I was named after the actor Anthony Perkins. Here is some history of my name and my family.
As almost everyone knows, or everyone most likely, Anthony Perkins starred in the movie Psycho.
My favorite role for him was when he played Jimmy Piersall in the film Fear Strikes Out, based on the memoir by the same name by Piersall.
The breakdown scene from Fear Strikes Out, played by Anthony Perkins.
Jimmy Piersall suffered a breakdown on the baseball field trying to please his impossible-to-please father.
I, too, am not unfamiliar with a breakdown. All my life, I tried to please my overbearing father without success.
At the age of 32, I realized I would never make him happy after hearing a clear voice speaking.
This epiphany changed my life and took me in a totally new and different direction.
In my favorite scene of the film, my namesake Anthony Perkins confronts his father in the mental hospital.
Jimmy Piersall realized he could no longer please his father after suffering a mental breakdown. Here his father comes to the hospital to bring Jimmy home.
Jimmy tells him no, yells at him to leave, and ends up shouting to the orderlies, “Get that guy out of here.”
I, too, experienced similar situations with my impossible-to-please father.
Most readers expect me to speak about Perkins’ role as Norman Bates in Psycho, but how about a little family history first?
This is my ancestor, convicted Salem witch Mary Perkins Bradbury, being led to jail. She is the 7th great grandmother to Ray Bradbury and 4th great grandmother to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Over 100 friends and neighbors testified at Mary’s trial on her behalf, but she was still found guilty of witchcraft.
Friends of Mary broke her out of jail, and she fled Salem, preventing her execution by hanging.
Witch Hill, painted by Thomas Noble, is not an exact depiction of Mary, but a representation of her likeness since Noble painted it 200 years after the event.
This is the Perkins Cemetery in Palermo, Maine. Many of my ancestors are buried here.
My family lived in Maine before coming to Marinette, Wisconsin, in the 1870s.
Prior to Maine, they lived in New Hampshire. My first Perkins ancestor set foot on Massachusetts’ soil in 1631.
Mother can be disturbing.
That’s what Norman Bates knew in Psycho.
I also know, all too well, that Mother can be disturbed. Norman was haunted by Mother after she died.
I, however, don’t expect Mother to disturb me from the afterlife.
Here is my namesake Anthony Perkins in that infamous movie, Psycho.
I was born after the movie came out, and Mother, in a thoughtless act, named me after him.
The things mothers do to their sons.
I have included more of the story of Mother and how she named me in my memoir.
Here’s a hint. My birth certificate is shocking.
I placed “Aj” before Tony to distinguish me from other Anthony/Tony Perkinses out there. Wikipedia has three entries for that name. I chose AjTony because it was unique, and no one else has that name. J is my middle initial. I like how A and J rhyme, almost adding poetry to my name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Perkins_(disambiguation)
