Cast & creator
Janet Leigh
Best known for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Columbo, The Love Boat
Janet Leigh (born Jeanette Helen Morrison; July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. 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. 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). 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). 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 RKO Radio pictures she co-starred in the romantic comedy Holiday Affair (1949) with Robert Mitchum. Leigh achieved her biggest success starring as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Psycho (1960). For her performance, Leigh won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Intermittently, she continued to appear in films, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Harper (1966), Night of the Lepus (1972), and Boardwalk (1979). She made her Broadway debut in 1975 in a production of Murder Among Friends. 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). In addition to her work as an actress, Leigh also wrote four books between 1984 and 2002, two of which were novels. Leigh had two brief marriages as a teenager (one of which was annulled) before marrying actor Tony Curtis in 1951. 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. She died in October 2004 at age 77, following a year-long battle with vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels.
Also known as: Jeanette Helen Morrison, جنت لی
111
film credits
31
television credits
139
1944–2026 · acting roles
6.6
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (142)
Showing 142 of 142 credits
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
1962
Columbo
Grace Wheeler Willis
1971
The Love Boat
Joan Philipps / Gail
1977
What's My Line?
Self
1950
Murder, She Wrote
Cornelia Montaigne Harper
1984
Golden Globe Awards
Self
1944
Touched by an Angel
Vera King
1994Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Virginia Ballard
1963
Intimate Portrait
Self (archive footage)
1993Intimate Portrait
Self
1993
The Twilight Zone
Barbara LeMay
1985
Tales of the Unexpected
Joan Stackpole
1979
The Bob Hope Show
Self
1950
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
1948
The Colgate Comedy Hour
Self
1950
Family Law
Mary Sawyer
1999
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Self (uncredited)
1968Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Self
1968
The Oscars
Self
1953
Matt Houston
Ramona
1982
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Miss Diketon
1964
Psycho
Marion Crane
1960
This Is Your Life
Self
1952
Ghost Story
Carol
1972
Startime
Executive Producer
1959
The Hollywood Palace
Self - Host
1964Secret Lives
1995
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Norma
1998
Touch of Evil
Susan 'Susie' Vargas
1958
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Self
1973
Scene by Scene
Self
1997The Rosemary Clooney Show
Self
1956
The Fog
Kathy Williams
1980
Little Women
Meg
1949
Psycho II
Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
1983
The Vikings
Morgana
1958The Vikings
Executive Producer
1958
Psycho III
Marion Crane (archive footage) (uncredited)
1986
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
Self (archive footage)
2025
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
The Manchurian Candidate
Eugenie Rose Chaney
1962
Sweet Smell of Success
Executive Producer
1957
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
Scaramouche
Aline de Gavrillac de Bourbon
1952
Harper
Susan Harper
1966
Angels in the Outfield
Jennifer Paige
1951
Bye Bye Birdie
Rosie DeLeon
1963
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
Self
1999
The Naked Spur
Lina Patch
1953
The Black Shield of Falworth
Lady Anne of Mackworth
1954
Night of the Lepus
Gerry Bennett
1972
Who Was That Lady?
Ann Wilson
1960
Night of 100 Stars
Self
1982
Three on a Couch
Dr Elizabeth Acord
1966
Living It Up
Wally Cook
1954
Prince Valiant
Princess Aleta
1954
Hollywood: No Sex, Please!
2018
Night of 100 Stars II
Self
1985
Jet Pilot
Lt. Anna Marladovna Shannon / Olga Orlief
1957
The Perfect Furlough
Vicki Loren
1958
Boardwalk
Florence Cohen
1979
Rat Pack
Self (archive footage)
2022
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1983
The Fabulous Allan Carr
Self (archive footage)
2017
Houdini
Bess Houdini
1953
The American Nightmare
Self
2000
My Sister Eileen
Eileen Sherwood
1955
House on Greenapple Road
Marian Ord
1970
It's a Big Country
Rosa Szabo Xenophon
1951
The Red Danube
Olga Alexandrova aka Maria Buhlen
1949
Bad Girls from Valley High
Mrs. Witt
2005
Hollywood: The Dream Factory
Self (archive footage)
1972
I Am Alfred Hitchcock
Self (archive footage)
2021
Words and Music
Dorothy Feiner
1948
The Romance of Rosy Ridge
Lissy Anne MacBean
1947
Two Tickets to Broadway
Nancy Peterson
1951
Mary Pickford: A Life on Film
Self
2000
An American Dream
Cherry McMahon
1966
Walking My Baby Back Home
Chris Hall
1953
Jamie Lee Curtis: Hollywood Call of Freedom
Self (archive footage)
2022
Confidentially Connie
Connie Bedloe
1953
Pictures of Ghosts
Self (archive footage)
2023
The Spy in the Green Hat
Miss Diketon
1967
Holiday Affair
Connie Ennis
1949
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Self
1987
Hello Down There
Vivian Miller
1969
Act of Violence
Edith Enley
1949Hitchcock: Alfred the Great
Self
1994
Pete Kelly's Blues
Ivy Conrad
1955
If Winter Comes
Effie Bright
1947
Tales from the Mist: Inside 'The Fog'
Self
2002
The Story of Lassie
Self
1994
Inside the Dream Factory
Self
1995
Charlton Heston: For All Seasons
Self
1995
The Making of 'Psycho'
Self
2005
That Forsyte Woman
June Forsyte
1949
One Is a Lonely Number
Gert Meredith
1972
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius
Self
1999
Howard Hughes: His Women and His Movies
Self
2000
Pepe
Janet Leigh
1960
The Monk
Janice Barnes
1969
Honeymoon with a Stranger
Sandra Latham
1969
Murder at the World Series
Karen Weese
1977
Wives and Lovers
Bertie Austin
1963
Just This Once
Lucy Duncan
1952Jerry Lewis: The Last American Clown
Self - Interviewee
1996
Safari
Linda Latham
1956
Come Back Little Shiksa
1952
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
Self
1986
In My Sister's Shadow
Kay Connor
1997
Rogue Cop
Karen Stephanson
1954
The Horror Show
(archive footage)
1979
Miss Glucksman Visits Hollywood
1954
The Doctor and the Girl
Evelyn 'Taffy' Heldon
1949
How to Smuggle a Hernia Across the Border
1949
A Star Is Born World Premiere
Self
1954
The Re-Inforcer
Mary Muck
1951100 Years of the Idiot: A Jerry Lewis Centenary
2026
Cubby Broccoli: The Man Behind Bond
Herself
2000A Spot In The Shade
1951Bob Hope Christmas Show
Self
1965
The Making Of Psycho III
Marion Crane (archive footage)
1986
Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"
(archive footage)
2019An Eye for an Eye
1952
Grand Slam
Mary Ann
1967
Mirror, Mirror
Millie Gorman
1979Nightmare
Janet
1956
People, Hopes, Medals
Self
1960Rat Pack: A Conference of Cool
Self
1999
Fearless Fagan
Abby Ames
1952
Telethon
Elaine Cotten
1977
The Deadly Dream
Laurel Hanley
1971
Fascination: Unauthorized Story of Marilyn Monroe
Self (archive footage)
2012
Strictly Dishonorable
Isabelle Perry
1951Watch On The Lime
1951Anthony Perkins: A Life in the Shadows
Self
1999Fairfax Avenue
1951
Hills of Home
Margit Mitchell
1948
Murdock's Gang
Laura Talbot
1973
The Egg
The egg (voice) (archive footage)
1993
Kid Rodelo
Nora
1966