Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)[1] was an English director and filmmaker. Popularly known as the "Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers,[1][2] 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.[3] Hitchcock followed this with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, his first commercial and critical success.[4] It featured many of the thematic elements his films would be known for, such as an innocent man on the run.[5] It also featured the first of his famous cameo appearances.[6] Two years later he directed Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] 1955 marked his debut on television as the host of the anthology television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which he also produced.[2] 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 | Ref(s) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Director | Producer | Writer | ||||
1922 | Number 13 | Yes | No | No | Lost film • Unfinished | [4] |
1925 | The Pleasure Garden | Yes | No | No | German title: Irrgarten der Leidenschaft (Maze of Passion) | [4] |
1926 | The Mountain Eagle | Yes | No | No | Lost film German title: Der Bergadler |
[23] |
1927 | The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog | Yes | No | No | US title: The Case of Jonathan Drew | [4] |
The Ring | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay writer | [4] | |
Downhill | Yes | No | No | US title: When Boys Leave Home | [4] | |
1928 | The Farmer's Wife | Yes | No | No | [4] | |
Easy Virtue | Yes | No | No | [4] | ||
Champagne | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay co-writer | [4] | |
1929 | The Manxman | Yes | No | No | [4] | |
Blackmail | Yes | No | Yes | Released in both silent and sound versions | [4] | |
1930 | An Elastic Affair | Yes | No | No | Short film Lost film |
[4] |
Juno and the Paycock | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay co-writer | [4] | |
Murder! | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay co-writer | [4] | |
1931 | The Skin Game | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay co-writer | [4] |
Mary | Yes | No | No | German-language version of Murder! filmed with German actors | [4] | |
Rich and Strange | Yes | No | Yes | US title: East of Shanghai Screenplay co-writer |
[4] | |
1932 | Number Seventeen | Yes | No | Yes | Screenplay co-writer | [4] |
1934 | Waltzes from Vienna | Yes | No | No | US title: Strauss' Great Waltz/ The Strauss Waltz | [4] |
The Man Who Knew Too Much | Yes | No | No | [4] | ||
1935 | The 39 Steps | Yes | No | No | [24] | |
1936 | Secret Agent | Yes | No | No | [25] | |
Sabotage | Yes | No | No | US title: The Woman Alone | [4] | |
1937 | Young and Innocent | Yes | No | No | US title: The Girl Was Young | [4] |
1938 | The Lady Vanishes | Yes | No | No | [26] [27] | |
1939 | Jamaica Inn | Yes | No | No | [28] | |
1940 | Rebecca | Yes | No | No | [29] | |
Foreign Correspondent | Yes | No | No | [30] | ||
1941 | Mr. & Mrs. Smith | Yes | No | No | [31] | |
Suspicion | Yes | No | No | [32] | ||
1942 | Saboteur | Yes | No | No | [33] | |
1943 | Shadow of a Doubt | Yes | No | No | [33] | |
1944 | Lifeboat | Yes | No | No | [33] | |
The Fighting Generation | Yes | No | No | United States propaganda short | [34] | |
1945 | Spellbound | Yes | No | No | [33] | |
1946 | Notorious | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1947 | The Paradine Case | Yes | No | No | [33] | |
1948 | Rope | Yes | Yes | No | Co-producer | [33] |
1949 | Under Capricorn | Yes | Yes | No | Co-producer | [33] |
1950 | Stage Fright | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1951 | Strangers on a Train | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1953 | I Confess | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1954 | Dial M for Murder | Yes | Yes | No | Filmed in 3D | [33] [35] |
Rear Window | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | ||
1955 | To Catch a Thief | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
The Trouble with Harry | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | ||
1956 | The Man Who Knew Too Much | Yes | Yes | No | Remake of Hitchcock's 1934 movie of the same name | [33][36] |
The Wrong Man | Yes | Yes | No | [33][37] | ||
1958 | Vertigo | Yes | Yes | No | [38] | |
1959 | North by Northwest | Yes | Yes | No | [39] | |
1960 | Psycho | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1963 | The Birds | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1964 | Marnie | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1966 | Torn Curtain | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1969 | Topaz | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1972 | Frenzy | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1976 | Family Plot | Yes | Yes | No | [33] | |
1993 | Bon Voyage | Yes | No | No | French-language propaganda short Filmed in 1944 but only released in 1993 |
[40] [41] |
1993 | Aventure Malgache | Yes | No | No | French-language propaganda short Filmed in 1944 but only released in 1993 |
[40] |
Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Producer | Writer | Other | ||||
1920 | The Great Day | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Short film • Lost film | [4] |
1921 | The Call of Youth | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Short film • Lost film | [4] |
Appearances | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
The Mystery Road | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
The Princess of New York | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
Dangerous Lies | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
The Bonnie Brier Bush | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
1922 | Three Live Ghosts | No | No | Yes | Art director, and title designer | [4] |
Love's Boomerang | No | No | Yes | Title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
The Spanish Jade | No | No | Yes | Art director, and title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
The Man from Home | No | No | Yes | Art director, and title designer | [4] | |
Tell Your Children | No | No | Yes | Art director, and title designer • Lost film | [4] | |
1923 | Always Tell Your Wife | No | No | Yes | Co-director (uncredited), and production manager • Short film • Partially lost film | [4][42] |
Woman to Woman | No | Yes | Yes | Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art director • Lost film | [4] | |
The White Shadow | No | Yes | Yes | US title: White Shadows Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art director Partially lost film |
[4] | |
1924 | The Passionate Adventure | No | Yes | Yes | Assistant director, screenplay co-writer, and art director | [4] |
1925 | The Blackguard | No | Yes | Yes | German title: Die Prinzessin und der Geiger (The Princess and the Violinist) Assistant director, screenplay writer, and art director |
[4] |
The Prude's Fall | No | Yes | Yes | US title: Dangerous Virtue Assistant director, screenplay writer, and art director Partially lost film |
[4] | |
1930 | Elstree Calling | No | No | Yes | Sketches, and other interpolated items | [4] |
1932 | Lord Camber's Ladies | Yes | No | No | [4] | |
2014 | German Concentration Camps Factual Survey | No | No | Yes | Treatment advisor Documentary Filmed in 1945 but only released in 2014 |
[43] [44] |
Year(s) | Title | Role | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1955–1962 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Host | 17 episodes (director) | [4] |
1957 | Suspicion | — | Episode: "Four O'Clock" (director, and producer) | [4] |
1960 | Startime | — | Episode: "Incident at a Corner" (director, and producer) Only television show directed by Hitchcock in colour |
[4][45] |
1962 | Alcoa Premiere | — | Episode: "The Jail" (executive producer) | [46] [47] |
1962–1965 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Host | Episode: "I Saw The Whole Thing" (director) | [4] |