Norman Bates

Norman Bates
Psycho character
Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in the 1960 film Psycho.
Portrayed by	Anthony Perkins (Psycho – Psycho IV: The Beginning) Oz Perkins (Psycho II, flashback) Kurt Paul (Bates Motel) Henry Thomas and Ryan Finnigan (Psycho IV: The Beginning, flashbacks) Vince Vaughn (Psycho (1998)) Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel)
Born	March 7, 1934 Fairvale, California, U.S. ca. 1996 Arizona, U.S. (Bates Motel only)
Relationships	John/Sam Bates (father, deceased) Norma Bates (mother, deceased) Robert Newman (twin brother; Bloch's novels only) Dylan Massett (half-brother/cousin; Bates Motel only) Alex Romero (stepfather; Bates Motel only) Emma Spool (maternal aunt, deceased; film canon only) Caleb Calhoun (maternal uncle; Bates Motel only)
Information
Gender	Male
Spouse(s)	Dr. Constance "Connle" Forbes-Bates (wife; film canon only)

Norman Bates is a fictional character created by Robert Bloch as the main antagonist in his 1959 novel Psycho, and portrayed by Anthony Perkins as the principal antagonist of its 1960 film of the same name directed by Alfred Hitchcock, its sequels, and the television series Bates Motel portrayed by Freddie Highmore. The character was inspired by Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein.

Both the novel and the 1960 film adaptation explain that Norman suffered severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preached to him that sexual intercourse was sinful and that all women (except herself) were whores. The novel also suggests that their relationship may have been incestuous. After Norman's father, John Bates died, Norman and his mother lived alone together "as if there was no one else in the world" until Norman reached adolescence, when his mother met Joe Considine (Chet Rudolph in Psycho IV: The Beginning) and planned to marry. Considine convinced Norma to open a motel. Driven over the edge with jealousy, Norman murdered both of them with strychnine. After committing the murders, Norman forged a suicide note to make it look as if Norma had killed her fiancé and then herself. After a brief hospitalization for shock, he developed dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother's personality to repress his awareness of her death and to escape the feelings of guilt for murdering her. He inherited his mother's house—where he kept her corpse—and the family motel in the (fictional) small town of Fairvale, California.