Editing Anthony Perkins (section)

==Personal life==
===Marriage===
There are many conflicting accounts of how Perkins met his future wife, photographer [[Berry Berenson|Berinthia "Berry" Berenson]], the younger sister of actress and model [[Marisa Berenson]]. There were stories that it was at a party in Manhattan in 1972,<ref name=People/> while some insist it was on the set of ''Play It as It Lays''.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=8}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=322}}

[[File:PerkinsBerensonInterview.jpg|thumb|Perkins and [[Berry Berenson]] on the January 1974 cover of Andy Warhol's ''Interview'' magazine]]
Although not romantically involved, Perkins and Berenson saw each other often despite the fact that she was engaged to artist [[Richard Bernstein (artist)|Richard Bernstein]] at the time.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=330}} Slowly, the attachment became romantic and then sexual. After telling her fiancé this, Bernstein reportedly reacted by telling Berenson that Perkins was gay and did not reciprocate her feelings. Berenson was said to have replied "No, he's going to [[Mildred Newman]] and he wants to be straight! He wants to be straight!" Berenson left Bernstein the same day.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=330}}

Perkins and Berenson married when he was 41 and she was 25 on August 9, 1973, with Berenson three months pregnant. Their first son, actor and director [[Oz Perkins]], was born in 1974, and musician [[Elvis Perkins]] followed two years later in 1976.<ref name=GuardianObituary>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/sep/14/guardianobituaries.september11|title=Berry Berenson|work=[[The Guardian]]|first=Amanda|last=Hopkinson|language=en-GB|url-status=live|date=September 14, 2001|access-date=January 30, 2024|archive-date=August 22, 2013|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130822011229/http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/sep/14/guardianobituaries.september11}}</ref> Many friends were surprised by this marriage and believed it would not last long. Venetia Stevenson admitted to Charles Winecoff: "[I]t was a big shock when I heard [Tony] got married. I went, not Tony. He was very gay, totally gay."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=118}} Even Berenson admitted some reserves:
<blockquote>"A lot of people looked at the two of us and said 'Who are they kidding? This is never going to work.' I was so naïve I couldn't figure out what they were talking about. He told me [that he was gay], and it just didn't register. I had been very sheltered."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=331}}</blockquote>

Despite this, Perkins and Berenson remained married until his death. Berenson was killed during the 2001 [[September 11 attacks]]. As she was returning to her California home from a vacation on Cape Cod on [[American Airlines Flight 11]], her plane was [[September 11 attacks|hijacked and crashed]] into North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone aboard. She died at the age of 53, one day before the ninth anniversary of Perkins's death.<ref name="GuardianObituary" />

===Sexuality===
Rumors about Perkins's sexuality had persisted since the beginning of his career, when he made his Broadway debut in ''Tea and Sympathy'' playing a gay character.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=106}}{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=133}} Posthumous biographer Charles Winecoff linked him with a mass expulsion of gay men at Rollins College in Florida, where he was an undergraduate, claiming a large group of his friends had been arrested on charges of homosexuality but that Perkins's links to the theatre professor saved him from dismissal.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=49}} However, there is no evidence of this besides the interviews Winecoff conducted with Rollins alumni.

Perkins reportedly had his first experience with a woman at age 39 with actress [[Victoria Principal]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20119696,00.html |title=Great Factoids |magazine=People |volume=19|issue=23 |date=March 6, 1989 |access-date=March 24, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920012637/http://www.people.com/people/article/0%2C%2C20119696%2C00.html |archive-date=September 20, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="Kennedy">{{cite web|last=Kennedy|first=Dana|title=Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins|url=https://ew.com/article/1996/09/20/split-image-life-anthony-perkins/amp|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=February 5, 2017|date=September 20, 1996}}</ref> on location filming ''[[The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean]]'' in 1971.<ref name=People/> He was in therapy with psychologist [[Mildred Newman]]. In his 2021 biography of [[Mike Nichols]], Mark Harris wrote that "Perkins and his longtime boyfriend, [[Grover Dale]], had both become convinced that their homosexuality was obstructing their happiness and wanted to restart their lives with women," adding that Newman and her husband–partner Bernard Berkowitz "clung to the belief that male homosexuality was a form of arrested development, and made a small fortune convincing willing clients that it was an impediment to getting what they wanted."<ref name="Harris 2021">{{cite book|title=Mike Nichols: A Life |first=Mark|last=Harris|isbn=978-0399562242|year=2021|publisher=Penguin Press|location=New York}}</ref> When interviewed for a 1999 documentary on Perkins, friend and collaborator [[Sidney Lumet]] said "I [asked him why he went into therapy and] said, 'Well, how about you?' [He said] 'I'm a homosexual{{nbsp}}...' From then on, he spoke about it completely openly, and I remember when{{nbsp}}... he said that period of his life was over with, and I said, 'Well, how come, Tony? How did it happen?' And he said, 'I just didn't want it anymore.'"<ref name=Biography/>

