Anthony Perkins

For other people named Anthony Perkins, see Anthony Perkins (disambiguation).

Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins in 1975, by Allan Warren
Born	April 4, 1932(1932-04-04) New York City, New York, United States
Died	September 12, 1992(1992-09-12) (aged 60) Hollywood, California, United States
Cause of death	AIDS
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, Musician
Years active	1953–92
Spouse	Berry Berenson (1973–92)

Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion (1956) and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), and its three sequels.

Early life

Perkins was born in New York City, the son of Janet Esselstyn (née Rane) and stage and film actor James Ripley Osgood Perkins, who died of a heart attack while performing onstage. Anthony was five at the time. He is a descendant of a Mayflower passenger, John Howland. He attended The Brooks School, The Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College, having moved to Boston in 1942, five years after his father's death.

Career

Perkins (left) as Charles Snell and Charmian Carr as Ella Harkins in Evening Primrose, 1966.

Perkins made his film debut in The Actress (1953). He received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor and an Academy Award nomination for his second film, Friendly Persuasion (1956). The tall (6'2") Perkins also portrayed the troubled former Boston Red Sox baseball player Jimmy Piersall in the 1957 true story Fear Strikes Out.

Following this, he released three pop music albums in 1957 and 1958 on Epic and RCA as "Tony Perkins". His single "Moon-Light Swim" was a hit in the United States, peaking at #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957. He starred with Shirley Booth and Shirley MacLaine in the film The Matchmaker (1958).

Perkins also acted in theater. In 1958, he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Look Homeward, Angel on Broadway. During this time he also starred in Green Mansions (1959) with Audrey Hepburn and the college comedy Tall Story (1960) with Jane Fonda.

Perkins was cast as Norman Bates in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed film Psycho (1960). The film was a critical and commercial success, and gained Perkins international fame for his performance as the homicidal owner of the Bates Motel. Perkins' performance would garner him the Best Actor Award from the International Board of Motion Picture Reviewers.

In 1961, Perkins would receive considerable critical acclaim for his performance in the film Goodbye Again, opposite Ingrid Bergman, a performance which won him the Best Actor Award at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.

After that came a successful career in Europe, including the role of Joseph K. in Orson Welles' 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial. Upon returning to America, he took the role of a disturbed young murderer in Pretty Poison (1968). He also played Chaplain Tappman in Catch-22 (1970).

Perkins co-wrote, with composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the screenplay for the 1973 film The Last of Sheila, for which they received a 1974 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.

In 1972, he starred in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean with Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset and Victoria Principal. Perkins was one of the many stars featured in the 1974 hit Murder on the Orient Express, reuniting him with Bisset and co-starring Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widmark, Colin Blakely and Michael York. Perkins also hosted television's Saturday Night Live in 1976 and was featured in his only science fiction film, the box office-smash and space opus, Walt Disney's The Black Hole, in 1979.

His Broadway credits also included the Frank Loesser musical Greenwillow (1960), for which he was nominated for another Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and Bernard Slade's 1979 play Romantic Comedy opposite Mia Farrow.

Perkins reprised the role of Norman Bates in three sequels to Psycho. The first, Psycho II (1983), was a box office success more than 20 years after the original film. He then starred in and directed Psycho III (for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor) in 1986, but refused to reprise his role as Bates in the failed television pilot Bates Motel, famously boycotting the project in a very ardent, and well-received, oppositional public campaign. He did play Bates in the following made-for-cable Psycho IV: The Beginning in 1990, over which he had much creative control although he was turned down for director. Anthony directed a film in 1988 called Lucky Stiff.

Perkins starred in the sitcom pilot, The Ghost Writer, which blended horror and fantasy elements Perkins is known for. The show was unaired but praised for its dark humor and Perkins' rare foray into comedy.

Films in which Perkins appeared in which his character had much resonance with Norman Bates include the sexually provocative Crimes of Passion (1984) opposite Kathleen Turner, and the Hungarian-produced Jekyll-Hyde remake Edge of Sanity and Daughter of Darkness.

Perkins has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an honor he received for his influential and exceptional contributions to the motion picture industry. It is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

In 1991, Perkins was honored with the Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

Although he was fighting AIDS, the actor appeared in eight television productions between 1990 and 1992, including Daughter of Darkness (1990) with Mia Sara and The Naked Target (1992) with Roddy McDowall. He made his final appearance in In Deep Woods (1992) with Rosanna Arquette.

Perkins had agreed to provide the voice for the role of the dentist, Dr. Wolfe, in The Simpsons episode Last Exit to Springfield after Anthony Hopkins and Clint Eastwood both turned the role down, but he died before the role could be recorded. In the end, the role went to Simpsons regular Hank Azaria.

Perkins' life was documented in the 1996 biography Anthony Perkins: Split Image written by Charles Winecoff.

Personal life

On August 9, 1973, Perkins married photographer Berry Berenson. They had two sons: actor Oz Perkins (b. February 2, 1974), and musician Elvis Perkins (b. February 9, 1976).

