Anthony Perkins
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
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- born: 04/Apr/1932 (New York, New York, USA)
- died: 12/Sep/1992 (Hollywood, California, USA)
Biography
Anthony Perkins was an American actor best known for his role as the serial killer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960).
He was the son of American stage and film actor Osgood Perkins (James Ripley Osgood Perkins, 1891–1937) and his wife, Janet Esseltyn Rane.
Perkins' first movie was "The Actress" (1953); he received an Academy Award nomination for his role in his second film, "Friendly Persuasion" (1956). After other acclaimed performances both in film and on Broadway, he starred as Norman Bates in the 1960 film "Psycho". Many people feel he deserved to win an Oscar for this role, but he was not nominated. At one point, he was considered for the lead role of Tony in "West Side Story", due to his Broadway experience record, but the producers felt he was too old at 29 to play a teenager. He was offered the role of Chino, the female lead's embittered finance who shoots Tony at the end of the musical, but he turned it down for some unknown reason. Following the success of "Psycho", he did have a decade-long successful career in Europe, where many fans did not associate Perkins with the typecasting image of Norman Bates.
He went on to create a critically-lauded portrayal of Joseph K. in Orson Welles' cinematic adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Trial", and upon returning to America, he took the role of a disturbed young murderer in "Pretty Poison", which served to affect the rest of his career. He starred in the sequels and prequel to "Psycho", including "Psycho II", "Psycho III" (which he directed) and "Psycho IV: The Beginning". He also played a few memorable characters, such as the chaplain in "Catch-22" (1970). Despite these successes, most of his later work was made-for-TV movies.
Perkins also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1973 film "The Last of Sheila" together with composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
Other works of note...
- Friendly Persuasion (1956)
- The Tin Star (1957)
- On the Beach (1959)
- Le Procès (1962)
- Pretty Poison (1968)
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
- Psycho II (1983)
- Psycho III (1986)
- Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)
Documentaries
He has appeared in the following Hitchcockian documentaries...
- The Making of Psycho (1997) - archive footage
Articles
Books
"Anthony Perkins: Split Image" by Charles Winecoff
External Links
- Internet Movie Database
- Wikipedia
- University of Texas - 1958 interview with Mike Wallace
Film Frames
Selection of film frames of Anthony Perkins (click image to view larger version or refresh thumbnails)...
Image Gallery
Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...