Some people consider Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece, Psycho, the greatest suspense flick of all time. What character killed a woman in the famous shower scene, and which actor and actress played these roles?

In one of cinema's most terrifying and influential scenes, the character of Marion Crane, portrayed by Hollywood star Janet Leigh, is brutally murdered at the Bates Motel. The killer is revealed to be the disturbed motel proprietor Norman Bates, in a career-defining role for actor Anthony Perkins. While the shadowy figure in the shower appears to be an elderly woman, it is actually Norman dressed in his deceased mother's clothes, acting out a violent, jealous persona he has absorbed into his own psyche.

The sequence was revolutionary for 1960s filmmaking, not just for its violence but for its narrative audacity. Killing off the film's apparent protagonist and biggest star just a third of the way through the story was completely unexpected. Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, understood the power of this twist and famously enforced a "no late admissions" policy at theaters to ensure audiences experienced the shock as intended. The scene itself was a technical marvel, taking a full week to shoot and using dozens of camera setups to create its unforgettable sense of terror without showing explicit nudity or the knife actually piercing skin.