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SPLIT IMAGE. The Biography of Anthony Perkins. Charles Winecoff. This is a solid bio of the late actor,
who was a romantic lead in Hollywood, played the famous role of Norman Bates in Hitchcock's Psycho, and married and
fathered two children in spite of his essentially homosexual nature. The only quibble I have with the book -- and it's a big
one -- is that at one point Winecoff pretty much suggests (if indirectly) that Perkins was a child molester. This is
based only on a quote from the late Jo Van Fleet, who claims she saw Perkins patting little boys' behinds (and all that implies)
while working on location overseas. Winecoff just drops in this bombshell as if it were insignificant and never bothers to
comment on its accuracy. Dozens of pages later we learn that Van Fleet was fired from a Broadway show in which she appeared
with Perkins and neither he nor anyone else in the cast stood up for her. Isn't it possible that she had a motive for spreading
slanderous stories about Perkins and willfully putting a negative slant on what might well have been perfectly innocent actions
on his part? None of the people I spoke to for my Filmfax profile on Perkins, some of whom had known him very well,
ever suggested that he had an interest in anything other than consenting adults. Winecoff's failure to delve into this and
settle the matter once and for all is irksome to say the least. Otherwise, this is a well-researched and absorbing tome, and
didn't deserve the knock given it by the N.Y. Times (which didn't even pick up on the problem with the child molester
allegations). Incidentally, I was amused that one of those whom Winecoff acknowledges in helping him prepare this volume (he
really singles her out for lavish appreciation) is Laura Kay Palmer, author of the Quirk award-winning Osgood and Anthony
Perkins. In her intro to that book, Palmer expresses her distaste for "tell-all" biographies written by people who had
never known their subjects. One wonders what Ms. Palmer thinks of all the sordid revelations (and pedophilic implications!)
in Mr. Winecoff's book, for which she was, according to Winecoff, such an eager booster. William Schoell FROM Quirk's
Reviews print edition 1997.
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