In “Psycho,” Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) steals a hefty sum of money from her employer and immediately goes on the lam, wracked by guilt, but dreaming of finally shacking up with her boyfriend Sam Loomis (John Gavin). She drives a great distance, eventually getting lost in the rain. She checks into a motel. A few scenes later, Marion’s sister, Lila, becomes suspicious of what might have happened to Marion, and hires a private investigator named Arbogast (Martin Balsam) to find her. It will be Vera who eventually finds out what happened to Marion on that dark road trip, and discovers the secrets of Norman (Anthony Perkins), the skittish man running an out-of-the-way motel with his mother.
Vera Miles, who turned 94 this year, was crowned Miss Kansas in 1948 and moved to Los Angeles the following year to pursue acting. She started out playing showgirls and teens in a variety of Hollywood pictures, from “Two Tickets to Broadway” to “The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.” She appeared in a Tarzan movie, as well as hits like “The Searchers” and “The FBI Story” before landing the role of Rose in “The Wrong Man,” her first collaboration with Hitchcock.
Not only did Miles play Lila in “Psycho,” but she was the preferred leading actress for Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” a few years earlier. Miles had to turn down the role because she was pregnant at the time, and the part went to Kim Novak. Miles would also turn up in two episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”
In a video interview about the 1983 film “Psycho II,” she described herself (and Perkins) as shy and reticent, and noted that Hitchcock didn’t foster warmth on his sets.
Miles retired from acting in 1995. Well done, indeed.
