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Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, businesswoman and author. Leigh was established as one of the earliest Scream queen for starring in Horror film, and is also known for starring in dramatic productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). She amassed several screen and stage credits over five decades, and received accolades such as a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Academy Awards.
Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with MGM. She appeared in films such as the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947), the crime drama Act of Violence (1948), the adaptation of Little Women (1949), the comedy Angels in the Outfield (1951), the swashbuckler romance Scaramouche (1952), the Western film drama The Naked Spur (1953). She had two marriages in the 1940s before marrying actor Tony Curtis in 1951.
After leaving MGM in 1954, Leigh signed with Universal and Columbia Pictures, starring in films such as the adventure feature Safari (1956) and Orson Welles' film noir Touch of Evil (1958). She achieved her biggest success playing Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's horror film Psycho (1960), winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In her most enduring role, Leigh was established as a scream queen and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year. Her performance in the pivotal shower scene has become one of the best-known in all of cinema.
In 1962, Leigh and Curtis divorced, and she married Robert Brandt. She then starred in the political thriller The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the musical Bye Bye Birdie (1963), and the thriller Harper (1966) before scaling back her career. She made her Broadway theatre debut in a production of Murder Among Friends (1975) and appeared in the horror film Night of the Lepus (1972) and the thriller Boardwalk (1979). She later starred with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, in the horror films The Fog (1980) and (1998).
Outside of acting, Leigh co-founded Curtleigh Productions with Curtis, who produced a handful of successful films between 1955 and 1962. She wrote four books between 1984 and 2002, two of which were novels. On October 3, 2004, she died at the age of 77 of vasculitis.
Leigh was raised Presbyterianism and sang in the local church choir throughout her childhood. In 1941 when her paternal grandfather became terminally ill, the family relocated to Merced, moving into her grandparents' home. She attended Weber Grammar School in Stockton and later Stockton High School. Leigh excelled in academics and graduated from high school at age sixteen.
After a tenure at Stockton College (San Joaquin Delta College), Leigh enrolled at the College of the Pacific (University of the Pacific) in September 1943, where she majored in music and psychology. During the college years, she joined the Alpha Theta Tau sorority and also sang with the college's a cappella choir. She also re-enrolled in night classes at the University of Southern California in early 1947. In order to help support her family, she spent Christmas and summer vacations working at retail shops and variety store, as well as working at the college's information desk during the semesters.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Shearer showed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) talent agent Lew Wasserman the photograph of the then 18-year-old Leigh (Shearer's late husband Irving Thalberg had been head of production at MGM). She would later recall that "that smile made it the most fascinating face I had seen in years. I felt I had to show that face to somebody at the studio.""'Luckiest' Photograph Changed Whole Life for a College Girl", Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 16, 1947, p. 1 Through her association with MGM, Shearer was able to facilitate screen tests for Leigh with Selena Royle, after which Wasserman negotiated a contract for her, despite her having no acting experience. Leigh dropped out of college that year and was soon placed under the tutelage of drama coach Lillian Burns."A Fairy Tale That Came True" by Victor Gunson, The Daily Times, October 3, 1946, p. 14
Prior to beginning her film career, Leigh was a guest star on the radio Radio drama anthology The Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players. Her initial appearance on radioDunning, John. (1976). Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925–1976. Prentice-Hall, Inc. . pp. 283–284. at age 19Molyneaux, Gerard (1995), Gregory Peck: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Press. . p. 214. was for the program's production "All Through the House," a Christmas special that aired on December 24, 1946. She made her film debut in the big-budget Civil War film The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947) as the romantic interest of box-office star Van Johnson's character. She got the role when performing Phyllis Thaxter's long speech in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo for the head of the studio talent department. During the film shoot, Leigh's name was first changed to "Jeanette Reames", then to "Janet Leigh", and finally back to her birth name "Jeanette Morrison", as the studio felt "Janet Leigh" might cause confusion with actress Vivien Leigh. However, Johnson did not like the name and it was ultimately changed back to "Janet Leigh" (pronounced "Lee").
Leigh began 1949 with the thriller Act of Violence (1949) opposite Van Heflin and Robert Ryan, directed by Fred Zinnemann. Though a financial failure, it was well received by critics. She also had a significant hit with MGM's version of Little Women, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, in which she portrayed Meg March, alongside June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor. The film was also generally praised by critics. Then Leigh appeared as a nun in the anti-communist drama The Red Danube, which earned her critical acclaim, followed by a role as Glenn Ford's love interest in The Doctor and the Girl. Other credits from 1949 include the role of June Forsyte in That Forsyte Woman (1949), opposite Greer Garson and Errol Flynn, and as Robert Mitchum's leading co-star in the RKO-produced Holiday Affair (1949). , Henry Wilcoxon, and Leigh in Scaramouche (1952)]] At MGM she appeared in Strictly Dishonorable (1951), a comedy with Ezio Pinza, based on a play by Preston Sturges. The film received mild critical acclaim. Leigh then appeared in the baseball-themed fantasy farce Angels in the Outfield (1951), which was a commercial hit. The same year, RKO borrowed Leigh to appear in the musical Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), which was a box-office success. She was one of many stars in the anthology film (1952) and appeared in a romantic comedy with Peter Lawford, Just This Once (1952). Leigh had another significant commercial success with the swashbuckler Scaramouche (1952), in which she starred as Aline de Gavrillac opposite Stewart Granger and Eleanor Parker. Next, she received top-billing in the critically acclaimed comedy Fearless Fagan (1952), about a clown drafted into the military.
