Perkins, Anthony (1932-1992)

US film actor. He played the mother-fixated psychopath Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Psycho II (1982), and played shy but subtle roles in Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Trial (1962), and The Champagne Murders (1967). He also appeared on the stage in London and New York.

Perkins was born in New York City. The son of the character actor Osgood Perkins (1892-1937), he began acting at 15 and made his first film, The Actress, in 1953. He appeared on Broadway and was nominated for an Academy Award for his second film, Friendly Persuasion. His successful character roles, several of which had ecclesiastical overtones, include the chaplain in Catch 22 (1970), a bogus preacher in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1973), and a demented fundamentalist minister in Crimes of Passion (1984).