Anthony Perkins

ANTHONY PERKINS d1992. American actor. His first film (The Actress) co-starring Spencer Tracy and Jean Simmons and directed by George Cukor was an overall disappointment, prompting him to return to the theatre. After returning to Hollywood, he starred in Friendly Persuasion (1956) with Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best New Actor of the Year and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film led to a seven-year, semi-exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures where he was their last matinee idol. In 1957, he went on to appear in Fear Strikes Out leading to a string of romantic roles alongside ; Audrey Hepburn / Sophia Loren and Shirley MacLaine. Then the 1959 film "On the Beach" with Gregory Peck / Fred Astaire and Ava Gardner. Thereafter he was cast as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's iconic Psycho (1960) which established him as a horror icon and earned him a Bambi Award nomination for Best Actor as well as being nominated for and winning the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers Award for Best Actor. Because his work with Hitchcock led to his being typecast, he bought himself out of his contract with Paramount and moved to France where he made his European film debut with Goodbye Again (1961). After appearing in European films featuring ; Sophia Loren / Orson Welles / Melina Mercouri and Brigitte Bardot, he returned to the US in 1968 with a role in Pretty Poison / 1972's Play It as It Lays and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean / Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and Mahogany (1975). In the 1970s, he decided to undergo conversion therapy. He married Berry Berenson in 1973. He reprised his role as Norman Bates in Psycho II (1983) / Psycho III (1986) and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). The third installment in the anthology earned him a Best Actor Saturn Award nomination. He died in California aged 60 on September 12th 1992