Janet Leigh

Janet Leigh was an American actress born in Merced, California on July 6th, 1927. Her first role in a horror feature, Psycho, turned out to be Leigh's most memorable role in her career. Leigh played the part of murder victim Marion Crane, a scheming embezzler who meets a violent end at the hands of psychopathic motel owner Norman Bates. Janet's role in the film propelled her into "scream queen" status and endures as one of the most memorable movie characters of all time. Janet's career in the "horror" genre was not of great significance following Psycho, though she has appeared in several more fright fests over the years. In 1972, she played the role of Gerry Bennett in Night of the Lepus. She followed this up by playing Kathy Williams in John Carpenter's 1980 ghost story The Fog. Her final film role in a horror feature was a cameo in 1998's Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, where she got to play opposite her own daughter Jamie Lee Curtis.

Notes & Trivia

 * Janet Leigh was the mother of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, a "scream queen" in her own right who made her horror film debut in John Carpenter's Halloween.