&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anthony Perkins HIV: The Psycho Star Who Kept His AIDS Diagnosis Secret Until the End&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Man Behind the Shower Curtain&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When most people think of Anthony Perkins, they think of Norman Bates &amp;mdash; the soft-spoken, quietly menacing motel keeper from Alfred Hitchcock&#39;s &lt;em&gt;Psycho&lt;/em&gt;, one of the most indelible characters in the history of cinema. The shower. The knife. The mother. The smile that never quite reached the eyes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But Anthony Perkins was far more than Norman Bates. He was an Oscar-nominated actor whose career spanned four decades and more than forty films. He was a Broadway performer, a Golden Globe winner, and a two-time Tony Award nominee. He also worked as a singer, director, screenwriter and songwriter. In 1958, &lt;em&gt;Newsweek&lt;/em&gt; presented him as a potential heir to the generation of major American leading men.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was also a bisexual man who spent much of his adult life navigating an industry and an era in which being open about his private life could carry serious professional consequences. In the final years of his life, he was living with HIV and AIDS &amp;mdash; a diagnosis he kept private for two years and which became public without his consent. When he finally addressed it himself, he did so with remarkable dignity and compassion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anthony Perkins died on 12 September 1992, in the bedroom of his Hollywood home, with his wife Berry Berenson and their sons at his side. He was 60 years old. Contemporary reports described his death as resulting from AIDS-related complications.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2026%20%E2%80%93%20Anthony%20Perkins%20The%20Man%20Behind%20Norman%20Bates%20Who%20Faced%20AIDS%20With%20Extraordinary%20Grace%20Goodbye%20HIV%2003.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 26 &amp;ndash; Anthony Perkins The Man Behind Norman Bates Who Faced AIDS With Extraordinary Grace Goodbye HIV 03.jpg (108 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3619714/norman-discovering-bates-motel/&quot;&gt;Bloody Disgusting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Born in New York, Built for the Stage&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anthony Perkins was born on 4 April 1932 in New York City, the son of &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Perkins&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Osgood Perkins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, a respected Broadway and Hollywood actor. His father appeared in the original &lt;em&gt;Scarface&lt;/em&gt; in 1932, the same year Anthony was born.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Osgood died when Anthony was just five years old. The loss had a lasting impact on the young actor and contributed to the complicated relationship with his mother that Perkins later discussed publicly &amp;mdash; a part of his personal history that would acquire an eerie resonance when he played Norman Bates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perkins studied at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rollins.edu/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Rollins College&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.columbia.edu/&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Columbia University&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; before turning seriously towards acting. He made his film debut in &lt;em&gt;The Actress&lt;/em&gt; in 1953 and his Broadway debut in 1954.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His breakthrough came in 1956 with William Wyler&#39;s &lt;em&gt;Friendly Persuasion&lt;/em&gt;, in which he played the son of a Quaker family during the American Civil War. His performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at just 24 years old.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By 1958, Perkins had become one of Hollywood&#39;s most promising young actors. He was featured on the cover of &lt;em&gt;Newsweek&lt;/em&gt; as a rising star expected to become one of America&#39;s next major leading men.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His private life, however, was considerably more complicated than his public image suggested. Perkins had relationships with actor &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tab_Hunter&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tab Hunter&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and choreographer &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Dale&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Grover Dale&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; during years when Hollywood offered little protection for actors who were open about same-sex relationships.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 1973, he married photographer and actress Berry Berenson, the granddaughter of fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and younger sister of actress Marisa Berenson. They had two sons, Osgood, born in 1974, and Elvis, born in 1976.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Their elder son, Osgood, later followed his father into acting and appeared as young Norman Bates in &lt;em&gt;Psycho II&lt;/em&gt; (1983). Elvis became a singer-songwriter and musician.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2026%20%E2%80%93%20Anthony%20Perkins%20The%20Man%20Behind%20Norman%20Bates%20Who%20Faced%20AIDS%20With%20Extraordinary%20Grace%20Goodbye%20HIV%2002.