page_title: Janet Leigh
section_title: 1951–1953: Marriage to Tony Curtis
hierarchical_section_title: Janet Leigh / Life and career / 1951–1953: Marriage to Tony Curtis
caption_attribution_description: English: Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh at 25th Annual Academy Awards
context_page_description: Janet Leigh was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author, whose career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leigh had her first formal foray into acting, appearing in radio programs before making her film debut in the drama The Romance of Rosy Ridge.
  Early in her career, she appeared in several popular films for MGM which spanned a wide variety of genres, including Act of Violence, Little Women, Angels in the Outfield, Scaramouche, The Naked Spur, and Living It Up. Leigh played mostly dramatic roles during the latter half of the 1950s, in such films as Safari and Orson Welles's film noir Touch of Evil, but achieved her most lasting recognition as the doomed Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  Her highly publicized marriage to actor Tony Curtis ended in divorce in 1962, and after starring in The Manchurian Candidate that same year, Leigh scaled back her career.
context_section_description: On June 4, 1951, Leigh married actor Tony Curtis in a private ceremony in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their romance and marriage was a frequent topic in gossip columns and film tabloids. From 1951 to 1954 Leigh and Curtis appeared in numerous home movies directed by their friend Jerry Lewis. Leigh credited the experimental and informal nature of these films for allowing her to stretch her acting ability and attempt new roles.
  At MGM she appeared in Strictly Dishonorable (1951), a comedy with Ezio Pinza, based on a play by Preston Sturges. The film received mild critical acclaim. Leigh then appeared in the baseball-themed fantasy farce Angels in the Outfield (1951), which was a significant commercial success. The same year, RKO borrowed Leigh to appear in the musical Two Tickets to Broadway (1951), which was a box-office success. Back at MGM she was one of many stars in the anthology film It's a Big Country: An American Anthology (1952), and appeared in a romantic comedy with Peter Lawford, Just This Once (1952).
  Leigh had a significant commercial success with the swashbuckler-themed Scaramouche (1952), in which she starred as Aline de Gavrillac opposite Stewart Granger and Eleanor Parker. Next, she received top-billing in the critically acclaimed comedy Fearless Fagan (1952), about a clown drafted into the military, followed by a role opposite James Stewart in the Western The Naked Spur (1953). The latter, though a low-budget feature, was one of the top-grossing films of the year, and noted by several critics for its psychological components. Less well received was the comedy Confidentially Connie (1953), in which Leigh starred opposite Van Johnson as a pregnant housewife who helps trigger a price war at a local butcher shop. Paramount borrowed Leigh and Curtis for the biographical feature Houdini (1953)–the couple's first film together–with the two appearing as Harry and Bess Houdini, respectively. The couple also appeared as guests on Martin and Lewis' Colgate Comedy Hour before Leigh was loaned to Universal to appear in the musical Walking My Baby Back Home (1953).
  In early 1954, Leigh was cast as Robert Wagner's love interest in the Fox-produced adventure film Prince Valiant (1954), a Viking-themed feature based on Hal Foster's comic of the same name. Also in 1954, Leigh had a supporting role in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy Living It Up (1954) for Paramount, followed by Universal's swashbuckler film The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), in which she appeared opposite Curtis, marking their second feature together. Leigh also starred opposite Robert Taylor in MGM's film noir Rogue Cop (1954), portraying a femme fatale lounge singer. Variety deemed her performance in the film "satisfactory," but faulted the screenplay for being illogical. Following Rogue Cop, Leigh ended her contract with MGM after eight years.
caption: Leigh with husband Tony Curtis at the 25th Academy Awards
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