Who plays Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho?

Who plays Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho? The answer is Anthony Perkins.

Perkins portrays Norman Bates, the quiet proprietor of the isolated Bates Motel who becomes entangled in the film’s disturbing mystery. His mild manners and awkward charm make the character appear harmless at first, allowing Hitchcock to build suspense around the motel, Norman’s domineering mother, and the disappearance of Marion Crane.

Psycho was directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock and adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel. Hitchcock cast Perkins against the image of the older, heavier Norman in the book, using the actor’s youthful appearance and sympathetic screen presence to make the character more psychologically unsettling.

Perkins’s performance became the defining role of his career. He returned as Norman in Psycho II, Psycho III, and Psycho IV: The Beginning, while Vince Vaughn played the character in Gus Van Sant’s 1998 remake. A common mix-up is confusing the actor with Norman’s “Mother” persona: Norma Bates is voiced in the original film by Virginia Gregg, Paul Jasmin, and Jeanette Nolan, but Anthony Perkins plays Norman himself. The film received four Academy Award nominations.