Acting · Merced, California, USA · Born July 6, 1927
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.
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1996
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1995
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1993
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1993
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1987
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1986
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1986
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1985
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1985
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1983
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1982
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1982
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1980
as Kathy Williams
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1979
as Florence Cohen
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1979
as Millie Gorman
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1979
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1979
as (archive footage)
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as Elaine Cotten
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as Karen Weese
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1973
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as Gerry Bennett
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1972
as Carol
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as Gert Meredith
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1971
as Laurel Hanley
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as Grace Wheeler Willis
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as Marian Ord
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1969
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as Janice Barnes
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as Vivian Miller
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1967
as Mary Ann
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1967
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1966
as Cherry McMahon
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1966
as Susan Harper
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1966
as Nora
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1965
as Self
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as Self - Host
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as Virginia Ballard
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1963
as Bertie Austin
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1963
as Rosie DeLeon
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1962
as Eugenie Rose Chaney
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1962
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1960
as Janet Leigh
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1960
as Marion Crane
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as Ann Wilson
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1958
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1958
as Morgana
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1958
as Susan 'Susie' Vargas
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1957
as Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon / Olga Orlief
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1956
as Linda Latham
The Rosemary Clooney Show
1956
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1956
as Janet
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1955
as Eileen Sherwood
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1955
as Ivy Conrad
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1954
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1954
as Karen Stephanson
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as Nancy Peterson
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as Jennifer Paige
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1951
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1950
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1949
as Connie Ennis
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as June Forsyte
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as Olga Alexandrova aka Maria Buhlen
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1949
as Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon
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1949
as Meg
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1949
as Edith Enley
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1949
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1948
as Dorothy Feiner
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1948
as Margit Mitchell
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1948
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1947
as Effie Bright
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1947
as Lissy Anne MacBean
TVGolden Globe Awards
1944
as Self
