Birth name
     Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Date of birth
     13 August 1899, Leytonstone, London, England, UK
Date of death
     29 April 1980, Los Angeles, California, USA

Mini biography

Alfred Hitchcock (August 13th, 1899 - April  29th, 1980)

He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock. His father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914).

Hhis mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942), and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892).

He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St. Ignatius College and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 15 years old, his father died.


“For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.”

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other.

It was only when the director for "Always tell your wife" fell ill and Hitchcock had to complete the film, that he started off in the directing part of the film world, then Alma Reville and Hitchcock began to talk to each other.

Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular.

In 1926, Hitchcock made his first trademark film, "The Lodger". In the same year on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928).

His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA.

David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).

It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well at all.

On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award, where he said this famous quote: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration.

The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was quite ill, he had angina and his kidneys had already started to have problems functioning properly.

He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night" but he fired Lehman and hired young screenwriter David Freeman who re-wrote the script. Though due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made. Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death.

In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.

Father Thomas Sullivan held the service, 600 people attended the service, among them where Mel Brooks (Director of High Anxeity (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and Francois Truffaut.

Director - Selected filmography

1. Family Plot (1976)
   
2. Frenzy (1972)
   
3. Topaz (1969)
   
4. Torn Curtain (1966)
   
5. Marnie (1964)
   
6. The Birds (1963)
   
7. Psycho (1960)
   
8. North by Northwest (1959)
   
9. Vertigo (1958)
   
10. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
    
11. The Wrong Man (1956)
    
12. The Trouble with Harry (1955)
    
13. To Catch a Thief (1955)
    
14. Dial M for Murder (1954)
    
15. Rear Window (1954)
    
16. I Confess (1953)
    
17. Strangers on a Train (1951)
    
18. Rope (1948)
    
19. Notorious (1946)
    
20. Spellbound (1945)
    
21. Aventure malgache (1944)
    
22. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
    
23. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
    
24. Rebecca (1940)
    
25. Jamaica Inn (1939)
    
26. Young and Innocent (1937)
    
27. The 39 Steps (1935)
    
28. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
    
29. Number Seventeen (1932)
    
30. The Skin Game (1931)
    
31. Murder! (1930)
    
32. Juno and the Paycock (1930)
    
33. Blackmail (1929)
    
34. The Manxman (1929)
    
35. Easy Virtue (1927)
    
36. The Ring (1927)
    
37. The Lodger (1926)