![]() ![]() 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. Her initial appearance on radio at age 19 was in the program's production "All Through the House," a Christmas special that aired on December 24, 1946. Prior to beginning her film career, Leigh was a guest star on the radio dramatic anthology The Cresta Blanca Hollywood Players. ![]() Leigh dropped out of college that year, and was soon placed under the tutelage of drama coach Lillian Burns. I felt I had to show that face to somebody at the studio." 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. She would later recall that "that smile made it the most fascinating face I had seen in years. Upon returning to Los Angeles, Shearer showed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) talent agent Lew Wasserman the photograph of the then-eighteen-year-old Leigh (Shearer's late husband Irving Thalberg had been head of production at MGM). In the resort lobby, Shearer noticed a photograph of Leigh taken by her father over the Christmas holiday, which he had printed and placed in a photo album available for guests to browse. In February 1946, actress Norma Shearer was vacationing at Sugar Bowl, a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains where Leigh's parents were working at the time. 1945 actress Norma Shearer helped facilitate her contract with MGM based on this photo. Career 1946–1948: Discovery and early roles Leigh excelled in academics and graduated from high school at age sixteen. She attended Weber Grammar School in Stockton, and later Stockton High School. In 1941, when her paternal grandfather became terminally ill, the family relocated to Merced, where they moved into her grandparents' home. Leigh was raised Presbyterian and sang in the local church choir throughout her childhood. She was brought up in poverty, as her father struggled to support the family with his factory employment, and he took various additional jobs after the Great Depression. Shortly after Leigh's birth, the family relocated to Stockton, where she spent her early life. Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from Denmark, and her father had Scots-Irish and German ancestry. Jeanette Helen Morrison was born on July 6, 1927, in Merced, California, the only child of Helen Lita (née Westergaard) and Frederick Robert Morrison. She died in October 2004 at age 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis. The pair's highly publicized union ended in divorce in 1962, and after starring in The Manchurian Candidate that same year, Leigh remarried and scaled back her career. Leigh had two brief marriages as a teenager (one of which was annulled) before marrying actor Tony Curtis in 1951. In addition to her work as an actress, Leigh also wrote four books between 19, two of which were novels. She would also go on to appear in two horror films with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in a production of Murder Among Friends. ![]() Intermittently, she continued to appear in films, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979). Leigh achieved her biggest success starring as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho (1960).įor her performance, Leigh won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. With RKO Radio Pictures she co-starred in the romantic comedy Holiday Affair (1949) with Robert Mitchum. She played dramatic roles during the late 1950s, in such films as Safari (1956) and Orson Welles's film noir Touch of Evil (1958). With MGM, she appeared in many films which spanned a wide variety of genres, which include the crime-drama Act of Violence (1948), the drama Little Women (1949), the comedy Angels in the Outfield (1951), the romance Scaramouche (1952) and the western drama The Naked Spur (1953). Leigh appeared in radio programs before her first formal foray into acting, making her film debut in the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947). ![]() Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Jeanette Helen Morrison (J– October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. ![]()
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