Who is jamie lee curtiss mother

(CNN) Jamie Lee Curtis honored her mother Janet Leigh at the recent "Halloween Kills" premiere by replicating Leigh's costume from her iconic role in "Psycho."

Curtis, who stars in the latest installment of the popular "Halloween" horror movie franchise, wore a pale blue dress and complimented it with a blonde wig, black purse and shower curtain smeared with fake blood.

"Honoring my mother in ALL her gory...I meant glory! PREMIERE PARTY TIME!," the caption of a photo of her in the outfit on Curtis' verified Instagram account read.

Leigh's character, Marion Crane, famously meets her end in "Pscyho" after being stabbed to death in the shower.

Curtis said it was more "meta" when it came to honoring her mother, who died in 2004 after a battle with vasculitis, which is an inflammation of blood vessels.

"I am actually going as Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh in the movie 'Hitchcock'," Curtis told "Entertainment Tonight. "So it's meta because we never knew what color Janet Leigh's dress was because it was a black-and-white movie. But now because of the 'Hitchcock' movie, we know it was pale blue."

She added the shower curtain, she said, so people wouldn't think she had just dressed as a 1950s housewife.

It's not the first time the actress has paid tribute to her famous mother's equally famous horror movie role.

In 2015, Curtis recreated the "Psycho" shower scene, in black and white like the original, as part of her role as Wallace University Dean Cathy Munsch on Ryan Murphy's horror-comedy TV series "Scream Queens."

Jamie Lee Curtis recently opened up about how her late mother, Janet Leigh, would have reacted to the Me Too Movement and also talked about her mother's relationship with Alfred Hitchcock.

Curtis also discussed how her mother would not have said that Hitchcock misbehaved with her in any way and added how he was not good with her.

Jamie Lee Curtis talks about how her late mother was Pollyannaish about the industry

Jamie Lee Curtis recently spoke with Melanie Griffith for Interview and revealed how the Me Too Movement would have really upset her mother, Janet Leigh and went nostalgic about the latter's experience with Alfred Hitchcock. "I don't know how he was with your mom, but he apparently was not very good with my mom," she stated. She further stated how her mother would not have ever acknowledged if there was any bad behaviour and mentioned that the mothers were in competition with each other.

She also mentioned that her mother would not have acknowledged anything, because, from her standpoint, she was just grateful. "I think she would have looked at it as 'That was just the way it was,'" she added.

Jamie Lee Curtis' mother, Janet Leigh passed away at age 77 in October 2004 due to a disorder that attacks blood vessels through inflammation, Vasculitis.

On the work front

Jamie Lee Curtis was recently seen in the American slasher film, Halloween Kills, directed by David Gordon Green and written by Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems. The movie received mixed reviews from the audience and the critics, however, the performances of the cast member were highly appreciated. Apart from Curtis, other actors in the movie were James Jude Courtney, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall, Will Patton, Dylan Arnold, Thomas Mann, Kyle Richards, Omar Dorsey, Nancy Stephens, Jim Cummings, Michael McDonald and others. The movie was earlier set to be theatrically released on October 16, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed to October 15, 2021. The makers of the film also announced the direct sequel to the film, Halloween Ends which is slated to release on October 14, 2022. Curtis is also gearing up for the release of her upcoming movies namely Everything Everywhere All at Once and Borderlands whose release dates are yet to be revealed.

Image: AP

Published: October 18, 2021 11:33 IST

For more than 40 years, Jamie Lee Curtis has spent as much time in front of the camera (in films like 1978's Halloween, 1988's A Fish Called Wanda and 2019's Knives Out) as she has with her other passions: writing, activism, producing and directing.

As Curtis tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, she knows how to maximize her impact—and how to ″pivot.″ ″That’s my favorite word,″ she says. And she has, nimbly, from schlocky flicks (Terror Train) to major blockbusters (True Lies) to even yogurt commercials—without ever losing her humor. ″Hey, those commercials let me stay home with my kids," she shrugs.

But when she started out in Hollywood, as the child of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Curtis tells PEOPLE she hadn’t yet found her voice, which would one day advocate for the Special Olympics, education, AIDS research and children.

