Janet Leigh
79 movies · 14 TV shows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Jul 6, 1927
- Died
- Oct 3, 2004 (age 77)
- Place of birth
- Merced, California, USA
- Also known as
- Jeanette Helen Morrison · جنت لی
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.
Read the full biography
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.
Profiles IMDb
Known for
Janet Leigh: movies and TV shows
Acting (91)
- 2026
- 2019 Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"
as (archive footage)
- 2018
- 2005 Bad Girls from Valley High
as Mrs. Witt
- 1999
- 1998 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
as Norma
- 1997 In My Sister's Shadow
as Kay Connor
- 1996
- 1995
- 1994
- 1993 The Egg
as The egg (voice) (archive footage)
- 1986 The Making Of Psycho III
as Marion Crane (archive footage)
- 1986 Psycho III
as Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1985
- 1984
- 1983 Psycho II
as Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1982
- 1980 The Fog
as Kathy Williams
- 1979 Boardwalk
as Florence Cohen
- 1979 Mirror, Mirror
as Millie Gorman
- 1979
- 1979 The Horror Show
as (archive footage)
- 1977 Telethon
as Elaine Cotten
- 1977
- 1977 Murder at the World Series
as Karen Weese
- 1973 Murdock's Gang
as Laura Talbot
- 1972 Night of the Lepus
as Gerry Bennett
- 1972
- 1972 One Is a Lonely Number
as Gert Meredith
- 1971 The Deadly Dream
as Laurel Hanley
- 1971
- 1970 House on Greenapple Road
as Marian Ord
- 1969 Honeymoon with a Stranger
as Sandra Latham
- 1969 The Monk
as Janice Barnes
- 1969 Hello Down There
as Vivian Miller
- 1967 Grand Slam
as Mary Ann
- 1967 The Spy in the Green Hat
as Miss Diketon
- 1966 An American Dream
as Cherry McMahon
- 1966 Three on a Couch
as Dr Elizabeth Acord
- 1966 Harper
as Susan Harper
- 1966 Kid Rodelo
as Nora
- 1964
- 1963 Wives and Lovers
as Bertie Austin
- 1963 Bye Bye Birdie
as Rosie DeLeon
- 1962 The Manchurian Candidate
as Eugenie Rose Chaney
- 1960 Pepe
as Janet Leigh
- 1960 Psycho
as Marion Crane
- 1960 Who Was That Lady?
as Ann Wilson
- 1958 The Perfect Furlough
as Vicki Loren
- 1958 The Vikings
as Morgana
- 1958 Touch of Evil
as Susan 'Susie' Vargas
- 1957 Jet Pilot
as Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon / Olga Orlief
- 1956 Safari
as Linda Latham
- 1956 Nightmare
as Janet
- 1955 My Sister Eileen
as Eileen Sherwood
- 1955 Pete Kelly's Blues
as Ivy Conrad
- 1954 Rogue Cop
as Karen Stephanson
- 1954 The Black Shield of Falworth
as Lady Anne of Mackworth
- 1954 Living It Up
as Wally Cook
- 1954
- 1954 Prince Valiant
as Princess Aleta
- 1953 Walking My Baby Back Home
as Chris Hall
- 1953 Houdini
as Bess Houdini
- 1953 Confidentially Connie
as Connie Bedloe
- 1953 The Naked Spur
as Lina Patch
- 1952 Fearless Fagan
as Abby Ames
- 1952 Scaramouche
as Aline de Gavrillac de Bourbon
- 1952 Just This Once
as Lucy Duncan
- 1952
- 1952
- 1951 It's a Big Country
as Rosa Szabo Xenophon
- 1951 Two Tickets to Broadway
as Nancy Peterson
- 1951 Angels in the Outfield
as Jennifer Paige
- 1951
- 1951 The Re-Inforcer
as Mary Muck
- 1951 Strictly Dishonorable
as Isabelle Perry
- 1951
- 1951
- 1951
- 1951
- 1949 Holiday Affair
as Connie Ennis
- 1949 That Forsyte Woman
as June Forsyte
- 1949 The Red Danube
as Olga Alexandrova aka Maria Buhlen
- 1949 The Doctor and the Girl
as Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon
- 1949 Little Women
as Meg
- 1949 Act of Violence
as Edith Enley
- 1949
- 1948 Words and Music
as Dorothy Feiner
- 1948 Hills of Home
as Margit Mitchell
- 1947 If Winter Comes
as Effie Bright
- 1947 The Romance of Rosy Ridge
as Lissy Anne MacBean
Behind the camera (3)
- 1959
- 1958 The Vikings
Executive Producer
- 1957 Sweet Smell of Success
Executive Producer
Talk shows and appearances (46)
- 2025
- 2023
- 2022
- 2022
- 2021
- 2017
- 2012
- 2005
- 2002
- 2000
- 2000
- 2000
- 2000
- 1999
- 1999
- 1999
- 1999
- 1997 Scene by Scene
1 episode
- 1996
- 1995
- 1995
- 1994
- 1994
- 1993 Intimate Portrait
2 episodes
- 1987
- 1986
- 1985
- 1983
- 1982
- 1973
- 1972
- 1968 Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
3 episodes
- 1965
- 1964 The Hollywood Palace
1 episode
- 1963 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
2 episodes
- 1962 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
2 episodes
- 1960
- 1956 The Rosemary Clooney Show
1 episode
- 1954
- 1953 The Oscars
3 episodes
- 1952 This Is Your Life
1 episode
- 1950 The Colgate Comedy Hour
3 episodes
- 1950 The Bob Hope Show
1 episode
- 1950 What's My Line?
4 episodes
- 1948 The Ed Sullivan Show
1 episode
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards
1 episode