She was one of MGM’s most popular ingénues with her naïve, girl-next-door personality. But her most famous roles put her innocence in question. She was one-half of Hollywood’s perfect couple and the mother of two future actresses when Alfred Hitchcock put her in a motel shower and changed her life forever. She never took another shower! Jeanette loved school and she was a quick learner skipping 3 half grades before she was out of grammar school. Fred and Helen took on extra work to give their budding genius singing and dancing lessons. At 12, she entered high school mid-year as a freshman. But before the year was out the family had to move back to Merced to be close to Fred’s ailing parents. By the time Jeanette got settled and made new friends, it was back again to Stockton where Fred got work in the shipyards. Jeanette had loved Merced and this time the shuffle left her hurt and resentful. So, while on a visit to see her friends in Merced, the group decided they needed a plan to keep Jeanette there. So, lying about her age, Jeanette eloped to Reno with school beau John Kenneth Carlyle. The next day, the new bride was hauled home by her parents and the marriage annulled but covering up the 32-hour marriage would become a cause for anxiety for years.
In September of 1943, now 16 years old, Jeanette began her freshman year at the College of the Pacific to study music and psychology. By the summer of 1944 she began dating a young sailor from San Francisco who was studying for his Officer Training exams. His name was Stanley Reames. In the summer of 1945 she married him and both went back to school. Jeanette finished college as a married woman. That winter her parents moved to Soda Springs to work together
at the Sugar Bowl Ski Lodge. When Jeanette and Stan visited
them in the spring, Fred had a surprise. Film star Norma
Shearer had stayed at the lodge several weeks before and
was intrigued by Jeanette’s picture on Fred’s
desk. When she left, the picture went with her. But Jeanette
was so excited over the fact that her parents were in the
presence of a celebrity that she forgot all about the picture! Jeanette tested for and got the role of Lissy Anne in “The Romance of Rosy Ridge” but her name had to be changed. Van Johnson, the star of the film, suggested the new name of “Janet Leigh” pronounced “Lee”. The studio agreed and the new Janet Leigh would follow up with 4 more pictures by the end of 1948 (“ If Winter Comes”, “Words and Music”, “Act of Violence” and “Hills of Home”). But the old Jeanette Morrison Reames was not so lucky and her marriage ended the same year. There would be more romances…Barry Nelson, Arthur Loew, Jr. And the strange experience of being “stalked” by Howard Hughes who persisted in “kidnapping” her and her friends for wild excursions until she had to take her father with her every time she expected to encounter him. But 1951, she met an up-and-coming actor by the name of Tony Curtis. On June 4, 1951, against the wishes of their respective studios, Jeanette Helen Morrison married Bernard Schwartz and they became Janet and Tony Curtis, one of Hollywood’s most popular couples. When they were cast together in a picture, the fans flocked to see them. On June 17, 1956 the famous couple become a threesome with the arrival of daughter Kelly Lee and a foursome on November 22, 1958 when they were blessed with another daughter, Jamie Lee. Their careers were in high gear. In 1959, Tony won an Oscar nod for his role in “The Defiant Ones” (he lost to David Niven for “Separate Tables”) and Janet had been chosen for a role in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. It would be the film most identified with her even though it was the first time a major star was ever killed off in the first 20 minutes of a motion picture. The famous shower scene that took 7 days to shoot (December 17-23 ) lasted only 25 seconds on the screen. Janet spent those days under water all day long and spending her nights getting Christmas ready for her family at home. She won an Oscar nomination for her role only to lose the statuette to Shirley Jones ( “Elmer Gantry”).
In 1961, Janet had to face a tragedy that rocked her world. Her father committed suicide. She was closest to her father and she was inconsolable. But that was only the beginning of her freefall for that year. Tony was getting restless in the marriage and, by 1962, that was over, too. Hollywood was aghast to find another popular marriage was on the skids (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher had split in May of 1959). Janet was now 34 and had been married 3 times. She also had 2 critically acclaimed films behind her (“Touch of Evil” 1958 with Orson Welles and “Psycho”) and was ready to start “The Manchurian Candidate”. Most of her films were successful and her leading men were some of the sexiest in Hollywood…Victor Mature, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Gary Cooper, and Errol Flynn to name a few. The same year Janet met Robert Brandt, a stockbroker, who was her age (born one day later) and they became an inseparable foursome…Janet, Bob, Kelly and Jamie Lee. As soon as Janet finished “Bye Bye, Birdie” she flew to Juarez, Mexico for a quick divorce and married Bob the next day in Las Vegas (Tony remarried soon after). This marriage would last 42 years until her death.
Between 1963 and 1966 Janet would spend more of her time on television projects but in 1966 she made 5 more films. Then her career slowly waned and television projects became the norm. She also wrote several books including her autobiography “There really was a Hollywood” in 1984 and “Psycho: Behind the Scenes of a Classic Thriller” in 1995. Janet Leigh died at home on October 3, 2004 of vasculitis (an inflammation of the blood vessels) after suffering from the disease for about a year. Her husband, Robert and her daughters, Kelly and Jamie Lee were at her bedside. A memorial gathering was held at the Beverly Hills Hotel where an overflow crowd met to honor her. A private service was planned and her ashes were to be planted in the mountains of Sun Valley, Idaho. But there has been a little bit of sunshine missing from the world since she left and the golden age has lost one of its bright stars.
For more on Janet Leigh on the set and off, see Arabella’s Notes. To obtain a list of my sources, e-mail me at mamalion27@aol.com
Filmography
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Janet
Leigh was born Jeanette Helen Morrison on July 6, 1927
in Merced, California but the family moved north to Stockton
when she was two. Her parents, Fred and Helen Morrison were
barely nineteen and found it difficult balancing finances
and housing problems (many landlords banned children) causing
short tempers and frequent quarrels. When Jeanette was old
enough, and they wanted to be alone they sent her to the
movies (the cheapest entertainment around in those days)
so she developed a fascination for films and film stars early. 
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