Many friends, partners, and colleagues have consistently said Perkins was homosexual rather than bisexual.<ref name=Biography/><ref name="Tab Hunter Confidential">{{cite web|title=Tab Hunter Confidential|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1533089|access-date=August 17, 2015|publisher=IMDb}}</ref>{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=110}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=118}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=159}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=207}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=275}}{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=324}} This is because, up until this point, Perkins had only homosexual relationships and expressed little interest in women. However, Perkins noted in 1983 that his mother and her sexual abuse might have had something to do with it: "She was constantly touching me and caressing me. Not realizing what effect she was having, she would touch me all over, even stroking the inside of my thighs right up to my crotch." This behavior continued on into his adulthood.<ref name=People/> This reportedly led to Perkins "being unable to see a beautiful woman," but many costars and collaborators remembered situations where he would leer over a woman walking down the street. Tab Hunter has called moments such as these a ruse: "You always saw what Tony wanted you to see, which was kind of sad in many ways{{nbsp}}... An actor plays a role, and pretty soon he takes on that persona. And we're all guilty of having done that. I think perhaps Tony's persona was the persona that he wanted people to see. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's that fine line of knowing how to divorce yourself from yourself."<ref name="sensesofcinema.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2017/feature-articles/interview-tab-hunter/|title='I Love Vulnerability:' an Interview with Tab Hunter|website=Senses of Cinema|date=April 4, 2000 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref>

Perkins' son Oz stated to ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' in July 2024 that he and his brother grew up in a complicated upbringing by watching his father living two lives as either a closeted homosexual or bisexual man, a fact that their mother tried to shield them from as their father's private life was unacceptable to the mainstream society. Despite Oz and Elvis theoretically knowing of Anthony's sexuality, Berenson kept it "off-limits" due to thinking the truth was unsavory and that it didn't work for her children, though Oz admitted he doesn't resent his mother for her actions. This dynamic between themselves and their parents would later inspire his film ''[[Longlegs]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smart |first=Jack |date=2024-07-14 |title=Longlegs Director Explains Movie's Personal Connection to His Dad, Psycho Horror Icon Anthony Perkins (Exclusive) |url=https://people.com/how-longlegs-personal-osgood-perkins-exclusive-8677416 |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=People.com |language=en}}</ref>

====Therapy with Mildred Newman====
In 1971, Perkins ended a seven-year relationship with dancer [[Grover Dale]] for unknown reasons, after which he turned to friends [[Paula Prentiss]] and [[Richard Benjamin]] for help. Both encouraged him to see up-and-coming psychoanalyst [[Mildred Newman]], whose recent self-help book ''How to be Your Own Best Friend'' was rising up the ''New York Times''{{'}}s bestseller list.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=285}} Their meetings became thrice weekly, and sometimes Perkins engaged in group appointments. He later became one of Newman's most vocal celebrity supporters. Perkins's posthumous biographer, Charles Winecoff, wrote: "Newman's therapeutic shtick that it was okay to love yourself without guilt and get the happiness and (mostly) the success that you naturally deserve seemed to be rubbing off on Tony."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=288}}

That same year, Newman had written in ''How to be Your Own Best Friend'' that "analysts once thought they had little chance of changing homosexuals' preferences and had little success in that direction. But some refused to accept that and kept working with them, and we've found that a homosexual who really wants to change has a very good chance of doing so."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=300}}

Later in life, Perkins referred to Newman as an almost peaceful person, "a crusader for a wider road, for choice and limitlessness."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=302}} This, though, is not reflected much in Newman's actions or the sparse recollections Perkins related about their meetings. Sometimes their discussions ended in weeping spells, especially after Newman asked Perkins to imagine himself having sex with a woman. "'Why are you crying?' [Newman] asked. 'I don't know,' Tony answered. 'It's so sad, so sad.'"<ref name=People/> Other times, they were simple arguments: "She was constantly provoking me about women, asking why I was repressed in that area. We had heated disagreements, knockdown arguments. I would say 'I don't want to talk about this again today,' and she said 'I do want to talk about it.' We kicked it to pieces."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=323}} After Perkins's death, Stephen Sondheim publicly labeled Newman and her practices as "completely unethical and a danger to humanity."<ref name="Harris 2021"/>

