|
Anthony Perkins
Scroll down for movie list.
Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Despite numerous film and stage credits, Perkins will forever be remembered as creepy Norman Bates, the bloodcurdling killer in Alfred Hitchcock's classic Psycho (1960). The son of actor Osgood Perkins, he debuted in The Actress (1953), and received an Oscar nomination as Gary Cooper's pacifist son in Friendly Persuasion (1956). This dark, slender, quiet performer played many sensitive youths, and was extremely effective as mentally disturbed baseball player Jimmy Piersall in Fear Strikes Out (1957) and as one of the doomed Australians in On the Beach (1959). He was Jane Fonda's first screen leading man, in Tall Story (1960). After Psycho Perkins tackled a number of unusual roles, including the accused Josef K in Orson Welles' version of Kafka's The Trial (1963), the arsonist in Pretty Poison (1968), and the troubled chaplain in Catch-22 (1970). With his Norman Bates still in audiences' minds, he played other psychotics in such films as Mahogany (1975), Crimes of Passion (1984), and the Jekyll-and-Hyde inspired Edge of Sanity (1989). Still youthfullooking in middle age, Perkins reprised his most famous role in Psycho II (1983), Psycho III (1986, which he also direct- ed), and Psycho IV (1990, made for TV). He also directed the black comedy Lucky Stiff (1988). Perkins did formidable work on stage in "Greenwillow" (a musical), "Look Homeward, Angel," and "Equus," and cowrote The Last of Sheila (1973) with his friend, composer Stephen Sondheim. When he died of AIDS in 1992, he left behind quotes from Casablanca including the observation that the problems of a few people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. His son, Osgood, is also an actor.
OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1957: The Tin Star 1958: The Matchmaker, Desire Under the Elms 1959: Green Mansions 1961: Goodbye Again 1962: Phaedra 1967: The Champagne Murders 1970: WUSA 1972: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Play It As It Lays 1974: Lovin' Molly, Murder on the Orient Express 1978: Remember My Name 1979: Winter Kills, The Black Hole 1980: ffolkes
|  |
