Anthony Perkins was nominated for an Oscar for his acting, directing, and singing work. Still, his portrayal of Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is what will be remembered most.
With his second acting role as Garry Cooper’s son in the 1956 film Friendly Persuasion, Perkin received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1957’s Fear Strikes Out, he played baseball player Jimmy Piersall; in 1958’s The Matchmaker, he acted alongside Shirley Booth and Shirley MacLaine; in 1959’s On the Beach, he joined the likes of Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire.
Plays the psychotic Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s groundbreaking thriller Psycho, a film widely considered to be one of Hitchcock’s most delicate, whose iconic shower scene and score have entered the public consciousness. Perkins has returned for multiple sequels in the same role.
His later works include the Disney science fiction comedy The Black Hole and the Sidney Lumet adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, both of which starred the likes of Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Jaqueline Bissett, Michael York, and Wendy Hiller.
At age 60, Perkins passed away at his home in California on September 12, 1992, from pneumonia brought on by AIDS. In 1990, while filming Psycho IV: The Beginning, he tested positive for HIV.
After his passing, it was discovered that he had only dated people of the same gender. His exes included Tab Hunter (the actor), Christopher Makos (the artist), Rudolph Nureyev (the dancer), and Stephen Sondheim (the composer).
He met photographer Berinthia Berenson in 1972, and they eventually married and had two boys. They stayed together till Perkins’s passing. Nine years later, on September 11, 2001, Berenson was a passenger on the American Airlines flight hijacked by terrorists and slammed into the World Trade Center.
Entertainer Maurice Chevalier was born in 1888
Maurice Chevalier was born in 1888 and became an actor and comedian. He gained his mark in musical comedies from an early age. He was born in Paris. In 1909, he began his successful career in music halls and cabaret after receiving critical acclaim for his singing and mimicry at l’Alcazar in Marseille.
Chevalier was a member of the French armed forces during World War I; he was injured by shrapnel during the first few weeks of fighting and spent the next two years as a prisoner of war in a German jail. Here, he picked up English from his fellow inmates.
After the war ended, he moved to London and began performing jazz and ragtime, eventually touring the United States. After moving to the United States, he worked with Hollywood actors and musicians like Irving Berlin and Ira Gershwin.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for best actor in 1930 for his performances in The Love Parade and The Big Pond. As a result of his fame from his musical cinema roles, he was at the top of the charts for several decades. He first gained widespread recognition in the 1934 film adaptation of The Merry Widow’s operetta. He left Hollywood in the mid-1930s after becoming disenchanted with the film industry there.
Chevalier stayed in France throughout WWII and only grudgingly agreed to perform for POWs in exchange for the freedom of French prisoners. Others demanded his death after the war, accusing him of being a collaborator. The incident nevertheless hung over his reputation and career even after a French court acquitted him.
His best performances were in his later films, which he made after returning to America in the mid-1950s for a national tour. Love in the Afternoon, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn, was the director’s first Hollywood film in over 20 years.
After working with Leslie Caron in Gigi and Fanny, he directed Can-Can starring Frank Sinatra and Panic Button starring Jayne Mansfield. Performing in The Aristocats, a Disney picture released in 1970, was Chevalier’s last major cinema work.
Suicide attempts plagued Chevalier’s life, beginning with a failed attempt in March 1971. His drug overdose was unsuccessful, but he damaged his kidneys and liver. Later that year, when his condition deteriorated, physicians attempted to conduct surgery to extend his life. It was determined that Chevalier had a heart attack during the operation and died on January 1, 1972.
Actress Yvonne Vallée of France was the first of two women the performer wed between 1927 and 1932. The couple married in 1937, and he remained faithful to Nita Raya until she died in 1945. They both got divorced. Some accounts claim that Chevalier had a long-term relationship with his valet, Felix Paquet, and others claim that he had same-sex experiences during World War I.
Don’t forget to share this news with your loved ones, and check out journalization.org.