===Relationships===
According to the posthumous biography ''Split Image'' by Charles Winecoff, Perkins had exclusively same-sex relationships until his late 30s, including with actor Tab Hunter,{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=105}} artist [[Christopher Makos]],{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=275}} and dancer-choreographer Grover Dale.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=88}} Perkins has also been described as one of the two great men in the life of French songwriter Patrick Loiseau.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.closermag.fr/article/la-mst-de-dave-son-compagnon-raconte-78352|title=La MST de Dave: son compagnon raconte{{nbsp}}...|language=fr|magazine=Closer|date=May 2, 2012|access-date=November 3, 2016}}</ref>

====Relationship with Tab Hunter, 1955–1959====
Tab Hunter publicly acknowledged his relationship with Perkins in his 2005 autobiography ''Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star'', having met him at the [[Chateau Marmont]] during the filming of ''[[Friendly Persuasion (1956 film)|Friendly Persuasion]]'' in 1956:
<blockquote>"I went for a swim and when I came out my friend Venetia Stevenson said, 'Oh I want you to meet Tony – do you know him?' We hadn't met, but I already knew that he was a very fine actor. He was at Paramount and I was with Warner Brothers. We just chatted and got on and soon we were starting to see each other."<ref name="Exclusive: Tab Hunter Recounts His">{{cite web|url=https://attitude.co.uk/article/exclusive-tab-hunter-recounts-his-secret-relationship-with-psycho-star-anthony-perkins/18188/|title=Exclusive: Tab Hunter Recounts His Secret Relationship with "Psycho" Star Anthony Perkins|website=The Advocate|date=July 9, 2018|access-date=January 14, 2022|archive-date=December 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218200358/https://attitude.co.uk/article/exclusive-tab-hunter-recounts-his-secret-relationship-with-psycho-star-anthony-perkins/18188/|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

Their relationship went on for four years{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=130}} and had its ups and downs. A few months after their relationship began, Perkins announced to Hunter that Paramount had cast him as Jimmy Piersall in ''Fear Strikes Out'', a role Hunter had originated on television and was trying to convince Warner Brothers to introduce on the screen.{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=140}} Hunter, however, stated that even after the incident, "we continued to see each other, privately, as much as our schedules allowed."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=155}} This included a multi-week stay together in a private villa in Rome in March 1957{{sfn|Hunter|2006|pp=173–175}} and an appearance on ''Jukebox Jury'' that May.{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=133}}

[[File:Juke Box Jury May 1957.jpg|thumb|Perkins (far left) with [[Tab Hunter]] (far right), with whom he had a relationship]]
During their relationship, Paramount Pictures constantly targeted Perkins for their romance.{{explain|reason=I don't even know what "targeted for their romance" is supposed to mean|date=March 2023}} Many people reported arguments between the studio heads and Perkins, many revolving around Hunter and their relationship. Hunter, however, notes that for many years this had no effect on how they treated each other within their relationship, calling it "a wonderful time in my life."<ref name="sensesofcinema.com"/> Despite this, Paramount succeeded in separating the couple in 1959, just before ''Psycho'' went into filming. After their separation, Perkins and Hunter did not see each other more than twice in the thirty-three years until Perkins's death. The first time was on the set of ''The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean'' in 1971, the only film Perkins and Hunter starred in together. The second was at Perkins's home in 1982 when Hunter tried to convince Perkins to play the villain in Hunter's upcoming film ''Lust in the Dust'', costarring Divine. They nearly spoke a third time in 1992, as Hunter remembered: "I had a hunch to call [Perkins after hearing he was very sick with AIDS] and touch base, and when I picked up the phone, I heard on the radio that he'd passed away." Hunter later told ''The Advocate'' that watching himself speak about Perkins's death was one of the most impactful moments of his 2015 documentary.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/2015/06/18/tab-hunter-tells-all|title=Tab Hunter Tells All|website=The Advocate|date=June 19, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref>

