American actress and author famous for her shower scene in classic horror film “Psycho” in 1960. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Leigh turned in a stunning performance, shocking audiences with the most terrifying stabbing scene in movie history. Leigh started her film career in 1947 playing sweet ingénue roles opposite Van Johnson, Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis. The publicity generated by her marriage to Tony Curtis received as much attention as the Korean War.
Her proud father displayed a photograph of his pretty teenage daughter on his desk in a ski lodge, drawing attention from celebrity skiers. Actress Norma Shearer sent the photograph to Lew Wasserman, the president of the MCA talent agency. Hollywood believed Leigh would be a new attractive star for the MGM studios. In 1946, at the age of 19, she went to Hollywood and signed under Louis B. Mayer for a $50-a-week contract. The debut film showcasing her innocent persona was “The Romance of Rosie Ridge” with Van Johnson.
Impressed with her vulnerable and sweet screen appearance, she was soon making many films such as “Little Women,” 1949, “That Forsythe Woman,” 1950, “Scaramouche,” 1952 and “The Vikings” in 1958. Even though she appeared to be a successful actress in the ’50s and early ’60s, Leigh was too shy to solicit for the roles she wanted to play. Lacking salesmanship and hesitating before studio executives, Leigh lost strong female leads. The three films Leigh considers her finest are Orson Welles’ 1958 film “Touch of Evil,” Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” and “The Manchurian Candidate,” 1962. After she started her family with actor Tony Curtis, Leigh decided to retire from her film career. Her last picture release was “The Fog” in 1980.
Before Leigh arrived in Hollywood, she had been twice married. At 14, she eloped to Reno, NV with her first husband, Kenneth Carlyle. The marriage was annulled a few months later. At 18, she married musician Stanley Reames and divorced three years later, in 1948. Married to her third husband, Tony Curtis in 1951, they lived a Beverly Hills celebrity marriage with much fanfare. The couple had two daughters, Kelly Lee in 1956 and Jamie Lee in 1958. Given all the publicity, the marriage ended in 1961 after Curtis left her for 17-year-old actress, Christine Kaufmann. Leigh married a fourth time, to stockbroker Bob Brandt in 1964.
President Lyndon Johnson asked Leigh in 1964 to be the ambassador to Finland after her hard work in South America for the U.S. Information Service. She turned the appointment down in order to spend the time with her two young daughters and her new husband.
In 1995, Leigh switched careers and took up writing with the publication of her book, co-authored by Christopher Nickens, “Psycho: Behind the Scenes” and her first novel, “House of Destiny.” She has always kept a diary of names, dates and facts about her life which she used to write her autobiography, “There Really Was a Hollywood.”
The legend persists that, terrified of being vulnerable in taking showers, Leigh personally only takes baths.
On October 3, 2004, the 77-year old actress died at her home in Beverly Hills, CA. The cause of death was vasculitis, a condition from which the actress had suffered for the past year.
Link to Wikipedia biography