As legend goes, Janet Leigh was discovered by MGM Queen of the Lot in Retirement Norma Shearer when Norma spotted young Jeanette Morrison's photo at her family's ski lodge. Norma's influence secured a screen test and the newly minted Janet Leigh joined the roster of MGM contract player at the end of the 1940s, where she played wholesome ingenues in dozens of mostly lackluster films the studio was still cranking out in the waning days of LB Mayer.
It wasn't until well into the 1950s, and after a highly publicized wedding to heart throb Tony Curtis that Leigh's image morphed into a more complex and sexual working girl persona, culminating in her biggest hit Psycho, for which got her only Oscar nomination.
I'm watching her now on TCM in a little MGM rom-com called Just This Once opposite Peter Lawford, who in 1952 was at the height of his beauty (That wavy hair! That skin, even in b&w! Those eyebrows!!).
DLers, what are your thoughts and remembrances of Janet Leigh? Was she a genuine screen goddess or simply that old actress in the pointy brassieres who was the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis?