Career 1946–1948: Discovery and early roles Leigh excelled in academics and graduated from high school at age sixteen. She attended Weber Grammar School in Stockton, and later Stockton High School. In 1941, when her paternal grandfather became terminally ill, the family relocated to Merced, where they moved into her grandparents' home. Leigh was raised Presbyterian and sang in the local church choir throughout her childhood. She was brought up in poverty, as her father struggled to support the family with his factory employment, and he took various additional jobs after the Great Depression. Shortly after Leigh's birth, the family relocated to Stockton, where she spent her early life. Her maternal grandparents were immigrants from Denmark, and her father had Scots-Irish and German ancestry. Jeanette Helen Morrison was born on July 6, 1927, in Merced, California, the only child of Helen Lita (née Westergaard) and Frederick Robert Morrison. She died in October 2004 at age 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis. The pair's highly publicized union ended in divorce in 1962, and after starring in The Manchurian Candidate that same year, Leigh remarried and scaled back her career. Leigh had two brief marriages as a teenager (one of which was annulled) before marrying actor Tony Curtis in 1951. In addition to her work as an actress, Leigh also wrote four books between 19, two of which were novels. She would also go on to appear in two horror films with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis: The Fog (1980) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in a production of Murder Among Friends. Intermittently, she continued to appear in films, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979). Leigh achieved her biggest success starring as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho (1960).įor her performance, Leigh won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. With RKO Radio Pictures she co-starred in the romantic comedy Holiday Affair (1949) with Robert Mitchum. She played dramatic roles during the late 1950s, in such films as Safari (1956) and Orson Welles's film noir Touch of Evil (1958). With MGM, she appeared in many films which spanned a wide variety of genres, which include the crime-drama Act of Violence (1948), the drama Little Women (1949), the comedy Angels in the Outfield (1951), the romance Scaramouche (1952) and the western drama The Naked Spur (1953). Leigh appeared in radio programs before her first formal foray into acting, making her film debut in the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge (1947). Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. For a more accurate slant on Houdini's life, see the 1976 TV movie The Great Houdinis, starring Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers.Jeanette Helen Morrison (J– October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Example: In real life, Houdini's appendix was fatally ruptured by a punch to the stomach in the film, he injures himself by accidentally bumping into one of his props, the sword-studded "Temple of Benares" trick-which hadn't yet been invented in 1926! Still, it's fun to watch Tony Curtis wriggle his way out of some of Houdini's most baffling escape routines (both Curtis and Janet Leigh were carefully instructed on the set by professional magicians, who swore the stars to secrecy concerning the tricks of the trade). The facts of Houdini's life seldom get in the way of Yordan's story while general audiences won't spot too many discrepancies, professional magicians tend to howl with laughter at some of the film's intentional boners. Philip Yordan's script (based on a book by Harold Kellock) suggests that virtually every portentous occasion in Houdini's life occurred on Halloween day, including his death from peritonitis in 1926. The film follows Houdini's progress from sideshow entertainer to high-priced prestidigitator, and also touches upon his fascination with the occult-and his efforts to expose phony mediums. Tony Curtis at the time, co-stars as Houdini's wife Bess, while Angela Clarke is seen as Houdini's mother. This highly fanciful but immensely entertaining biopic stars Tony Curtis as legendary magician/escape-artist Harry Houdini.
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