Leigh starred in her first feature under the deal with Columbia: the title role in the musical comedy My Sister Eileen (1955), co-starring Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett, and Dick York, and based on a series of New Yorker stories about two sisters living in New York City. In early 1955, Leigh and Curtis formed their own independent film production company, Curtleigh Productions. Columbia cast Leigh in Safari (1956), opposite Victor Mature and shot in Kenya for Warwick Pictures. The same year, Leigh and Curtis gave birth to their first child, daughter Kelly Curtis. She subsequently made her television debut in an episode of Schlitz Playhouse, "Carriage from Britain". In 1957, the film Jet Pilot, which Leigh had filmed in 1949, was finally released. Also in 1957, Josef von Sternberg's adventure-drama film Jet Pilot was released; Leigh was cast as the female lead opposite John Wayne in 1948, and producer Howard Hughes' constant re-editing would cause the film to be delayed almost eight years before being released.
Leigh and Curtis both had cameos in Columbia's all-star Pepe (1960), marking their last film together. Next, Leigh appeared in the musical comedy Bye Bye Birdie (1963), based on the hit Broadway show. She was also in the comedy Wives and Lovers (1963) for director Hal Wallis at Paramount. Leigh then took a three-year break from her acting career and turned down several roles, including the role of Simone Clouseau in The Pink Panther, because she did not want to go on location and be separated from her young daughters.
Leigh's initial television appearances were on anthology programs such as Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre and The Red Skelton Hour. She also starred in several made-for-TV films, most notably the off-length (135 minutes instead of the usual 100) The House on Greenapple Road, which premiered on ABC in January 1970 to high ratings. In 1972, Leigh starred in the science-fiction film Night of the Lepus with Stuart Whitman, as well as the drama One Is a Lonely Number with Trish Van Devere. In 1975, she played an ex-Hollywood song-and-dance star opposite Peter Falk and John Payne in the Columbo episode "Forgotten Lady". The episode utilizes footage of Leigh from the film Walking My Baby Back Home (1953).
Her many other guest appearances on television series include The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in a two-part episode, "The Concrete Overcoat Affair", in which she played a sadistic Thrush agent named Miss Dyketon, a highly provocative role for mainstream television at the time. The two-part episode was released in Europe as a feature film entitled The Spy in the Green Hat (1967). She also appeared in the title role in The Virginian episode "Jenny" (1970). In 1973, she appeared in the episode "Beginner's Luck" of the romantic anthology series Love Story.
Leigh subsequently appeared opposite her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, in John Carpenter's supernatural horror film The Fog (1980), in which a phantom schooner unleashes ghosts on a small coastal community. She acted in the Murder, She Wrote episode "Doom with a View" (1987) and as Barbara LeMay in an episode of The Twilight Zone ("Rendezvous in a dark place", 1989). She guest-starred twice as different characters on both Fantasy Island and The Love Boat, as well as Tales of the Unexpected.
Leigh appeared in the Touched by an Angel episode "Charade" (1997). Leigh would appear with her daughter once again in (1998), playing the secretary of Laurie Strode. She continued to grant interviews and appear at red carpet events through the early 2000s. Her final film credit was in the teen film Bad Girls from Valley High (2005), opposite Christopher Lloyd.
Leigh met Stanley Reames, a U.S. Navy sailor who was enrolled at a nearby V-12 Program. They married on October 6, 1945, when she was 18. Their marriage was short lived, and they divorced less than three years later. College Romance Ends In Divorce For Janet Leigh. Santa Cruz Sentinel. July 21, 1948.
On June 4, 1951, Leigh married actor Tony Curtis in a private ceremony in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their romance and marriage were frequent topics in gossip columns and film tabloids. From 1951 to 1954 Leigh and Curtis appeared in numerous home movies directed by their friend Jerry Lewis. Leigh credited the experimental and informal nature of these films for allowing her to stretch her acting ability and attempt different roles. On June 17, 1956, Leigh gave birth to her first daughter, Kelly Curtis. On November 22, 1958, Leigh gave birth to her second daughter with Curtis, Jamie Lee Curtis.
In 1962, while Leigh was filming the thriller The Manchurian Candidate, Curtis filed for divorce. The divorce was finalized in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on September 14, 1962; the following day, Leigh married stockbroker Robert Brandt (1927–2009) in a private ceremony in Las Vegas. Leigh would later comment that their divorce was the result of "outside problems", which included the death of Curtis's father.
Leigh was cremated and her ashes were entombed at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in the Westwood Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.
On May 14, 2004, Leigh was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she had attended college. At the time, Leigh's health was compromised by vasculitis, and she delivered a speech at the ceremony from a wheelchair.
In December 2005, a ski trail at Sun Valley Resort's Bald Mountain skiing area in Sun Valley, Idaho was named after Leigh. She kept a second home there for more than 30 years.Foley, Gregory. " Resort honors valley icon, actress Janet Leigh". Idaho Mountain Express. December 21, 2005.
On October 13, 2006, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis unveiled a bronze plaque of their mother to honor her early life in Stockton. The memorial is located in the downtown Stockton plaza adjacent to the City Center Cinemas, since renamed "Janet Leigh Plaza".
Leigh was honored posthumously by University of the Pacific with the naming of the "Janet Leigh Theatre" on the Stockton campus on June 25, 2010. The plaque at the theatre reads:
In the 2012 film Hitchcock, Leigh is played by Scarlett Johansson.
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