In addition, he remembered Perkins as a "special part of my journey. If he was shooting a film, I'd pick up a car and drive out to see him and we'd spend time together{{nbsp}}... He wanted to be a movie star more than anything. I wanted that too, but not with the same kind of drive he had. We were such opposites - but then maybe that was the attraction."<ref name="Exclusive: Tab Hunter Recounts His"/>

====Relationship with Grover Dale, 1964–1971====
[[File:Anthony-Perkins-Grover-Dale-Greenwillow-1960.png|thumb|Perkins (center) with lover Grover Dale clinging to his arm in ''Greenwillow'' (1960)]]
Perkins and Dale met during rehearsals for the Frank Loesser musical ''Greenwillow'', in which Perkins played the lead. Dale was an ensemble member, dancer, and Perkins's understudy.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=207}} Their relationship began on the set of the musical.<ref name="62 YEARS AGO">{{cite web |url=https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid022BhbhgMddh7TEvGrABU9mq6BeUHXBZTiebZT8AS3xf32GkswD7UTRULAYzrZihQEl&id=607237056 |title=62 YEARS AGO. |via=Facebook |date=March 9, 2022 |access-date=November 5, 2022}}</ref> Stanley Simmons, who worked on the production's costumes and lived next-door to Perkins in New York, confirmed, "Tony never said anything, but he was having an affair with Grover." Tony Walton, another actor in the show, agreed the two were involved, "but they were discreet. It wasn't a big deal. Folks were aware of it, and [Tony and Grover] didn't shove it." Allegedly, rumors of the relationship were rampant backstage.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=208}} Posthumous biographer Charles Winecoff claimed they did not live together at the time,{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=208}} while Dale said only a few months passed between their beginning their relationship and his moving into Perkins's apartment.<ref name="62 YEARS AGO"/> The apartment Perkins and Dale shared was, at the time, his only residence in the United States.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=258}}

By late 1964, posthumous biographer Charles Winecoff asserts that Dale had become "Perkins's main man"{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=254}} and that he was often spotted walking down the New York City streets with Perkins, walking his dog Punky.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=254}} By Dale's own admission, they were still together in 1966; the same year, Winecoff describes Perkins's relationship with Dale as "soaring back home."<ref>{{cite podcast |title=Grover Dale |website=PodBean |publisher=Backstage Babble |date=June 4, 2021 |url=https://cbroadwaypodcast.podbean.com/e/62-grover-dale/ |access-date=November 5, 2022}}</ref>{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=259}} Perkins and Dale were a visible couple, hosting parties for people such as [[Jerome Robbins]] and [[Elaine Stritch]], which often ended in an intense match of [[Scrabble]]. There were other instances where Winecoff described Perkins and Dale as being "married" to each other,{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=266}} and friend Ben Bagley asserts that Perkins "whispered [the song 'I Cling to You' from Bagley's album] as if he was speaking it to Grover, which he informed his lover of afterward."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=298}} Christopher Makos, a friend of Perkins's, said of the relationship: "I can't speak for Grover, but these were two adult men who probably loved each other very much."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=275}} By 1969, just as the [[Stonewall riots]] kicked off the movement for gay rights, Perkins and Dale were considered "role models" for other gay professionals looking to have open relationships. Dale was considered one of the major loves of Perkins's life.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=284}}

===Friendships===

[[File:Anthony-Perkins-Sophia-Loren-Laughing.png|thumb|Perkins with Sophia Loren on the set of ''Five Miles to Midnight'', 1961]]

Throughout his time in Hollywood, Perkins worked with a host of famous personalities, many of whom remembered him fondly. Among his costars and leading ladies, there was usually mutual endearment. [[Sophia Loren]] remembered Perkins's dressing room for 1958's ''Desire Under the Elms'' as looking like a monk's cell, and she was often photographed smiling and laughing with him when they reunited in Europe a few years afterward.<ref name="Loren 2014"/> In the press, Perkins discussed how his main objective while making 1959's ''Green Mansions'' was only to make [[Audrey Hepburn]] laugh every day, and Elaine Aiken recalled that Perkins often diverted her attention away from her plate on "dates" so he could steal some of her food. "I don't think we ever discussed [him being gay, which Aiken knew about], it didn't matter," she recalled. "It didn't bother me. I just wanted a friend."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=118}} A similar bond was forged between Perkins and [[Venetia Stevenson]], to whom he would "unburden" himself. "[Perkins] would sleep over and tell me sad stories," Stevenson told Tab Hunter. "He was totally crazy about you."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=139}} She also mentioned to biographer Charles Winecoff, "We were real friends, and he would sleep over at my house [which was a block away from Perkins and Hunter's apartments] in the same bed. But there was never, ever any{{nbsp}}... well, you know. If you have a friend of the opposite sex who's gay, it's just in the air. You know what I mean?"{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=121}}

