Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho.

Perkins' first film role was in The Actress (1953). The next year, he debuted on Broadway in Tea and Sympathy, a performance for which he received critical acclaim. In 1956, he played his first major film role in Friendly Persuasion, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best New Actor of the Year and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Following the film's success, he signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures, where he was regarded as the studio's last matinee idol. In 1957, he starred in Fear Strikes Out. During this period, Paramount promoted Perkins in romantic roles and he also embarked on a singing career. He also took on more dramatic roles, including the Broadway production of Look Homeward, Angel, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award, and the film On the Beach (1959).

Psycho, a horror thriller in which he was cast against type, then profoundly changed his image, after which Perkins moved to France and worked for several years in Europe. The first film he made there, Goodbye Again (1961), earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a David di Donatello for Best Actor. His other European films include Orson Welles' The Trial (1962). He returned to American cinema with Pretty Poison (1968). Other films include Catch-22 (1970), for which he was nominated for a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (shared with his role in WUSA, also released in 1970), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Mahogany (1975) and Crimes of Passion (1984). In the later part of his career, Perkins often portrayed troubled, neurotic or mentally unstable characters. He reprised the role of Norman Bates in Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986), and Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990). His performance in Psycho III, which he also directed, earned him a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Actor.

His final acting role was in the NBC television film In the Deep Woods, which aired a month after his death on September 12, 1992, from AIDS-related causes.