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 26 &amp;ndash; Anthony Perkins The Man Behind Norman Bates Who Faced AIDS With Extraordinary Grace Goodbye HIV 02.jpg (153 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://people.com/who-was-anthony-perkins-psycho-actor-11827215&quot;&gt;PEOPLE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Norman Bates and the Role That Defined Everything&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock cast Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in &lt;em&gt;Psycho&lt;/em&gt; &amp;mdash; a decision that would define, and in many ways confine, the rest of his career.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The film became a landmark of American cinema. Norman Bates became one of the most recognisable and studied characters in film history. The shower sequence, Bernard Herrmann&#39;s score and the film&#39;s final revelations became part of popular culture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perkins was extraordinary in the role. He gave Norman Bates a nervous vulnerability and apparent innocence that made the character both sympathetic and deeply unsettling. It was a performance that made him famous around the world &amp;mdash; but it also became extremely difficult to escape.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For the next three decades, Perkins continued working across film, television and theatre. He appeared in films including &lt;em&gt;Murder on the Orient Express&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;The Black Hole&lt;/em&gt;, as well as numerous European productions. He also co-wrote the screenplay for &lt;em&gt;The Last of Sheila&lt;/em&gt; with Stephen Sondheim.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He eventually returned to Norman Bates, reprising the role in &lt;em&gt;Psycho II&lt;/em&gt; in 1983 and &lt;em&gt;Psycho III&lt;/em&gt; in 1986. Perkins also directed &lt;em&gt;Psycho III&lt;/em&gt;. He returned once more for &lt;em&gt;Psycho IV: The Beginning&lt;/em&gt; in 1990.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Around the time of &lt;em&gt;Psycho IV&lt;/em&gt;, Perkins was also dealing with a major change in his private life: his HIV diagnosis.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2026%20%E2%80%93%20Anthony%20Perkins%20The%20Man%20Behind%20Norman%20Bates%20Who%20Faced%20AIDS%20With%20Extraordinary%20Grace%20Goodbye%20HIV%2005.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 26 &amp;ndash; Anthony Perkins The Man Behind Norman Bates Who Faced AIDS With Extraordinary Grace Goodbye HIV 05.jpg (60 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.northjersey.com/story/life/columnists/bill-ervolino/2018/04/04/birthday-boy-anthony-perkins-reflected-psycho-1990-two-years-before-his-death/487728002/&quot;&gt;NorthJersey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Diagnosis That Became Public Without His Consent&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 1990, while Perkins was undergoing medical treatment for facial palsy, blood tests were taken in Los Angeles. His wife later said that Perkins had not specifically sought an HIV test but believed someone had tested his blood for the virus and that the result had somehow reached the press.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;National Enquirer&lt;/em&gt; subsequently reported that Perkins was HIV-positive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The circumstances surrounding the disclosure were deeply invasive. Rather than choosing when and how to discuss his health publicly, Perkins found himself confronted with the disclosure through the tabloid press.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He subsequently confirmed his HIV status through medical testing. Perkins and Berry then decided to keep his condition private. According to contemporary reporting, they maintained that privacy for approximately two years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During that period, Perkins continued working and also became involved with Project Angel Food alongside Berry. The organisation provided meals to people living with HIV/AIDS who were unable to prepare food for themselves. In 1990, Berry and Tony Perkins served as honorary chairpersons of Project Angel Food&#39;s first Angel Art event, which raised more than $540,000.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a meaningful part of his final years: while keeping his own diagnosis private, he was helping support a community affected by the same epidemic.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Final Statement&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On 11 September 1992, one day before his death, Perkins released a personal statement through his publicist, Leslee Dart.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He explained that he had chosen not to disclose his AIDS diagnosis publicly because he did not believe that the problems of one actor were more important than the much larger suffering taking place in the world. He made the point with a reference to &lt;em&gt;Casablanca&lt;/em&gt; and its famous &quot;hill of beans&quot; line.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the heart of the statement was his reflection on what living with AIDS had taught him.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perkins wrote that the people he had met through what he called his &quot;great adventure in the world of AIDS&quot; had taught him more about love, selflessness, and human understanding than he had learned during his years in Hollywood.