Hollywood star Janet Leigh dies

Hollywood movie star Janet Leigh, best known as the knife attack victim in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," has died at the age of 77. "Janet Leigh died peacefully in her home Sunday afternoon," Heidi Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for Leigh's daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, was quoted as saying.

Leigh died in her Beverly Hills home. Daughters Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis and her fourth husband, Robert Brandt, were at the home, Schaeffer said.

Leigh had been battling vasculitis - an inflammation of the blood vessels - for a year, she said, informs Reuters.

According to The Mirror, Leigh's body weight had plummetted to just four stone during her year long battle with the disease vasculitis, an inflammation of the blood vessels which attacks white blood cells.

A spokesman for her daughter, Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis, revealed: "She died peacefully, surrounded by her family."

In her long career Janet Leigh - real name Jeanette Helen Morrison - appeared in many movies which went on to become classics, including The Forsyte Saga, The Naked Spur and The Manchurian Candidate.

The pretty blonde was discovered after her photograph was spotted on her father's desk by a retired actress who sent it to MGM, leading to her 1947 debut in The Romance of Rosy Ridge.