Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor, director, and singer. He is most notable for the role of Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller Psycho, which made him an influential figure in pop culture and the realm of horror films.

Born in New York City, Perkins got his start as an adolescent in summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway. His first film, The Actress, co-starring Spencer Tracy and Jean Simmons and directed by George Cukor, was a disappointment aside from winning an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, prompting Perkins to return to theatre. He made his Broadway debut in the Elia Kazan-directed Tea and Sympathy (1953), in which he played Tom Lee, a "sissy" cured by the right woman. He was praised for the role and after it closed, he turned to Hollywood once more, starring in Friendly Persuasion (1956) with Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire, which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best New Actor of the Year and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film led to Perkins' seven-year, semi-exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures, where he was their last matinee idol.

In 1957, Perkins went on to appear in Fear Strikes Out. Paramount was keen to heterosexualize Perkins' image, leading to a string of romantic roles alongside Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, and Shirley MacLaine. He was able to land an occasional serious role, such as in the Broadway production Look Homeward, Angel, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, and the 1959 film On the Beach with Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire, and Ava Gardner. Although he was cast once again as a romantic lead in Jane Fonda's film debut, Tall Story, he was shortly thereafter cast as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), which established him as a horror icon and earned him a Bambi Award nomination for Best Actor, as well as a nomination and win for the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers Award for Best Actor. Because his work with Hitchcock led to his being typecast, Perkins bought himself out of his contact with Paramount and moved to France, where he made his European film debut with Goodbye Again (1961). The film earned him a Best Actor Bravo Otto nomination and his second career Bambi Award nomination. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a David di Donatello Award for Best Actor for the role.

After appearing in European films featuring Sophia Loren, Orson Welles, Melina Mercouri, and Brigitte Bardot, Perkins returned to the U.S. in 1968, with a role in Pretty Poison, co-starring Tuesday Weld, his first American film in eight years. In the film's wake, he starred in commercially and critically successful films including Catch-22 (1970), Play It as It Lays (1972), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Mahogany (1975).

Around the same time, Perkins decided to undergo conversion therapy, a pseudoscientific method of "changing" sexual orientation. He married Berry Berenson in 1973. He reprised his role as Norman Bates in Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986) and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). The third installment in the anthology earned him a Best Actor Saturn Award nomination. His last film was In the Deep Woods, a television film broadcast a month after his death in September 1992 from AIDS-related causes.