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The statement was striking not because it tried to create a dramatic final moment, but because of its humanity. Perkins did not present himself simply as a famous actor with AIDS. He spoke about the people he had encountered, the compassion he had experienced, and the lessons he believed the epidemic had taught him.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He died the following day, 12 September 1992, at his Hollywood home, with Berry and their sons at his side. Contemporary reports said he died from AIDS-related complications.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His final acting performance was in the television film &lt;em&gt;In the Deep Woods&lt;/em&gt;, which aired on NBC after his death.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The inscription on his final resting place&lt;!--TgQPHd|||[]--&gt; read, &lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t&amp;nbsp;Fence Me In.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/uvB41oLChPM&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; height=&quot;314&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Inside the Perkins family: The hidden pain, Hollywood constraints, and the tight-knit secrets kept to protect their children.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What Berry Said&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A few days after Perkins&#39; death, &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_Berenson&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Berry Berenson&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt; spoke publicly about the two years during which the family had kept his diagnosis private.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Her account helped provide a picture of the man behind the headlines: someone who had continued working, remained devoted to his family and quietly supported people affected by HIV/AIDS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;She also spoke about the fear surrounding disclosure. For Perkins, the decision to go public was not simply a question of personal privacy. It was tied to the possibility that being known as an actor with AIDS could change how Hollywood viewed him and affect the work that had defined his life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That fear was understandable in the early 1990s, when HIV/AIDS remained heavily stigmatised, and public discussion was often shaped by fear rather than compassion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Berry Berenson remained married to Perkins until he died in 1992. She died on 11 September 2001, nine years to the day before the anniversary of her husband&#39;s final days, when American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2026%20%E2%80%93%20Anthony%20Perkins%20The%20Man%20Behind%20Norman%20Bates%20Who%20Faced%20AIDS%20With%20Extraordinary%20Grace%20Goodbye%20HIV%2015.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 26 &amp;ndash; Anthony Perkins The Man Behind Norman Bates Who Faced AIDS With Extraordinary Grace Goodbye HIV 15.jpg (79 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://fineartamerica.com/featured/anthony-perkins-1960s-everett.html&quot;&gt;Everett / Fine Art America&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What He Left Behind&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anthony Perkins left behind a body of work that deserves to be remembered as more than the story of Norman Bates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He was a talented and versatile actor who moved between Hollywood films, European cinema, Broadway, and television. He directed &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070291&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Psycho III&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, co-wrote &lt;em&gt;The Last of Sheila&lt;/em&gt;, performed on stage, and continued working for almost forty years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But his final years also became part of the history of HIV/AIDS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At a time when many public figures were afraid to acknowledge an AIDS diagnosis because of the stigma attached to the disease, Perkins eventually chose to speak in his own words. His statement did not focus on celebrity or career. Instead, it focused on compassion, love, and what he had learned from other people living through the epidemic.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That remains the most important part of his legacy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anthony Perkins spent much of his life being defined by a character who was trapped behind walls, secrets, and fear.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://cms.goodbyehiv.com/Files/Pai/Celebrities%20with%20HIV%20%E2%80%93%2026%20%E2%80%93%20Anthony%20Perkins%20The%20Man%20Behind%20Norman%20Bates%20Who%20Faced%20AIDS%20With%20Extraordinary%20Grace%20Goodbye%20HIV%2012.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Celebrities with HIV &amp;ndash; 26 &amp;ndash; Anthony Perkins The Man Behind Norman Bates Who Faced AIDS With Extraordinary Grace Goodbye HIV 12.jpg (87 KB)&quot; width=&quot;550&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;color: #808080;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image source:&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/7935&quot;&gt;Courtesy of Photofest / MoMA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In his final statement, he spoke instead about love, understanding, and human connection.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And on his urn, four simple words remained:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&quot;Don&#39;t Fence Me In.&quot;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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