Alfred Hitchcock (13
August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English director and filmmaker. Dubbed the
"Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in
thrillers, Hitchcock started his career in the British film industry as a title
designer, and art director for a number of silent films during the early 1920s.
His directorial debut was the 1925 release The Pleasure Garden. Hitchcock
followed this with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, his first commercial
and critical success. It featured many of the thematic elements his films would
be known for such as an innocent man on the run. It also featured the first of
his famous cameo appearances. Two years later he directed the thriller
Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film. In 1935 Hitchcock directed spy thriller The
39 Steps. Three years later he directed the comic thriller The Lady Vanishes
starring Margaret Lockwood, and Michael Redgrave.
In 1940 Hitchcock
transitioned to Hollywood productions, the first of which was the psychological
thriller Rebecca starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. He received his
first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director, and the film won Best
Picture. Hitchcock worked with Fontaine again the following year on the
romantic psychological thriller Suspicion which also starred Cary Grant. In
1943 Hitchcock directed another psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt which
starred Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Three years later he reunited with
Grant on the spy thriller Notorious which also starred Ingrid Bergman. In 1948
Hitchcock directed Rope which starred James Stewart. The film was his first in
Technicolor and is remembered for its use of long takes to make the film appear
to be a single continuous shot. Three
years later he directed Strangers on a Train (1951).
He collaborated with
Grace Kelly on three films: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954) and To
Catch a Thief (1955). For Rear Window, Hitchcock received a nomination for Best
Director at the Academy Awards. 1955
marked his debut on television as the host of the anthology television series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents which he also produced. The show made him a household
name. In 1958 Hitchcock directed the psychological thriller Vertigo starring
Stewart and Kim Novak. The film topped the 2012 poll of the British film
magazine Sight & Sound of the 50 Greatest Films of All Time and also topped
the American Film Institute's Top Ten in the mystery genre. He followed this
with the spy thriller North by Northwest (1959) which starred Grant and Eva
Marie Saint. In 1960 he directed Psycho the biggest commercial success of his
career and for which he received his fifth nomination for Best Director at the
Academy Awards. Three years later he directed horror film The Birds starring
Tippi Hedren. The following year he reunited with Hedren on psychological
thriller Marnie which also starred Sean Connery.
In recognition of his
career, Hitchcock garnered the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
(BAFTA) Fellowship Award, the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award,
the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Directors Guild of America's
Lifetime Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. He
received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to acknowledge his film and
television achievements. In 1980 Hitchcock received a knighthood.
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