19634.4

Unmasking the Horror

199810.0

Fairfax Avenue

1951

I Am Alfred Hitchcock

20217.3

Just This Once

19524.4

An American Dream

19665.0

Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius

19998.5

House on Greenapple Road

19707.4

The American Nightmare

20006.8

Three on a Couch

19665.4

The Deadly Dream

19717.0

Tales from the Mist: Inside 'The Fog'

20026.3

Two Tickets to Broadway

19514.6

Grand Slam

19677.1

The Story of Lassie

19948.0

The Romance of Rosy Ridge

19476.7

Hitchcock: Alfred the Great

19947.0

Pictures of Ghosts

20238.1

The Horror Show

19793.4

The Red Danube

19496.7

The Monk

19698.0

Honeymoon with a Stranger

19697.0

Miss Glucksman Visits Hollywood

1954

Pete Kelly's Blues

19556.2

Come Back Little Shiksa

1952

Mary Pickford: A Life on Film

20007.0

Rat Pack: A Conference of Cool

1999

The Re-Inforcer

19515.5

Fear on Film: Inside 'The Fog'

19805.8

The Doctor and the Girl

19495.9

Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe

20127.2

Jamie Lee Curtis: Hollywood Call of Freedom

20227.0

Strictly Dishonorable

19515.0

Hills of Home

19486.9

Inside the Dream Factory

19958.0

That Forsyte Woman

19496.0

Charlton Heston: For All Seasons

19955.0

If Winter Comes

19476.7

Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond

20006.5

The Egg

19937.0

The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal

19867.3

Murder at the World Series

19776.7

Murdock's Gang

19737.5

In My Sister's Shadow

19976.3

Mirror, Mirror

19798.0

An Eye for an Eye

1952

Telethon

19776.0

The Making of 'Psycho'

20057.5

Jerry Lewis: The Last American Clown

19966.0

One Is a Lonely Number

19725.1

Bob Hope Christmas Show

19657.0

Kid Rodelo

19668.0

Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies

20009.0

Nightmare

1956

Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"

2019

Fearless Fagan

19525.2

How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border

19498.0

Anthony Perkins: A Life in the Shadows

19998.0