“Psycho” was not Vera Miles’ first rodeo with Alfred Hitchcock; she had previously appeared in the initial episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” in 1955 and later co-starred with Henry Fonda in the 1956 film “The Wrong Man.” “Psycho” was part of a five-year contract she had signed with the legendary British director, though the second film she was to make with him — “Vertigo,” alongside James Stewart — fell through. Miles was pregnant at the start of production, so Hitchcock reluctantly recast the female lead with Kim Novak.
While Janet Leigh was traumatized by her role in “Psycho,” Miles seems to have nothing but admiration and regard for the film, Hitchcock, and her time on set. “There was always a great deal of respect between Hitchcock and me,” she told The Spokesman-Review in 1983. After Hitchcock’s death, there was speculation that he used his position to coerce women into romantic or sexual relations with him. Miles rebuffed such rumors, telling the paper, “As for playing casting couch to get the role, I’d have told him to go to hell. Neither of us had time for that kind of thing.”
Outside of Hitchcock’s films, cinephiles will recognize Miles from her role in the John Ford classic “The Searchers,” “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” and the John Wayne turkey “Hellfighters.” She returned alongside Anthony Perkins for “Psycho II” in 1983, and her final role was in the Jim Belushi-Linda Hamilton drama “Separate Lives” in 1995.
