With his wholesome looks and penchant for the Ivy style, Anthony Perkins was perfect to play the apparently good-natured but in fact deranged killer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” He also had a taste for our style.Here’s a quote about Perkins from Tab Hunter’s autobiography:
As I toweled off, someone approached and formally introduced me to a new actor in town, Anthony Perkins. Tony was tall and skinny, wearing a buttoned-down Brooks Brothers shirt and aviator-style reading glasses. He looked like a gawky New England prep school student who’d taken a wrong turn into this hipster’s hideout [Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard]. We shared the common bond of having grown up fatherless, but beyond that, our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. Tony had attended Florida’s elite Rollins College, as well as Columbia University….
Above, Perkins in buttondown with ample collar roll. Below, seersucker jacket with yellow oxford:
Madras tie:
A couple of crewnecks:
And finally, in what looks like a high school yearbook shot, tweed jacket with pinned collar and knit tie. They sure don’t make psycho killers like they used to. — CC
Killin’ it…haha…
Perfect post.
Where were these pictures from? Particularly the crewneck one of him reading a book. Is that a movie still?
You’ve read Tab Hunter’s description of meeting him for the first time?
“As I toweled off, someone approached and formally introduced me to a new actor in town, Anthony Perkins. Tony was tall and skinny, wearing a buttoned-down Brooks Brothers shirt and aviator-style reading glasses. He looked like a gawky New England prep school student who’d taken a wrong turn into this hipster’s hideout [Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard]…. We shared the common bond of having grown up fatherless, but beyond that, our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. Tony had attended Florida’s elite Rollins College, as well as Columbia University….”
He really led quite a fascinating life as well. I didn’t realzie his widow was killed on September 11th until recently
If memory serves me right I saw Psycho as a sixth grader on Thanksgiving Day 1960. (?!?)
It’s hard to imagine the effect those great Alfred Hitchcock movies had back in they day when they were new and truly surprising. Does anybody do anything as riveting today.
Got a kick out of seeing the original Bates Motel – apparently used for many other movies – at Universal Studios in the late 1990s.
@ C. – that book reading shot looks like it was taken in either some green room or even makeup room to me.
It’s hard to tell from the photo itself, but that second “crewneck” photo is his costume from Psycho and it’s actually a turtleneck with a loose, short collar (I wonder about the brand/source).