Although he got on famously with women, he also had many friendships with men. Despite [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s infamous saying that "actors are cattle,"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/12/when-hitchcock-met-truffaut-hitchcock-truffaut-documentary-cannes|title='Actors are cattle:' when Hitchcock met Truffaut|website=The Guardian|date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref> he got along well with Perkins on the set of ''Psycho''. Hitchcock accepted many of Perkins's ideas for the character of Norman Bates, including the suggestion that he should nibble on candy corn. Even after Perkins moved to France, he was a common addition to Hitchcock's dinner table.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/anthony-perkins-psycho-performance/|title=Anthony Perkins Will Always Frighten Us in "Psycho"|website=Film School Rejects|date=June 25, 2020 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref> Perkins was also a favorite of [[Orson Welles]], whom he collaborated with four times.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=2}}

Perhaps the most famous of his male friendships was with [[Stephen Sondheim]], whom he briefly lived with for a time. Since penning ''Evening Primrose'' for Perkins, which was the only project of Sondheim's Perkins actually starred, Perkins became a muse to him, inspiring many musicals, where Sondheim cast him in all the leads. Perkins, however, turned all of these down, mostly due to scheduling conflicts.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=288}} When discussing Perkins and the process of writing ''The Last of Sheila'' together, Sondheim said, "I knew he had exactly my mind and take and he's much more into murder mysteries than I am, so we started to plot it. We spent a couple of months plotting it, and had such a good time we decided to go ahead and write it. I think the most fun I've ever had writing anything was writing [''The Last of Sheila''{{'}}s] screenplay."<ref name="auto"/> Sondheim was later named the godfather to both of Perkins's children{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=343}} and was present at Perkins's final birthday party.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=456}}

===Character and interests===
Perkins was largely remembered by friends and associates as being a shy, neurotic young man, with the ability to be very alluring. Bruce Jay Friedman, a later collaborator of Perkins's in the production ''Steambath'', remarked, "He was enormously charming, but also very controlled. He always seemed to have four ideas going on in his head at once."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=293}} [[Mary Tyler Moore]], who worked with Perkins on the hugely popular ''First, You Cry'' TV movie, remembered Perkins similarly: "He was a charming person, a very keen actor who seemed to love his work{{nbsp}}... He was just a nice guy, and not what I had expected at all. I had expected him to be arch and very sophisticated and stylish–and I'm sure he was all those things–but that's not what you most remembered about him."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=377}}

Although former partner Tab Hunter remembered Perkins similarly, he was more open about acknowledging the complexities of Perkins: "You never really knew Tony a hundred percent. He was a bit of a game player with people's minds."<ref name="Tab Hunter Confidential"/> However, he also saw Perkins as being a multi-layered, realistic person with flaws:
<blockquote>I don't think many people really knew Tony well. He had friends. A lot of people liked him, but he had few friends that he really confided in. I don't know for sure what he was really like. You always saw what Tony wanted you to see, which was kind of sad in many ways{{nbsp}}... He was a wonderful guy, and he had a very funny, very dry sense of humor.

In our society everyone wants to know everything about everybody 100 percent. And you never really knew everything that was going on with Tony. It was still water that ran pretty deep.<ref name="sensesofcinema.com"/></blockquote>

Perkins's shy, introverted personality led to one-man activities. Since he was a young boy, he was often preoccupied with books and adored reading. When asked, he playfully admitted he was a lover of science fiction, but he could not stand brooding philosophical books.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0671713/|title=Carol Burnett vs. Anthony Perkins (S2E50)|publisher=IMDb}}</ref> This went hand-in-hand with his interest in writing, which he indulged in throughout life. While at Browne & Nichols School, he was made co-literary editor of the school paper, ''The Spectator'', to which he occasionally contributed articles.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=35}} This interest made its way into his professional life, when Perkins cowrote ''The Last of Sheila'' with Stephen Sondheim years later. It was the only time he wrote a screenplay, as Perkins reflected years later: "Acting was just memorizing lines, and I was good at that. Writing was harder and required more work."{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=37}}

However uninterested in interaction Perkins was, his interests were not solely solitary. Perkins was a fan of the board game Scrabble, and when entertaining his first alleged boyfriend, he often engaged him in a round. He was also a fan of ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', which he eventually appeared on during his heyday.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=90}} This interest in games and television programs lent itself to the many victories Perkins achieved in game shows such as ''[[Password (American game show)|Password]]'', where he got his partner to guess the secret word. Even his regular impersonations of famous actors and costars did him good when he appeared on ''[[What's My Line?]]'' and fooled the panelists.

