Hiscock

ANTHONY PERKINS

ACTOR

On stage and screen Anthony Perkins played a wide range of comic and serious parts, but he is remembered best for his vivid portrayal of the murderous young motel manager Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho (1960). His great success in this film made the public always think of him as a troubled young man. The son of Osgood Perkins, a noted actor, Anthony Perkins was born in New York City, April 4, 1932. He began acting professionally while still in his teens and made his Broadway debut in Tea and Sympathy (1954). He was nominated for an Oscar for the film Friendly Persuasion (1956), and he won a Tony Award as Best Dramatic Actor in the play Look Homeward Angel (1957). His other notable films include Fear Strikes Out (1956), On the Beach (1959), Is Paris Burning? (1965), Catch-22 (1970), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and three sequels to Psycho (1983, 1986, and 1990).

In 1974, Perkins married the actress Berinthia Berenson, and they had two sons, Elvis and Osgood, who were 16 and 18, respectively, when Perkins died of AIDS on September 12, 1992. His wife said that, like Brad Davis (see card 11), he had kept his illness a secret because no one in Hollywood who knew he had AIDS would have hired him. She declined to speculate on how her husband might have contracted the disease. In a final statement dictated to his sons Perkins said, "I have learned more about love, selflessness, and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life." Next Card 40: NICK PERLS: Record Executive

ANTHONY PERKINS