In Memory of 'Psycho' Actress Janet Leigh: 20 Years After Her Tragic Death

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Decades before Will Smith made his infamous and all-too-real slap on Chris Rock seen round the world on the Academy Awards telecast in 2022, actress Janet Leigh offered a yelp heard around the world in what became her Golden-Globe-Award-winning signature performance (in the riveting shower sequence) in Psycho (1960).

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Leigh in Psycho left an indelible media beauty mark but that film was by no means the only movie she ever made.

In this twentieth anniverary of her 2004 demise at 77 in Beverly Hills, CA, let's take a closer look at Leigh's remarkable life and career.

In the Beginning

Janet Leigh was born Jeannette Helen Morrison on July 6, 1927, in Merced, CA, and spent her college years in Stockton, CA.

Her father was a desk clerk at a ski resort where her mother was employed as a housekeeper. Retired MGM actress Norma Shearer noticed a photo of Leigh Janet on the front desk and asked to borrow it. This led to a screen test for the future star at MGM and a leading role in The Romance of Rosy Ridge, released in 1947.

At the Movies and On TV

Janet Leigh continued to make movies into the late 1940s and early 1950s. Then came her breakout appearance in Psycho, which premiered in 1960.

But by the mid-1960s, Leigh began appearing in TV-movies and lower-grade feature films.

Behind the Scenes

Janet Leigh was wed twice before coming to Hollywood. First to John K. Carlyle, in 1942, and the union was annulled. Second, to Stanley Reames, from 1946 to 1948, marriage that ended in divorce.

In 1951 Leigh married actor Tony Curtis when they were both at the top of career game, even though their coordinated studios, MGM for Liegh, and Universal for Curtis, were concerned that their enormous success with teen movie-goers would suffer due to their marriage.

Instead, the opposite transpired. The coupled made four hit movies together, including Houdini and The Vikings.

However, in 1963, Hollywood's "dream couple" divorced. Twenty years later, leigh published her memoir, There Really Was a Hollywood, in which she did not write one negative word about Curtis.

The Family That Acts Together

In 1964, Janet Leigh’s marriage to businessman Brandt lasted longer than her union with Tony Curtus, while Jaime Lee Curtis, their second daugther and future Oscar-winning actress, was just beginning to express interest in acting.

Some years later, in 1980, Leigh appeared with Jamie Lee in the 1980 thriller The Fog, and was later seen in periodic TV spots. In 1998, Leigh and Lee would reunite on-screen in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

Screen Time Immortal

Throughout her career, Janet Leigh received several accolades, including one on May 14, 2004; an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, where she had attended college.

At the time, her health was compromised by vasculitius, and she delivered her acceptance from a wheelchair. The following October she was gone.

Two years later, on October 13, 2006, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis, Leigh's first daughter with Tony 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."