Born:
April 04, 1932
in
New York
Best Known For:
Playing Norman Bates in Psycho.
Early-life:
Born on April 4, 1932, in New York. His father was stage and film actor Osgood Perkins. Anthony moved to Boston in 1942 and went on to study at Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his film debut in 1953 alongside Spencer Tracy and Jean Simmons in The Actress.
Career:
Perkins was nominated for an Oscar for his second film, Friendly Persuasion (1956), and went on to star in a number of films during the decade, including Fear Strikes Out (1957) and The Matchmaker (1958). His big break came in 1960 when Alfred Hitchcock cast him as Norman Bates in Psycho, a role he would be forever associated with. He would go on to play Norman Bates in two Psycho film sequels and a made-for-TV prequel. Other film credits included Goodbye Again (1961), The Trial (1962), Catch-22 (1970), and The Black Hole (1979). On the stage he was nominated twice for Broadway's Tony Award for Look Homeward, Angel (1958) and Greenwillow (1960.) He died from complications from the Aids virus in 1992.
Quote:
On the famous shower scene in Psycho: "I was in New York rehearsing for a play when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double."
Trivia:
Perkins had a top 30 hit on the Billboard chart with the single Moonlight Swim.