Janet Leigh's Real Name: Janet Leigh

Quick answer: The actress is known professionally as Janet Leigh. Biography.com and Britannica independently date her birth to July 6, 1927, in Merced, California, and her death to October 3, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California. They spell an earlier name slightly differently—Jeanette Helen Morrison in Biography.com and Jeannette Helen Morrison in Britannica—so this page titles her with the public name and records both spellings below (Biography.com; Britannica).

Real name and early life

She is known professionally as Janet Leigh. Biography.com says screen actress Janet Leigh was born Jeanette Helen Morrison in Merced, California, on July 6, 1927, attended school in Stockton, California, and later studied at the College of the Pacific. Britannica independently gives the original name Jeannette Helen Morrison and dates the same Merced birth to July 6, 1927. The Jeanette and Jeannette spellings are recorded here rather than collapsed into a single title form.

Career highlights

Biography.com says her first film was The Romance of Rosy Ridge in 1947. Britannica independently says she had a career of some 60 motion pictures and television appearances but was most remembered as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Biography.com independently highlights that role and says she won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress; it also says she later co-starred opposite Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate and with Paul Newman in Harper (1966). Both sources also cite Touch of Evil (1958) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). Britannica independently lists Harper, Bye Bye Birdie (1963), The Fog (1980), and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), and says she appeared with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, in the latter two. It also says she wrote two novels, House of Destiny (1995) and The Dream Factory (2002), and notes a 1951 marriage to the actor Tony Curtis that ended in divorce in 1962.

Death

Biography.com and Britannica independently say she died on October 3, 2004, in Beverly Hills, California. Biography.com says she died at the age of 77.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Janet Leigh, Jeanette Helen Morrison, or Jeannette Helen Morrison are looking for the same Merced-born actress, later known for Psycho. The two original-name spellings are recorded as the sources give them.