JANET LEIGH BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Janet Leigh was born on July 6th, 1927 in Merced, California with the birth name Jeanette Helen Morrison. She was raised an only child and was a very bright young lady, finishing school when she was only fifteen years old.
She went on to University of the Pacific to study music and psychology. When she went to go visit her parents in Northern California where her father worked the desk at a ski resort and her mother was a maid, her photo was seen by actress Norma Shearer whom took her picture to MGM and got her a screen test.
MGM was impressed with her look and picked her up for a contract. Her first film was in, "The Romance of Rosy Ridge" (1947) starring with Van Johnson, Thomas Mitchell, Marshall Thompson, Dean Stockwell, Guy Kibbee, Jim Davis, Selena Royle and Charles Dingle. Janet continued to appear in a number of films following her first role and many were quite successful. She worked with a variety of successful actors such as Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn and Orson Welles. She also did not limit herself to one type of film or one type of character. She starred in westerns, comedies and dramas such as, "Little Women" (1949) alongside Elizabeth Taylor, June Allyson, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Rossano Brazzi, Peter Lawford, C. Aubrey Smith, Connie Gilchrist, Ellen Corby and Leon Ames, "Angels in the Outfield" (1951) with Paul Douglas, Bruce Bennett, Keenan Wynn, Lewis Stone and Donna Corcoran, "Scaramouche" (1952), "Houdini" (1953) co-starring Tony Curtis, Sig Ruman, Torin Thatcher, Connie Gilchrist and Douglas Spencer, "The Black Shield of Falworth" (1954) co-starring Tony Curtis, Barbara Rush, Herbert Marshall, Torin Thatcher, David Farrar and Rhys Williams and "The Vikings" (1958) starring with Kirk Douglas, Ernest Borgnine, Alexander Knox, James Donald, Tony Curtis, Frank Thring and narrated by Orson Welles.
In 1960 she was in a small short Alfred Hitchcock thriller film called, "Psycho" co-starring Anthony Perkins, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John McIntire, Mort Mills, Simon Oakland and Frank Albertson, in which she was nominated for an Academy Award and received a Golden Globe Award. She was in over fifty films and even though as the 60's were progressing and she was appearing on screen less, she would accept the occasional role. She worked with Frank Sinatra on, "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) which also featured Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, Leslie Parrish and John McGiver, and on the film, "Harper" (1966) with Paul Newman, Julie Harris, Robert Wagner, Pamela Tiffin, Robert Webber, Strother Martin, Harold Gould, Arthur Hill and Shelley Winters. Janet also made a screen appearance with her daughter, actress, Jamie Lee Curtis on the film, "The Fog" (1980) and with Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, Tom Atkins and John Houseman and again in 1998 on the film, "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" also starring Adam Arkin, LL Cool J, Michelle Williams and Josh Hartnett and her final film role was in "Bad Girls from Valley High" (2004) starring with Julie Benz, Monica Keena, Nicole Bilderback and Jonathan Brandis.
Janet Leigh was married four times during her lifetime. First to John Kenneth Carlisle from August 21st, 1942 through December 28th, 1942 in which the marriage was annulled. Marriage number two was to Stanley Reames from October 5th, 1945 to September 7th, 1949. Her third marriage was to actor Tony Curtis from June 4th, 1951 through September 14th, 1962 in which before divorcing, they had two children together, Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis. Her fourth and final marriage was to Robert Brandt from September 15th, 1962 through October 3rd, 2004 when she passed away in Beverly Hills, California from vasculitis.
Janet Leigh was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history in 1995 and she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California on May 14th, 2004.
Janet Leigh was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contribution to the Motion Picture Industry.
Filmography
2001 Family Law
1998 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
1998 In My Sister's Shadow
1997 Touched by an Angel
1993 Das Ei
1989 The Twilight Zone
1987 Murder, She Wrote
1986 Starman
1985 On Our Way
1978-1985 The Love Boat
1982-1984 Tales of the Unexpected
1979-1982 Fantasy Island
1982 Matt Houston
1980 The Fog
1979 Boardwalk
1979 Mirror, Mirror
1977 Telethon
1977 Murder at the World Series
1975 Columbo
1975 Movin' On
1973 Love Story
1973 Murdock's Gang
1973 Circle of Fear
1972 Night of the Lepus
1972 Two Is a Happy Number
1971 Deadly Dream
1971 My Wives Jane
1971 The Name of the Game
1970 Bracken's World
1970 The Tim Conway Comedy Hour
1970 The Virginian
1970 House on Greenapple Road
1969 Honeymoon with a Stranger
1966-1969 The Red Skelton Hour
1969 The Monk
1969 Hello Down There
1968 The Bob Hope Show
1968 The Danny Thomas Hour
1967 Grand Slam
1966 The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
1964-1966 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1966 An American Dream
1966 Three on a Couch
1966 Harper
1966 Kid Rodelo
1963 Wives and Lovers
1963 Bye Bye Birdie
1962 The Manchurian Candidate
1960 Psycho
1960 Who Was That Lady?
1958 The Perfect Furlough
1958 The Vikings
1958 Touch of Evil
1957 Jet Pilot
1957 Schlitz Playhouse
1956 Safari
1955 My Sister Eileen
1955 Pete Kelly's Blues
1954 Rogue Cop
1954 The Black Shield of Falworth
1954 Living It Up
1954 Prince Valiant
1953 Walking My Baby Back Home
1953 Houdini
1953 Confidentially Connie
1953 The Naked Spur
1952 Fearless Fagan
1952 Scaramouche
1952 Just This Once
1951 Two Tickets to Broadway
1951 It's a Big Country
1951 Angels in the Outfield
1951 Strictly Dishonorable
1949 Holiday Affair
1949 That Forsyte Woman
1949 The Doctor and the Girl
1949 The Red Danube
1949 Little Women
1949 How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border
1948 Act of Violence
1948 Words and Music
1948 Hills of Home
1947 If Winter Comes
1947 The Romance of Rosy Ridge
