Screen actress, born Jeanette Helen Morrison, in Merced, California, on July 6, 1927, to an insurance and real estate agent.
Best known for her shower scene in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho, and her marriage to actor Tony Curtis.

Leigh attended grammar and high school in Stockton, California, skipping several grades and graduating at age fifteen. She studied music and psychology at the College of the Pacific. She was married twice at a young age, first in 1942 to John Carlyle (annulled), and to Stanley Reames in 1946, ending in divorce in 1948.

Leigh was discovered by retired MGM actress Norma Shearer who saw a picture of her at a ski resort and recommended her for a screen test. Leigh landed an MGM contract, and her first film was The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947), with Van Johnson.

Leigh was cast in ingenue roles in a number of films in the late 1940s and early 1950s and worked with many leading stars of the time. In 1951, she married actor Tony Curtis and had two daughters, Kelly Lee (1956) and Jamie Lee (1958). Leigh and Curtis appeared in five films together, most notably Houdini (1953). In 1962, she divorced Curtis and married director Robert Brandt.

Her most successful movies included Little Women (1949), Angels in the Outfield (1951), Scaramouche (1952), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), and Orson Welles’s film noir Touch of Evil (1958). But she is best known for her shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) -- one of the most terrifying moments ever committed to film.

For her performance, Leigh won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.
Her career began to wane in the 1960s. She co-starred opposite Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and with Paul Newman in Harper (1966). Since then she has appeared in a sprinkling of made-for-television movies and minor feature films. Leigh died at the age of 77 in her Beverly Hills home in October 2004.

© Crystal Reference 2003.

• Fate Totally Worse Than Death, A (2000)
• Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) .... Norma Watson
  ... aka Halloween: H20 (1998) (USA: promotional title)
  ... aka Halloween: H20 (20 Years Later) (1998) (USA: promotional title)
• In My Sister's Shadow (1997) (TV) .... Kay Connor
• Ei, Das (1993) (voice) .... Das Ei
  ... aka Janet Leigh ist das Ei (1993) (Germany)
• Fog, The (1980) .... Kathy Williams
  ... aka John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) (USA: complete title)
• Boardwalk (1979) .... Florence Cohen
• Mirror, Mirror (1979) (TV) .... Millie Gorman
• Telethon (1977) (TV) .... Elaine Cotten
• Murder at the World Series (1977) (TV) .... Karen Weese
  ... aka Woman in Box 359, The (1977) (TV)
• Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975) (TV) .... Grace Wheeler Willis
• Murdock's Gang (1973) (TV) .... Laura Talbot
• Night of the Lepus (1972) .... Gerry Bennett
• One Is a Lonely Number (1972) .... Gert Meredith
  ... aka Two Is a Happy Number (1972) (USA: changed title)
• Deadly Dream (1971) (TV) .... Laurel Hanley
• House on Greenapple Road, The (1970) (TV) .... Marian Ord
• Honeymoon with a Stranger (1969) (TV) .... Sandra Latham
• Monk, The (1969) (TV) .... Janice Barnes
• Hello Down There (1969) .... Vivian Miller
  ... aka Sub-A-Dub-Dub (1969) (USA: reissue title)
• Ad ogni costo (1967) .... Mary Ann
  ... aka Diamantes a gogó (1969) (Spain)
  ... aka Grand Slam (1968) (USA)
  ... aka Top Job (1968) (West Germany)
  ... aka Top Job - Diamantenraub in Rio (1968) (West Germany)
  ... aka Um jeden Preis (1968) (West Germany)
• Spy in the Green Hat, The (1966) .... Miss Diketon
• American Dream, An (1966) .... Cherry McMahon
  ... aka See You in Hell, Darling (1966) (UK)
• Three on a Couch (1966) .... Dr. Elizabeth Acord
• Harper (1966) .... Susan Harper
  ... aka Moving Target, The (1966) (UK)
• Kid Rodelo (1966) .... Nora
• Wives and Lovers (1963) .... Bertie Austin
• Bye Bye Birdie (1963) .... Rosie DeLeon
• Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) .... Eugenie Rose Chaney
• Pepe (1960) .... Cameo appearance
• Psycho (1960) .... Marion Crane
• Who Was That Lady? (1960) .... Ann Wilson
• Perfect Furlough, The (1959) .... Lt. Vicki Loren
• Vikings, The (1958) .... Morgana
• Touch of Evil (1958) .... Susan 'Susie' Vargas
• Jet Pilot (1957) .... Lt. Anna Marladovna/Olga
• Safari (1956) .... Linda Latham
• My Sister Eileen (1955) .... Eileen Sherwood
• Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) .... Ivy Conrad
• Rogue Cop (1954) .... Karen Stephanson
• Black Shield of Falworth, The (1954) .... Lady Anne
• Living It Up (1954) .... Wally Cook
• Prince Valiant (1954) .... Princess Aleta
• Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) .... Chris Hall
• Houdini (1953) .... Bess Houdini
• Confidentially Connie (1953) .... Connie Bedloe
• Naked Spur, The (1953) .... Lina Patch
• Fearless Fagan (1952) .... Abby Ames
• Scaramouche (1952) .... Aline de Gavrillac de Bourbon
• Just This Once (1952) .... Lucille Duncan
• It's a Big Country (1951) .... Rosa Szabo Xenophon
• Two Tickets to Broadway (1951) .... Nancy Peterson
• Angels in the Outfield (1951) .... Jennifer Paige
  ... aka Angels and the Pirates (1951) (UK)
• Strictly Dishonorable (1951) .... Isabelle Perry
• How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border (1949)
• Holiday Affair (1949) .... Connie Ennis
• That Forsyte Woman (1949) .... June Forsyte
  ... aka Forsyte Saga, The (1949) (UK)
• Doctor and the Girl, The (1949) .... Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon
• Red Danube, The (1949) .... Maria Buhlen
• Little Women (1949) .... Meg March
• Hills of Home (1948) .... Margit Mitchell
  ... aka Master of Lassie (1948) (UK)
• Act of Violence (1948) .... Edith Enley
• Words and Music (1948) .... Dorothy Feiner Rodgers
• If Winter Comes (1947) .... Effie Bright
• Romance of Rosy Ridge, The (1947) .... Lissy Anne MacBean