Janet Leigh dies

Hollywood actress Janet Leigh has died in her home in Beverly Hills, she was 77.

12:19 05 October 2004

Hollywood actress Janet Leigh has died in her home in Beverly Hills, she was 77.

The actress was best known for her supporting role as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic thriller Psycho. In the film she was stabbed to death in the famous shower scene - the role earned Leigh an Oscar nomination.

She was married four times and in the 1950s formed half of "Hollywood's perfect couple" with Tony Curtis - who she was married to for 11 years and had two daughters with.

Both of these children went on to act - with Jamie Lee Curtis following in her mother's footsteps into the horror genre.

Leigh died of vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels, on Sunday with her husband Robert Brandt and daughters at her bedside.

Over her career the actress appeared in more than 60 films, making her screen debut in 1947, but she rose to prominence in 1949 starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor in Mervyn LeRoy's adaptation of Little Women.

But it is the shower scene in Psycho that truly secured her fame.

The scene was shot in 70 takes - each lasting two or three seconds - the sound of Marion being stabbed was created by plunging a knife into a casaba melon and the blood draining down the plughole afterwards was simulated using Bosco's chocolate syrup.

During the scene the knife is never shown touching Miss Leigh, her modesty is carefully maintained and Anthony Perkins (who played the killer) was in New York preparing for a play when it was shot.

When asked if it was true that following watching the scene she no longer showered Leigh replied: "It's actually, honestly true. And not because of the shooting of it. It was the seeing of it. It never dawned on me how truly vulnerable we are."