Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock Psycho 1960 Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigat

Anthony Perkins had a boyish, earnest quality, which Alfred Hitchcock exploited when the actor starred as Norman Bates in the film Psycho (1960). It was about Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a young woman who steals $40,000 from her employer and flees by car, stopping by chance at a motel run by Norman Bates [Perkins], where she is murdered in her room’s shower, seemingly by Norman’s mother. Initially, the film divided critics due to its controversial subject matter, but audience interest and outsta