He once said he felt too nervous around women, and resisted actresses Jane Fonda and Brigitte Bardot, who had tried to seduce him during his youth. He was a very shy actor, especially in women's company. He reportedly had affairs with actors Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, dancer Rudolf Nureyev, composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and dancer-choreographer Grover Dale prior to marrying Berenson.^{[citation needed]} He had his first intimate heterosexual experience at the age of 39 while working on the 1971 film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean with an actress who also appeared in the film. According to an interview with People magazine Perkins declined to identify the actress, but "other sources" have identified her as Victoria Principal.

Death

Perkins died on September 12, 1992, from complications of AIDS . He was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family. His widow, Berry Berenson, was killed on American Airlines Flight 11 during the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Filmography

Film/TV

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1953	The Actress	Fred Whitmarsh
1954	Armstrong Circle Theatre	Philippe
1954	The Man Behind the Badge	Pedro	2 episodes "The East Baton Rouge Story", "The Case of the Narcotics Racket"
1955	Windows	Benji	1 episode "The World Out There"
1955	General Electric Theater	West Wind	1 episode "Mr. Blue Ocean"
1956	Westinghouse Studio One	Clyde Smith	1 episode "The Silent Gun"
1956	Front Row Center	Dexter Green	1 episode "Winter Dreams"
1956	Goodyear Television Playhouse	Joey	1 episode "Joey"
1956	Friendly Persuasion	Josh Birdwell	Nomination - Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1957	Fear Strikes Out	Jim Piersall	1 episode "The Candidates"
1957	The Lonely Man	Riley Wade
1957	The Tin Star	Sheriff Ben Owens	1 episode "Halfway back from Hell"
1958	This Angry Age	Joseph Dufresne
1958	Desire Under the Elms	Eben Cabot
1958	The Matchmaker	Cornelius Hackl
1959	Green Mansions	Abel
1959	On the Beach	Lt. Peter Holmes - Royal Australian Navy
1960	Tall Story	Ray Blent
1960	Psycho	Norman Bates
1961	Goodbye Again	Philip Van der Besh	Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award
1962	Phaedra	Alexis
1962	Five Miles to Midnight	Robert Macklin	French title: Le couteau dans la plaie
1962	The Trial	Josef K
1963	Le glaive et la balance	Needa	English title "The Sword and the Balance"
1964	Une ravissante idiote	Harry Compton/Nicholas Maukouline	AKA The Ravishing Idiot
1965	The Fool Killer	Milo Bogardus
1966	Is Paris Burning?	Sgt. Warren	French title: Paris brûle-t-il?
1966	ABC Stage 67	Charles Snell	1 episode "Evening Primrose"
1967	The Champagne Murders	Paul Wagner
1968	Pretty Poison	Dennis Pitt
1968	Play of the Month	Tommy Turner	1 episode "The Male Animal"
1970	Catch-22	Chaplain Capt. A.T. Tappman
1970	WUSA	Rainey
1970	How Awful About Allan	Allan	TV movie
1971	Someone Behind the Door	Maggie Petroceli	Original French title: Quelqu'un derrière la porte
1971	La Décade prodigieuse	Charles Van Horn - le fils déséquilibré de Théo
1972	Play It as It Lays	B.Z.
1972	The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean	Reverend LaSalle
1974	Lovin' Molly	Gid
1974	Murder on the Orient Express	McQueen
1975	Mahogany	Sean
1978	Remember My Name	Neil Curry
1978	First, You Cry	Arthur Heroz	TV movie
1978	Les Misérables	Javert	TV movie
1979	Winter Kills	John Cerruti
1979	Twee vrouwen	Alfred
1979	The Black Hole	Dr. Alex Durant
1980	Deadly Companion	Lawrence Miles
1980	North Sea Hijack	Kramer
1983	For the Term of His Natural Life	Rev James North	TV movie
1983	The Sins of Dorian Gray	Henry Lord	TV movie
1983	Psycho II	Norman Bates
1984	The Glory Boys	Jimmy	TV
1984	Crimes of Passion	Rev. Peter Shayne
1986	Psycho III	Norman Bates	Also director Nomination - Saturn Award for Best Actor
1987	Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story	Talleyrand	TV mini-series
1988	Destroyer	Robert Edwards
1989	Edge of Sanity	Dr. Henry Jekyll / Jack 'The Ripper' Hyde
1990	Daughter of Darkness	Anton/Prince Constantine	TV movie
1990	I'm Dangerous Tonight	Prof. Buchanan	TV movie
1990	The Ghost Writer	Anthony Strack
1990	Psycho IV: The Beginning	Norman Bates	TV movie
1991	A Demon in My View	Robert Edwards	AKA Der Mann nebenan
1992	The Naked Target	El Mecano	Original title: Los gusanos no llevan bufanda
1992	In the Deep Woods	Paul Miller, P.I.	TV movie

External links

• Anthony Perkins at the Internet Broadway Database
• Anthony Perkins at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Anthony Perkins at the Internet Movie Database
• Anthony Perkins at the TCM Movie Database
• Psycho star Anthony Perkins on playing Norman Bates

• Anthony Perkins interviewed by Mike Wallace on The Mike Wallace Interview March 22, 1958