Anthony Perkins

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Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) 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.

Anthony Perkins on the cover of his biography Split Image
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Anthony Perkins on the cover of his biography Split Image

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[citation needed], but he was not nominated. 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, with composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the screenplay for the 1973 film The Last of Sheila, for which they received a 1974 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

In 1979, Perkins appeared on Broadway opposite Mia Farrow in the play Romantic Comedy by Bernard Slade.

Perkins's life was meticulously documented in the biography Anthony Perkins: Split Image by Charles Winecoff (Alyson Books, 2006).

Contents

[edit] Personal life

Perkins was bisexual, having had affairs with a number of men, including 1950s and 60s film star Tab Hunter, dancer Rudolf Nureyev and dancer-choreographer Grover Dale, with whom Perkins had a six-year relationship prior to his marriage to Berry Berenson. He claimed to have been exclusively homosexual until his late thirties, when he met the actress Victoria Principal.

Perkins died in 1992 of complications from AIDS, at age 60.

His son, Osgood Perkins, credited as Oz Perkins, is also an actor and his other son, Elvis Perkins, is a musician.

One day before the ninth anniversary of his death, his widow, Berry Berenson, was killed on American Airlines Flight 11, the flight that was hijacked by Islamic terrorists and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks.

[edit] Quote

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

[edit] Filmography

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, his most famous role.
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Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, his most famous role.

[edit] External links

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