R.I.P. JANET

Nearly 45 years after she got slashed to death in a shower becoming the most famous murder victim in history in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, actress Janet Leigh has died. While Psycho eventually overshadowed everything else on her resume, by the time she made it, Leigh had already created a long and respected body of work, including her turn two years earlier opposite Charlton Heston in the brilliant Orson Welles noir Touch of Evil. She was also part of one of the most noted '50s Hollywood celebrity couples when in 1951 she married Tony Curtis, and by the end of the decade the couple had given birth to future actresses Kelly and Jamie Lee.

But it's still Leigh's performance in Psycho that has had the most influence on the world of cinema. Almost every actress to appear in any sort of thriller or horror film who has ever had to scream or show any expression of terror -- including Jamie Lee most notably in Halloween -- has in some way used Leigh's performance as a model.

I'm pretty sure TCM will be programming some sort of Leigh memorial festival, and the schedule will probably pop up on their site by the end of the day. But I encourage you to get to know Janet Leigh, a/k/a/ Jeannette Helen Morrison, when they give you the chance. She was a great one, and movies were definitely better for her being around.

UPDATE: As expected, Turner Classic Movies will, in fact, turn its schedule over to the films of Janet Leigh this Sunday 10/10, although they're doing so during the day and not the primetime hours. Although Psycho is included at 4 PM (Eastern; 1 Pacific), neither Touch of Evil nor The Manchurian Candidate is. However, The Naked Spur will show at 2 PM, and if you're sick or tired or lazy or just want to spend a great day watching a bunch of movies, you could do much worse than watching The Naked Spur and Psycho on TCM and renting Touch of Evil and The Manchurian Candidate. And of course, check-out the rest of what TCM is offering that morning. Whatever you watch, I'm sure you'll see why Leigh had such a captivating camera presence that sometimes may have even outshone her formidable acting talent.