• For more about Jamie Lee Curtis, pick up this week's issue of PEOPLE

“I never thought I’d be an actor,” she remembers. “I thought I was going to be a police officer! I could barely get through high school. I got into the only college where my mother was the most famous graduate [University of the Pacific], and studied criminal justice—like Intro to Corrections 101. Then my freshman year I ran into somebody who suggested that I audition for Nancy Drew. It was a total accident.”

But at home, she watched her mother, Hitchcock muse Janet Leigh, use her star power to raise money for those less fortunate. “My mother was incredibly philanthropic. She [worked with] a group of Hollywood wives who started an organization called SHARE—Share Happily and Reap Endlessly. It was a very small group who understood their power. They were married to big stars—of course, my mother was a star in her own right—and these women banded together and used their power. Over the years they’ve raised more than $50 million to support children’s charities.”

RELATED VIDEO: Jamie Lee Curtis Slams Fiji Water Girl Photobombing Stunt: They Didn’t Ask for My ‘Permission’

Curtis says her mother’s roll-up-her sleeves attitude “had a huge impact on me. Philanthropy helped me find myself. At 30, I started really owning my voice, to try to help in certain areas. I wrote my first book. Then, ten years later, I got sober. [Curtis has been open about her struggle with addiction, which began with prescription painkillers, and her recovery.] And I think the combination of writing 13 children’s books and 21 years of sobriety has given me an absolute sense of my own power. Now I am putting my money, my time, my creativity toward things that matter to me.”

What matters the most to Curtis is My Hand in Yours. “I’ve been closing letters with ‘My hand in yours’ for years,” Curtis says.

In August, she launched the website to benefit Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Artists and jewelry designers such as Anne Ricketts, Moye Thompson, Simon Pearce and Cathy Waterman create everything from jewelry to journals.

Curtis underwrites all the cost of production and 100 percent of sales benefit children in need of medical care.

“My Hand in Yours was created as a way to connect that part of my life to some sort of advocacy," she says. "Because, if ever there was a time certainly in my lifetime where people need comfort and connection, it's now.”

Jamie Lee Curtis is reflecting on her Hollywood legend mother Janet Leigh.

Curtis, 62, said that the #MeToo movement "would have really upset" her mom as she spoke with Melanie Griffith for Interview.

The actresses waxed nostalgic about their mothers' experiences working with horror icon Alfred Hitchcock (Griffith's mother Tippi Hedren starred in 1963's The Birds and 1964's Marnie, after Leigh appeared in 1960's Psycho). "I don't know how he was with your mom, but he apparently was not very good with my mom," Griffith, 64, said.

"I don't think Janet would have ever acknowledged if there was any bad behavior. She was, it's a bad term, but kind of Pollyannaish about the industry," Curtis recalled. "I think the #MeToo movement would have really upset her. It's not fair to unpack that, because she's dead and I'm going to put words in her mouth, but knowing her, I think she would not say that he misbehaved in any way. But it's interesting that maybe our mothers were in competition with each other."

"I don't think Janet would ever have acknowledged anything, because from her standpoint, she was just grateful. That was very much her take. I think she would have looked at it as, 'That was just the way it was,'" she added.

Griffith noted that Hitchcock got "very psychologically crazy" with Hedren, 91, behind the scenes of both of their collaborations. Hedren claimed in 2016 that the filmmaker stalked and sexually assault her in the '60s.

"You know, she was of the #MeToo movement, and it was not accepted at that time. She was shunned and he made sure that she was shunned," Griffith added.

Curtis previously called back to her mother's most iconic role, dressing as Marion Crane in Hitchcock's Psycho for last week's costume-themed red carpet premiere of her new movie Halloween Kills, the 12th installment in the horror franchise.

RELATED VIDEO: Jamie Lee Curtis Wears Janet Leigh Psycho Costume: 'Honoring My Mother in All Her Gory'

Leigh died at age 77 in October 2004, following a long and private struggle with vasculitis, which is a group of disorders that attacks blood vessels through inflammation.

See Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween Kills, now in theaters and streaming on Peacock Premium.