Janet Leigh

Janet Leigh
Leigh in a publicity photo for the magazine Photoplay, 1954
Born	Jeanette Helen Morrison (1927-07-06)July 6, 1927 Merced, California, U.S.
Died	October 3, 2004(2004-10-03) (aged 77) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Resting place	Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupations	Actress author
Years active	1947–2004
Spouses	John Carlisle ​ ​ (m. 1942; ann. 1942)​ Stanley Reames ​ ​ (m. 1945; div. 1948)​ Tony Curtis ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1962)​ Robert Brandt ​ (m. 1962)​
Children	Kelly Curtis Jamie Lee Curtis

Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress and author. 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. After appearing in radio programs, she made 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). With RKO Radio Pictures, she starred in the romantic comedy Holiday Affair (1949).

Leigh played dramatic roles during the late 1950s, in such films as Safari (1956) and Orson Welles's film noir Touch of Evil (1958). She achieved her biggest success starring as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film Psycho (1960), which won Leigh the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in the musical film Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and the thriller film Harper (1966) before taking a hiatus. She intermittently worked in films thereafter, appearing in the horror Night of the Lepus (1972) and the drama Boardwalk (1979), and made her Broadway debut in a production of Murder Among Friends (1975). 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).

Leigh amassed several screen and stage credits in a career spanning five decades. In addition to her work as an actress, she 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 2004 at age 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis.