Looking Out My Back Door

The Tragedy of Anthony Perkins and Berry Berenson

A strange night to be writing about the actor Anthony Perkins, but I'm going through Season 1 of "Saturday Night Live," and I've just gotten to the show he hosted, number 15. It reminded me of how much suffering the actor and his family have gone through, astonishing, and such a difficult legacy for his two sons.

Consider: Perkins, son of a stage and film actor, had his greatest fame in the movie "Psycho." Later efforts never really lived up to his early triumph. Though long suspected (and then admitted) a bisexual, he married model/actress Berenthia "Berry" Berenson. She had an even more impressive family tree, which included designer Elsa Schiaperelli, along with a well-known art critic, and sister/model/actress Marissa Berenson. Berry and Anthony produced two sons and remained married until Perkins' death from AIDS. It has never been established -- nor do we really need to know -- how he contracted this disease. Some years later, after son Oz (named for Perkins' father, Osgood) started making his mark as a supporting "geek " in movies such as "Legally Blonde," Berry died on September 11, 2001, a passenger on the American Airlines flight from Boston, which was the plane that hit the first (North) tower of the World Trade Center.

I cannot imagine this much tragedy affecting one family, and have always felt the need to express the sorrow I feel for them. I certainly don't know them, but I have a lot of empathy for them, as no one deserves this much sorrow. Well, okay, there are some that do deserve it, but from what I've read and researched, the Perkins/Berenson family did not.

I've been mulling this entry around for a while now, and would probably still be mulling it if not for the fact that I saw the Anthony Perkins-hosted "SNL" tonight. I guess I've been thinking about it since 9/11, when I learned that Berry Berenson was one of the victims. No media outlet really reported on the fullness of her life, and I felt she deserved that. She was truly a courageous woman.

posted by Hopster @ 7:40 PM