Anthony Perkins (1932-1992)

The unforgetable Norman Bates in Hitchcocks 'Psycho' - An 8x10 B/w publicity portrait from Universal City Studios 1985.


A Personal quotes from Anthony Perkins:
On playing "Norman Bates" in "Psycho": "Not many people know this, but I was in New York rehearsing for a play [Frank Loesser's "Greenwillow"] when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double. Actually, the first time I saw "Psycho" and that shower scene was at the studio. I found it really scary. I was just as frightened as anybody else. Working on the picture, though, was one of the happiest filming experiences of my life. We had fun making it - never realizing the impact it would have."

Anthony Perkins Salary for Psycho (1960) $40,000

Anthony Perkins had a tell-all biography written about him in 1996 called "Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins" written by Charles Winecoff. The book revealed Perkins' supposed homosexuality, drug use, and family life. Some contributors to the biography were Janet Leigh, Hilton A. Green, Jeff Fahey, John Gavin, Joseph Stefano etc. But the noticeably absent contributors were his wife Berry, and his two sons, Osgood and Elvis.

During 1990, he got a blood sample taken from a palsy on the side of his face, and the "National Enquirer" illegally had Tony's blood sample tested for the AIDS virus, and found out that it was positive. Later that year, the "National Enquirer" wrote a story about his battle with AIDS, but the ironic thing was that he only found out that he was HIV positive from this article. He suspected that he probably was, but he never checked for it before the article was written.


Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

Despite numerous film and stage credits, Perkins will forever be remembered as creepy Norman Bates, the bloodcurdling killer in Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho (1960). The son of actor Osgood Perkins, he debuted in The Actress (1953), and received an Oscar nomination as Gary Cooper's pacifist son in Friendly Persuasion (1956). This dark, slender, quiet performer played many sensitive youths, and was extremely effective as mentally disturbed baseball player Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out (1957) and as one of the doomed Australians in On the Beach (1959). He was Jane Fonda's first screen leading man, in Tall Story (1960). After Psycho Perkins tackled a number of unusual roles, including the accused Josef K in Orson Welles' version of Kafka's The Trial (1963), the arsonist in Pretty Poison (1968), and the troubled chaplain in Catch-22 (1970). With his Norman Bates still in audiences' minds, he played other psychotics in such films as Mahogany (1975), Crimes of Passion (1984), and the Jekyll-and-Hyde inspired Edge of Sanity (1989). Still youthfullooking in middle age, Perkins reprised his most famous role in Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986, which he also direct- ed), and Psycho IV (1990, made for TV). He also directed the black comedy Lucky Stiff (1988). Perkins did formidable work on stage in "Greenwillow" (a musical), "Look Homeward, Angel," and "Equus," and cowrote The Last of Sheila (1973) with his friend, composer Stephen Sondheim. When he died of AIDS in 1992, he left behind quotes from Casablanca including the observation that the problems of a few people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. His son, Osgood, is also an actor.

OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1957: The Tin Star 1958: The Matchmaker, Desire Under the Elms 1959: Green Mansions 1961: Goodbye Again 1962: Phaedra 1967: The Champagne Murders 1970: WUSA 1972: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Play It As It Lays 1974: Lovin' Molly, Murder on the Orient Express 1978: Remember My Name 1979: Winter Kills, The Black Hole 1980: ffolkes