Perkins Anthony: biography, filmography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Of course, the first Hollywood "maniac" is actor Anthony Perkins. The photo of a handsome young man did not leave the glossy covers of movie magazines for a long time in the first half of the sixties. But, as it turned out, the actor can become a hostage to his most successful role. The audience no longer perceived him differently than Norman Bates from the Hitchcock thriller Psycho. He had to act only in the sequels of this film and in low-budget "horror films".

There were a lot of rumors about Anthony Perkins' personal life. He did not hide his sexual inclinations, which we would call gay. But in the life of an actor, in addition to stormy romances with men, there was also a completely legal marriage with a woman who gave him two sons. In this article, we will trace the entire life path of this Hollywood celebrity.

Family, childhood, education

Who is Anthony Perkins? His biography simply had to intertwine with the world of cinema. After all, his father, Osgood Perkins, in the thirties was a real rulerBroadway. Anthony was born on April 4, 1932, in New York City. Osgood Perkins and Janet Esselstyn had no more children. But if Anthony's father became a professional actor only after thirty, he himself was attached to the theater from childhood. As Perkins Jr. recalled, his first role was the cry of a bat in the play Dracula. Later he was a stage worker, making and installing scenery. In his youth, Anthony still could not decide what he wanted to become: a singer, an actor, someone else?

Osgood Perkins died when his son was only five years old. The boy was raised by his mother, a very strong-willed woman. Anthony was educated in private schools. First it was the elementary school "Buckingham Browne and Nichols" (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and then the middle school "Brooks School" (North Andover, Massachusetts). He then graduated from Columbia University in New York and entered the private Rollins College in Florida (Winter Park).

Career start

After recording two solo albums, Perkins Anthony realized that a career as a singer was not his path. As an actor, he was more fortunate. In the theaters, he gradually managed to break through from the crowd to more or less prominent roles. So, he played in the production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Bernard Shaw. Then Anthony began to dream of Hollywood. Fate smiled on him this time too. In 1953, the young man was offered to play in the film "The Actress", where Spencer Tracy turned out to be his partner on the set. Due to frequent absences, student Perkins was never able to graduate from Rollins College duringFlorida. Only twenty years later he was awarded a diploma from the named university. But the actor's star Perkins rose in the firmament of Hollywood. At twenty-four, he starred as the son of the protagonist in the film from the life of the Quaker community "Friendly exhortation". But the zenith of glory was yet to come.

Anthony Perkins: filmography before "Psycho"

In total, the actor's track record has one hundred and sixteen works. The film A Friendly Persuasion (directed by William Wyler) won the Palme d'Or. This made it possible for Anthony Perkins to be nominated in 1956 and the following year for the Oscars. He did not receive an award, but became very popular. Already in 1957, the actor received the role of Sheriff Ben Owens in the film "Tin Star". In 1958, he was lucky enough to play along with the magnificent Sophia Loren in "Love under the Elms" (Iben Cabot). The next year was marked by two works by Anthony Perkins. These are the films "On the Shore", where he reincarnated as Lieutenant Peter Holmes, and "Green Estates", where the actor brilliantly played Abel.

Psycho

The turning point in Perkins' career was his work with Alfred Hitchcock. This black and white psychological thriller later became a classic of the American Gothic genre. Perkins Anthony played the dual-personality motel owner Norman Bates in the film. The cast also starred actresses Vera Miles and Janet Leigh (Merion Crane). The thriller "Psycho" literally elevated Anthony Perkins to the pinnacle of fame. The actor so masterfully conveyed the duality of Norman Bates,revealed the ominous shadow of the mother, which hung over the soul of a soft and weak-willed man, that he became the most unforgettable movie "villain". Upon learning that the actor was not awarded an Oscar, Alfred Hitchcock said: "I am ashamed of my colleagues." But the medal of glory also has a downside. In America, the image of the schizophrenic villain was so "stuck" to the actor that he was no longer perceived in any other role.

Life in Europe

However, this attitude did not appear immediately. When work on the thriller "Psycho" was completed, Perkins Anthony went to France in 1961. He was invited to play a role in the film Goodbye Again (directed by Anatole Litvak). It was a free adaptation of the story "Do you love Brahms?" writer Françoise Sagan. And in Europe, he was also lucky. For the role of a young American who pursues the main character of the film, played by Ingrid Bergman, Anthony Perkins suddenly won the prize as the best actor at the Cannes Film Festival. After that, he became literally the idol of Paris. His hairstyle and costume were imitated by thousands of teenagers in France. Perkins remained in this European country throughout the sixties. He starred in Phaedra, The Trial (film adaptation of F. Kafka), in the thriller Scandal directed by Claude Chabrol.

Life in America after returning

The actor returned to his homeland in the late sixties. The public has not yet forgotten who Anthony Perkins is. Films featuring a neurotic, a psychopath, and a maniac began to reappear on American screens. The cult was his work in "Lovely Poison" (1968). But on thisfortune turned its back on Anthony Perkinson. The audience did not perceive the actor in other guises. Perkins returned to work in the theater, and for a long time his name disappeared from the pages of the tabloids. He also went to France again and starred with Claude Chabrol in The Monstrous Decade. And in the early eighties, luck again smiled at the actor for a short time. A wave of sequel-mania inspired Universal to film Psycho-2. At 50, the still youthful actor is back as Norman Bates.

Director's work

In 1986, Perkins Anthony himself decided to skim off his psychopathic and neurotic image. To this end, he made the film "Psycho-3". However, to the great disappointment, the tape was expected to be a complete failure. Two years later, he once again tried himself as a director. But the film "Lucky" - a black comedy on the theme of cannibalism - was clearly unsuccessful.

Anthony Perkins: personal life

You have to give the actor his due: in the fifties, when non-traditional sexual relations were taboo in America, he did not hide the fact that he was gay. His lovers were mostly actors. But they also talk about an affair with such a star as Rudolf Nureyev. And with Grover Dale, the choreographer, he lived for six years.

At forty, he met Victoria Principal, an actress from the TV series Dallas, after which he began to visit a psychologist in order to get rid of homosexual inclinations. He eventually married journalist Berry Berenson (1973). From this marriage two sons were born. Oz has now made a career as an actor, and Elvis has becomemusician.

Anthony Perkins died of AIDS-related pneumonia on September 12, 1992 in California. His widow Berry tragically died. She was a passenger on a plane that crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.