who played norman bates in psycho
Norman Bates. Norman Bates is a lead character in Psycho (1960) and was played by actor Anthony Perkins. The character of Norman was originally created by author Robert Bloch for his 1959 novel, Psycho. Bloch's main inspiration for Norman Bates was Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein who was arrested in 1957 and charged with the murder of two local women.