Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was an English director and filmmaker. Popularly known as the "Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers,[1] 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.[2] Hitchcock followed this with , his first commercial and critical success.[3] It featured many of the thematic elements his films would be known for, such as an innocent man on the run.[4] It also featured the first of his famous cameo appearances.[5] Two years later he directed Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film.[6] In 1935, Hitchcock directed The 39 Steps; three years later, he directed 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.[7] Hitchcock worked with Fontaine again the following year on the film 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 Notorious, which also starred Ingrid Bergman. The film included a three-minute intermittent kissing scene between the leads shot specifically to skirt the Motion Picture Production Code which at the time limited such scenes to three seconds.[8] 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.[9] Three years later, he directed Strangers on a Train (1951).
Hitchcock 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.[10] 1955 marked his debut on television as the host of the anthology television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which he also produced.[11] 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.[12] [13] 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.[14] [15] Three years later, he directed the horror film The Birds, starring Tippi Hedren. The following year, he reunited with Hedren on Marnie, which also starred Sean Connery.
In recognition of his career, Hitchcock garnered the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Fellowship Award,[16] the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award,[17] the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award,[18] the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.[19] [20] He received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to acknowledge his film and television achievements.[21] In 1980, Hitchcock received a knighthood.[22]
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director! | Producer! | Writer | |||||
| 1922 | Number 13 | Lost filmUnfinished | |||||
| 1925 | German title: Irrgarten der Leidenschaft (Maze of Passion) | ||||||
| 1926 | Lost film German title: Der Bergadler | [23] | |||||
| 1927 | US title: The Case of Jonathan Drew | ||||||
| Screenplay writer | |||||||
| Downhill | US title: When Boys Leave Home | ||||||
| 1928 | |||||||
| Easy Virtue | |||||||
| Champagne | Screenplay co-writer | ||||||
| 1929 | |||||||
| Blackmail | Released in both silent and sound versions | ||||||
| 1930 | Short film Lost film | ||||||
| Juno and the Paycock | Screenplay co-writer | ||||||
| Murder! | Screenplay co-writer | ||||||
| 1931 | Screenplay co-writer | ||||||
| Mary | German-language version of Murder! filmed with German actors | ||||||
| Rich and Strange | US title: East of Shanghai Screenplay co-writer | ||||||
| 1932 | Number Seventeen | Screenplay co-writer | |||||
| 1934 | Waltzes from Vienna | US title: Strauss' Great Waltz/ The Strauss Waltz | |||||
| 1935 | [24] | ||||||
| 1936 | Secret Agent | [25] | |||||
| Sabotage | US title: The Woman Alone | ||||||
| 1937 | Young and Innocent | US title: The Girl Was Young | |||||
| 1938 | [26] [27] | ||||||
| 1939 | Jamaica Inn | [28] | |||||
| 1940 | Rebecca | [29] | |||||
| Foreign Correspondent | [30] | ||||||
| 1941 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | [31] | |||||
| Suspicion | [32] | ||||||
| 1942 | Saboteur | ||||||
| 1943 | Shadow of a Doubt | ||||||
| 1944 | Lifeboat | ||||||
| United States propaganda short | [33] | ||||||
| 1945 | Spellbound | ||||||
| 1946 | Notorious | ||||||
| 1947 | |||||||
| 1948 | Rope | Co-producer | |||||
| 1949 | Under Capricorn | Co-producer | |||||
| 1950 | Stage Fright | ||||||
| 1951 | Strangers on a Train | ||||||
| 1953 | I Confess | ||||||
| 1954 | Dial M for Murder | Filmed in 3D | [34] | ||||
| Rear Window | |||||||
| 1955 | To Catch a Thief | ||||||
| 1956 | Remake of Hitchcock's 1934 movie of the same name | [35] | |||||
| [36] | |||||||
| 1958 | Vertigo | [37] | |||||
| 1959 | North by Northwest | [38] | |||||
| 1960 | Psycho | ||||||
| 1963 | |||||||
| 1964 | Marnie | ||||||
| 1966 | Torn Curtain | ||||||
| 1969 | Topaz | ||||||
| 1972 | Frenzy | ||||||
| 1976 | Family Plot | [39] | |||||
| 1993 | Bon Voyage | French-language propaganda short Filmed in 1944 but only released in 1993 | [40] [41] | ||||
| 1993 | Aventure Malgache | French-language propaganda short Filmed in 1944 but only released in 1993 | |||||
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Producer | Writer! | Other | |||||
| 1920 | Title designerShort filmLost film | ||||||
| 1921 | Title designerShort filmLost film | ||||||
| Appearances | Title designerLost film | ||||||
| Title designerLost film | |||||||
| Title designerLost film | |||||||
| Dangerous Lies | Title designerLost film | ||||||
| Title designerLost film | |||||||
| 1922 | Three Live Ghosts | Art director, and title designer | |||||
| Love's Boomerang | Title designerLost film | ||||||
| Art director, and title designerLost film | |||||||
| Art director, and title designer | |||||||
| Tell Your Children | Art director, and title designerLost film | ||||||
| 1923 | Always Tell Your Wife | Co-director (uncredited), and production managerShort filmPartially lost film | [42] | ||||
| Woman to Woman | Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art directorLost film | ||||||
| US title: White Shadows Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art director Partially lost film | |||||||
| 1924 | Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art director | ||||||
| 1925 | German title: Die Prinzessin und der Geiger (The Princess and the Violinist) Assistant director, screenplay writer, and art director | ||||||
| US title: Dangerous Virtue Assistant director, screenplay writer, and art director Partially lost film | |||||||
| 1930 | Elstree Calling | Sketches, and other interpolated items | |||||
| 1932 | Lord Camber's Ladies | ||||||
| 2014 | German Concentration Camps Factual Survey | Treatment advisor Documentary Filmed in 1945 but only released in 2014 | [43] [44] | ||||
| Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955–1962 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Host | 17 episodes | ||
| 1957 | Suspicion | — | Episode: "Four O'Clock" | ||
| 1960 | Startime | — | Episode: "Incident at a Corner" Only television show directed by Hitchcock in colour | [45] | |
| 1962 | Alcoa Premiere | — | Episode: "The Jail" | [46] [47] | |
| 1962–1965 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Host | Episode: "I Saw The Whole Thing" |