Biography

Anthony Perkins

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Overview

Born
April 4, 1932 · New York City, New York, USA
Died
September 12, 1992 · Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (pneumonia as a complication of AIDS)
Nickname
- Tony
Height
6′ 2″ (1.88 m)

Mini bio

Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.
- IMDb mini biography by: tony.r.vario@gmail.com

Family

Spouse
Children
Parents
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Trademarks

Nervous, sweet but often unbalanced characters.
Broad shoulders

Trivia

Had agreed to voice the dentist on The Simpsons (1989) episode "Last Exit to Springfield" but died before work began. The role then went to Hank Azaria.
Was a huge admirer of Orson Welles, and was even planning on writing a book about him, but aborted the project in fear of upsetting his idol. Welles later said that he would have loved the idea.
Entered Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in September 1950. Also on campus during his first year were Fred Rogers (of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968)) who graduated in 1951 and John Reardon, class of 1952. In 1953 he was offered a leading role in the movie The Actress (1953). Almost immediately after returning to his studies he left to replace John Kerr in "Tea and Sympathy" on Broadway. He never completed his degree but was given an honorary degree by the college some 20 years later.
During 1990, he got a blood sample taken due to a palsy on the side of his face. The National Enquirer illegally had Tony's blood sample tested for the AIDS virus, and found out that it was positive. Later that year, the National Enquirer wrote a story about his battle with AIDS, but the ironic thing was that he only found out that he was HIV positive from this article. He suspected that he probably was, but he never checked for it before the article was written.
On September 11, 2001, his widow and mother of his two sons, Berry Berenson was one of the 58 victims on AA-11 out of Boston that terrorists crashed.

Quotes

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.
[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 (1942), 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.
[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.
[on playing Norman Bates in Psycho (1960)] Not many people know this, but I was in New York rehearsing for a play [Frank Loesser's "Greenwillow"] 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.
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.