Janet Leigh

The look Norma Shearer rescued from the snow

Jeanette Helen Morrison had no intention of stepping onto a film set when Norma Shearer spotted her photograph at a ski resort counter in California. It was a lucky accident. Shearer passed the image along to executives at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and in 1947 the young woman made her screen debut in The Romance of Rosy Ridge.

Her rise through the studio system was fast but low-key. Leigh signed contracts that required her to work nonstop, and she soon found herself in big-budget productions such as Little Women in 1949. Even though Hollywood tried to typecast her in innocent roles, she was looking for something grittier.

It did well at the box office.

But the real shift came with her marriage to Tony Curtis in 1951. They became Hollywood's golden couple in the gossip magazines, while she tried to keep her career from being overshadowed by her husband's fame. They worked together several times, but Leigh always seemed to have one foot outside traditional romantic comedy.

The Motel That Changed Everything

In 1958, she worked under Orson Welles on Touch of Evil. The shoot was chaotic: she had to cope with a broken arm and a director who improvised constantly. Yet that performance proved that Leigh could hold her own in a close-up opposite a genius without batting an eye.

Alfred Hitchcock called her in 1960 for a low-budget project nobody wanted to finance. Marion Crane appeared only in the first act of Psycho, but that role changed the public's perception of safety in the movie theater. Leigh agreed to take a fraction of her usual salary because she was fascinated by the script.

And the gamble paid off.

That shower murder took seven days of filming and seventy-eight different camera setups. Leigh never showered with the curtain closed again after seeing the film's final cut. That scene earned her an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe, but it also haunted her for the rest of her career.

In 1962, she appeared in The Manchurian Candidate alongside Frank Sinatra. It was another exercise in restraint in a film loaded with political paranoia. Leigh knew her on-screen presence brought a much-needed calm amid the chaos of the script.

A Legacy of Screams and Film Sets

Her career slowed down during the seventies as she focused on writing and her family. But in 1980, she agreed to work with her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in The Fog. It was a smart move to connect with a new generation of viewers who only knew her from television reruns of her classics.

Leigh wrote several books, including her memoir and a novel titled House of Destiny in 1991. She didn't want to be just a face on a movie poster. She understood that the industry quickly forgets those who don't create their own content.

Her last major film appearance came in 1998 with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. She briefly appeared driving a car similar to that of her most famous character, while a familiar tune played in the background. It was a direct nod to horror fans.

She died at her home in Beverly Hills on October 3, 2004, at the age of 77.