Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was a British movie director who later became an American citizen, but still kept his British citizenship. He mostly made mystery and suspense movies. Despite having a successful career, Hitchcock never won an Academy Award.

Sir Alfred Hitchcock
Hitchcock, c. 1960s
Born	Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-08-13)13 August 1899 Leytonstone, Essex, England
Died	29 April 1980(1980-04-29) (aged 80) Bel Air, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Kidney failure
Citizenship	United Kingdom United States (1955–1980)
Education	Salesian College, Battersea
Alma mater	St Ignatius' College, London
Occupation	Movie director editor producer screenwriter actor
Years active	1919–1980
Spouse(s)	Alma Reville (m. 1926)
Children	Patricia Hitchcock
Awards	List of awards and nominations received by Alfred Hitchcock

Career

Hitchcock started his career in England, starting with silent movies in the 1920s. In the 1930s, he made some successful movies like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). He then moved to the United States, to work in Hollywood. His first American movie was Rebecca (1940), which won an Academy Award.

Some of his best known movies from the 1940s are Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946), which were inspired by psychoanalysis. His first movie in color was the experimental Rope (1948). Strangers on a Train (1951) was based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. In the 1950s, he made three popular movies with Grace Kelly: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955). In 1956, he made a new version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. He returned to black-and-white, briefly, with The Wrong Man (1957). Then came Vertigo (1958), which some consider his best suspense movie. It was followed by three more successful movies: North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). After that, he only made 5 more movies: Marnie (1964), Torn Curtain (1966), Topaz (1969), Frenzy (1972), and Family Plot (1976). In 1971, he became the very first winner of the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award. This is an award for lifetime achievement.

In 1945 Hitchcock made a documentary about the Holocaust. It will be shown on British television in 2015.

Hitchcock appeared very quickly in small roles in most of his movies.

He also hosted a TV show, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Personal life

Hithcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex. He was a Roman Catholic. He was married to Alma Reville, who helped write some of his movies. They had a daughter, Patricia. He died in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

Filmmaking style

Alfred Hitchcock, a famous filmmaker, used several unique elements in his movies. These included the MacGuffin, suspense, cameos, music, blonde leading ladies, close-ups, macabre themes, twist endings, specific locations, and unreliable narrators. These elements contributed to his enduring legacy in the world of cinema.

Films

Silent films

• Number 13 (1922) (unfinished and lost)
• Always Tell Your Wife (short) (1923) (partially lost)
• The Pleasure Garden (1925)
• The Mountain Eagle (1926) (lost)
• The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
• The Ring (1927)
• Downhill (1927)
• The Farmer's Wife (1928)
• Easy Virtue (1928)
• Champagne (1928)
• The Manxman (1929)

Sound films

• Blackmail (1929)
• An Elastic Affair (short) (1930) (lost)
• Juno and the Paycock (1930)
• Murder! (1930)
• Elstree Calling (1930)
• The Skin Game (1931)
• Mary (1931)
• Rich and Strange (1931)
• Number Seventeen (1932)
• Waltzes from Vienna (1934)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
• The 39 Steps (1935)
• Secret Agent (1936)
• Sabotage (1936)
• Young and Innocent (1937)
• The Lady Vanishes (1938)
• Jamaica Inn (1939)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Foreign Correspondent (1940)
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941)
• Suspicion (1941)
• Saboteur (1942)
• Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
• Lifeboat (1944)
• Spellbound (1945)
• Notorious (1946)
• The Paradine Case (1947)
• Rope (1948)
• Under Capricorn (1949)
• Stage Fright (1950)
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• I Confess (1953)
• Dial M for Murder (1954)
• Rear Window (1954)
• To Catch a Thief (1955)
• The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
• The Wrong Man (1956)
• Vertigo (1958)
• North by Northwest (1959)
• Psycho (1960)
• The Birds (1963)
• Marnie (1964)
• Torn Curtain (1966)
• Topaz (1969)
• Frenzy (1972)
• Family Plot (1976) (final film)

Alfred Hitchcock Media

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  Petrol station at the site of 517 High Road, Leytonstone, where Hitchcock was born; commemorative mural at nos. 527–533 (right)

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  Hitchcock (right) during the making of Number 13 in London

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  Hitchcock sculpture at the site of Gainsborough Pictures, Poole Street, Hoxton, north London

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  The Hitchcocks on their wedding day, Brompton Oratory, 2 December 1926

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  Madeleine Carroll (the prototype "Hitchcock blonde") and Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (1935)

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  Alma Reville, Joan Harrison, Hitchcock, and Patricia Hitchcock, 24 August 1937

• Trailer for Rebecca (1940)

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  Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine in a publicity shot for Suspicion (1941)

• Shadow of a Doubt (1943) trailer with Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright

• Trailer for The Birds (1963), in which Hitchcock discusses humanity's treatment of "our feathered friends"

• Trailer for Marnie (1964)

• Hitchcock interview, c. 1966