‘Psycho’ Star Anthony Perkins’ Sons, Elvis and Osgood, Carry on His Legacy: ‘I Am an Authority in Losing People in Insane Ways’
Plus, see how Osgood Perkins has made art from trauma in his new film
Anthony Perkins’ performance as Norman Bates in Psycho is one of the most iconic in film history, and the actor’s career was defined by playing tortured yet deeply compelling characters. Offscreen, Perkins struggled in his personal life, as he was a closeted gay man during a homophobic era, and the pain he felt in hiding his true identity came through in his performances.
Like many gay actors of his day, Perkins married and had children, though that didn’t stop the rumors around his orientation. Following furtive relationships with fellow actor Tab Hunter and dancer Grover Dale, Perkins married photographer Berry Berenson, the younger sister of model and actress Marisa Berenson, in 1973. The couple had two sons, and their marriage ended in tragedy, as Perkins died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1992 at age 60, after hiding his diagnosis for years, while Berenson was a passenger on one of the planes hijacked during the September 11 terrorist attacks, dying at 53.
Perkins and Berenson’s children, Osgood and Elvis Perkins, grew up in the shadow of unspeakable trauma, and both of them went on to become artists who often explore dark themes in their work. Read on to learn about the unique creative paths they’ve forged for themselves.
Osgood Perkins: From the son of a horror star to a horror director
Anthony Perkins and Berry Berenson’s first son, Osgood, often known as Oz, was born in 1974. Osgood made his screen debut playing his father’s character as a child in Psycho II (1983). He then acted in films like Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Legally Blonde (2001), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), Secretary (2002), Star Trek (2009) and Nope (2022) and appeared in various TV episodes.
Osgood Perkins made his directorial debut with the horror movie The Blackcoat’s Daughter in 2015. He’s become one of the genre’s busiest filmmakers, going on to direct I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), Gretel & Hansel (2020), Longlegs (2024), The Monkey (2025) and Keeper (2025). He’s currently at work on his next movie, The Young People, coming in 2026.
Osgood married his wife, Sidney Perkins, in 1999. They had a son and a daughter before divorcing in 2016, and he has another son from an earlier relationship.
Osgood has often said that his complicated family dynamic inspired his films, and told The Independent, “I am an authority in losing people in insane ways . . . I think one of the ‘gifts’ of experiencing tragedy early is that if you’re lucky to be able to process it and have support and a life afterwards—even if that life is hard for a long time—you can emerge with a distance and an appreciation of all aspects of living.”
The horror director, who was 18 when Perkins died, also expressed a deep admiration for his father’s work, saying, “I saw him as a beautiful sort of instrument. It was always impressive. I always felt special. And then as I get older and am making my own things, I’ll sit and watch Psycho and just be like, ‘Wow, that’s a really special thing. That’s a one-in-a-million movie performance,’ and I feel a great deal of pride about it.”
Elvis Perkins: An indie musician who collaborates with his brother
Elvis Perkins was born in 1976. He released his debut album, Ash Wednesday, in 2007, and said, “The title refers to being left on Wednesday with nothing but ash, because [my mother] died on a Tuesday—being left with ash on September 12. That was also the day my father died, September 12 [in 1992].”
Elvis released three more indie folk albums, Elvis Perkins in Dearland (2009), I Aubade (2015) and Creation Myths (2020). He’s also collaborated with his brother, composing the scores for his films The Blackcoat’s Daughter, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House and Longlegs.
While Elvis has acknowledged how the devastating circumstances of his parents’ deaths shaped his songwriting, he’s generally avoided talking about his upbringing in interviews, saying, “They start out as your parents and they end up as your parents, and what they do in between is sort of like… everybody’s got to do something. So they just seemed like more or less normal people to me.”
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