Janet Leigh was an American actress, known in the Halloween series as Norma Watson. She was also the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis.
Halloween[]
In 1960, Leigh appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film became iconic for a scene in which Leigh's character is brutally murdered while taking a shower, and had a great influence on John Carpenter, which can be traced to his naming of the character Samuel Loomis - in the film Psycho, the boyfriend of Janet Leigh's character. Carpenter would go on to cast Leigh alongside her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in his 1980 horror film The Fog, as well as Nancy Kyes and Tom Atkins. It is also rumored that Carpenter's casting of Jamie Lee Curtis in the original Halloween was in part due to her mother's scream queen status.
Leigh appears in Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (again with her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis), making a brief appearance as Norma Watson. The role of Norma was originally going to go to P. J. Soles. Soles never gave a straight answer as to what she wanted to do, skeptical about returning to the series as someone completely different than her character Lynda Van Der Klok, who was killed off in the original Halloween. She eventually lost the role to Jamie Lee Curtis's mother (Leigh), who was approached after not receiving an answer from Soles.
Appearances[]
| Film | Character | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later | Norma Watson | 1998 |
External links[]
Janet Leigh on the Internet Movie Database