Janet Leigh (July 6, 1927 - October 3, 2004)

Who could possibly forget about Janet Leigh, the original "scream queen?" In a career that spanned more than fifty-five years the versitale actress conquered both film and television. She began in films in 1947. Some of her more notable films include Little Women (1949), Houdini (1953), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). Her film career consisted of more than fifty film appearances. On television she appeared as herself on such programs as "Person to Person", "The Colgate Comedy Hour", "Toast of the Town", "What's My Line?", "Password", "The Andy Williams Show", "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", "The Dean Martin Show", "The Joey Bishop Show", "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", "The Hollywood Squares", "Dinah!", "Good Morning America", "Larry King Live", "E! True Hollywood Story" and "Biography." In character she appeared on such programs as "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars", "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre", "The Red Skelton Show", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "The Danny Thomas Hour", "The Virginian", "Columbo", "Fantasy Island", "The Love Boat", "Murder, She Wrote", "The Twilight Zone", and "Touched by an Angel." She appeared in several made for television movies in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's. Her final television appearance was on "Family Law" in 2001. Her final film role was in Bad Girls from Valley High which was released in 2005, a year after she passed away. The role that Leigh will be identified with forever is that of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 suspense thriller Psycho. The film featured Anthony Perkins (1932-1992) as the mentally disturbed killer Norman Bates. Leigh's character is brutally murdered in the infamous shower scene in which Bates stabs Crane to death and disposes of her body in the truck of her car. The film also starred Vera Miles, John Calvin and Martin Balsam. The interesting thing about Pyscho is that Marion Crane starts out as the focal point of the movie but as soon as she is murdered the focus shifts to the pyschotic misfit that ended her life. Janet Leigh will be an important part of cinema history forever...thanks to that 1960 role that made her a household name.

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