Janet Leigh: Beautiful Discovery

Beautiful actress Janet leigh starred in three of the most iconic motion pictures of all time: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

That's quite a resume! And with no acting experience, Janet Leigh's story is like a fairy tale. She was a pretty face that was discovered. Here's her story from Wikipedia:

In February 1946, actress Norma Shearer was vacationing at Sugar Bowl, a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains where Leigh's parents were working at the time. In the resort lobby, Shearer noticed a photograph of Leigh taken by her father over the Christmas holiday, which he had printed and placed in a photo album available for guests to browse.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Shearer showed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) talent agent Lew Wasserman the photograph of the then-eighteen-year-old Leigh (Shearer's late husband Irving Thalberg had been head of production at MGM). She would later recall that "that smile made it the most fascinating face I had seen in years. I felt I had to show that face to somebody at the studio." 

Through her association with MGM, Shearer was able to facilitate screen tests for Leigh with Selena Royle, after which Wasserman negotiated a contract for her, despite her having no acting experience. Leigh dropped out of college that year, and was soon placed under the tutelage of drama coach Lillian Burns.

And the rest is history! To read more about Janet Leigh, click here. My favorite Janet Leigh movie is Touch of Evil. Do you have a favorite hanet Leigh movie? Thanks for visiting and have a great week!