His wit was not the only thing employed during activities. Tab Hunter remembered Perkins purchasing a deluxe portable ping-pong table for him one Christmas. "We set it up on the terrace and played marathon matches."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=138}} His shrewdness, though, made frequent appearances during their private meetings and dates: "On occasion, Tony would go with me to the barn or go to a show I was riding in, but he wasn't crazy about horses. Sometimes we'd head up to Watson Webb's place at Lake Arrowhead to water-ski. He wasn't the athletic type, however. His amusement came from using his quirky, brainy charm and extremely dry humor."{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=137}}

===Political views===
[[File:AnthonyPerkinsSelma.png|thumb|Perkins (back, far right) with [[Harry Belafonte]] (far left), [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] (center), and [[Coretta Scott King]] (front, far right), during a 1965 [[Selma march]]]]
Perkins was a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] who supported many progressive causes, such as civil rights and feminism. Perkins participated in the 1965 [[Selma march]] for the right for African Americans to vote, and there are numerous photos and videos documenting his participation, most notably where he stands to the left of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], who is being waved at by [[Harry Belafonte]]. He was one of the many performers at the "Stars for Freedom" rally during the marches who entertained King and the rest of the marchers, singing folk songs and giving brief speeches. He also continued on to Montgomery, the Alabama state capital, the next day.<ref>{{cite book|last=Belafonte|first=Harry|title=My Song: a Memoir|publisher=Borzoi Books|date=2011|isbn=978-0-307-27226-3|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/mysongmemoir00bela}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/04/10/letter-from-selma|title=Letter from Selma|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/social-activist-recalls-selma-march-170052650.html|title=Social Activist Recalls Selma March with Martin Luther King Jr.|publisher=Yahoo! Finance|date=January 20, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://uwpressblog.com/2015/02/05/stars-for-selma/|title=Stars for Selma|website=University of Washington Press Blog|date=February 5, 2015 |access-date=January 14, 2022}}</ref>

Perkins promoted [[feminism]],<ref name="Hadleigh 1996" /> famously proclaiming in 1983: "Women's liberation has liberated me too."<ref name="People" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Anthony Perkins: Quotes |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000578/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_qt_sm#quotes |access-date=January 23, 2022 |publisher=IMDb}}</ref> He openly acknowledged that he believed men should take on "motherly" roles as well when raising their children and that he changed diapers and fed his infants—something he said he did not need to receive praise for.<ref name="People" />

Despite the fact that he remained mostly closeted for his entire life, Perkins did express his support for LGBTQ+ rights occasionally. In an interview with [[Boze Hadleigh]], he stated that the idea that marriage is primarily between a man and a woman was "archaic," and that, if having children was the sole reason to get married, "gays can adopt."<ref name="Hadleigh 1996"/> Even before getting diagnosed with the illness, Perkins also regularly volunteered at [[Project Angel Food]], a non-profit organization which delivered meals to HIV and AIDS patients.{{sfn|Hunter|2006|p=347}} In September 1986, six years before his death, Perkins also released a PSA urging people to "fight AIDS with the facts."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmfbBTmtVmo|title=Anthony Perkins has Died|website=Entertainment Tonight|date=April 3, 2016 |access-date=January 18, 2022}}</ref>

===Religion===
Although his mother had been born in a strict religious household, Perkins was not. The only discussions that arose about religion while growing up were begun by Perkins, usually to disgust his mother. It was because of this that Perkins classified himself as an [[atheist]] throughout his lifetime, but he celebrated holidays such as Christmas in a non-religious context.{{sfn|Winecoff|1996|p=58}}

Perkins rarely discussed religion outside of his character's faiths (for example, he played a minister in ''Crimes of Passion''). Whenever he did talk about it personally, it was almost always tied with how religion was often used as an excuse not to legalize same-sex marriage. Speaking to Boze Hadleigh later in life, he said "Common sense isn't really that common, particularly when religion enters the picture."<ref name="Hadleigh 1996"/>