Celebrity Anthony Perkins

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Anthony Perkins

Birthday:

4 April 1932

Height:

188 cm

Biography

[on typecasting] It was frustrating. I had plenty of offers, but not for the lighter roles, the comedy roles I had always felt would be the main strength of my career. Even today, I don't get as many of those offers as I'd like.

I had wild fantasies, but my erotic experience was mostly solitary. Along the way I'd had homosexual encounters, but that kind of sex always felt unreal to me and unsatisfying. And I had never had sex with a woman-the very thought of it terrified me.

Haven't bought a stitch of clothing in the last 15 years. I just keep what they give me to wear in my pictures.

[on his wife] I look at women closely - they fascinate me. But we've been together 11 years now and I've never seen another woman I could love as much as I love Berry.

Women's liberation has liberated me too.

[on his mother] Just a strong-willed, dominant, New England kind of woman. She controlled everything about my life, including my thoughts and feelings. "Finish your homework. Put your toys away. Take a bath now. Where are you going? What are you reading? Why are you doing that?" She felt she was taking responsibility, but she was really taking control.

[on his acting] I was always very keen. I would do anything they asked of me.

I'd grown up almost exclusively in female company. Males seemed rough and frightening.

Hitchcock thought of Psycho (1960) as a comedy. When it first came out, it was greeted with screams of laughter. People laughed all the way through, so much so that he declared it was the first time he had ever been outthought by an audience. He knew it was going to be funny, but he didn't realize it was going to be that funny.

[on dating Victoria Principal] It was a case of spontaneous combustion. I tried everything I could think of, because I thought I might never get another chance.

[on Norman Bates] I do have affection for Norman as a person. He does the best he can out of the diminished circumstances with which his personality stranded him, and Norman's childhood was difficult and traumatic. Norman is, at heart, a benevolent soul, with a dark side, but Norman's conscious mind is always on the positive things in life.

[on playing Norman Bates] It is the Hamlet of horror roles, and you can never quite get enough of playing Norman Bates. It's always interesting.

[on playing Norman Bates and the Psycho movies] I think it's my favorite role as well. So many thousands of people have come up to me on the street and in hotel lobbies and in department stores and have shared their experiences of seeing the films with me. It's always been with the greatest amount of pleasure that they've done so. They've told me stories about the dates they had with their future wives, and they've told me stories about sneaking out of the bathroom window and seeing it against their parents orders - and many stories like that, which have imprinted it into their minds. Always with a feeling of having been entertained and having been taken in by the story and having a good time. Of course, I enjoy that.

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The violence in the Psycho movies is born out of plot, passion and character... Don't just dispatch people by six to the reel and say it's entertainment.

I have a lot of affection for Norman Bates and a lot of sympathy. So does the audience, I think. He's not just a monster. He's tortured. The real secret of the Psycho movies is that they're tragedies first and horror movies second.

[on playing Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)] Not many people know this, but I was in New York rehearsing for a play when the shower scene was filmed in Hollywood. It is rather strange to go through life being identified with this sequence knowing that it was my double. Actually, the first time I saw Psycho and that shower scene was at the studio. I found it really scary. I was just as frightened as anybody else. Working on the picture, though, was one of the happiest filming experiences of my life. We had fun making it - never realizing the impact it would have.

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[part of his last letter, given to his sons after his death] Boys, don't try to find a woman as wonderful as your mother to marry because if you do, you'll stay single your whole lives.

[statement made shortly before his death, on why he was private about his battle with AIDS] I chose not to go public about this because, to misquote Casablanca, I'm not much at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of one old actor don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

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.