Norman Bates is a fictional character created by writer Robert Bloch as the central character in his novel Psycho. The character was based on real-life serial killer Ed Gein. Bates was portrayed by Anthony Perkins in Alfred Hitchcock's seminal film adaptation of Bloch's novel. Bates was later played by Vince Vaughn in Gus Van Sant's 1998 remake of Hitchcock's film. Fictional character biography Both the novel and film explain that Bates suffered severe emotional abuse as a child at the hands of his mother, Norma, who preached to him that women and sex were evil. The two of them lived alone together in a very unhealthy state of emotional dependence after the death of Bates' father. When Bates was a teenager, however, his mother took a lover, making him insanely jealous. He murdered them both with strychnine and preserved his mother's corpse. Bates developed dissociative identity disorder, assuming his mother's personality, rep

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