Alfred Hitchcock
On the 13th of August 1899, a boy named Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in the flat above his parents' greengrocer shop at 517 High Road in Leytonstone. His father William ran the store with a pony to deliver groceries while his mother Emma managed the household. The family atmosphere was characterized by strict discipline and Roman Catholic upbringing. When he was five years old, his father sent him to the local police station with a note asking for help. The policeman looked at the note and locked young Alfred in a cell for a few minutes before releasing him. This experience left him with a lifelong phobia of law enforcement that would later influence many of his films. He told Tom Snyder in 1973 that he was scared stiff of anything related to the law and refused to drive cars for fear of getting parking tickets.
In 1919, Hitchcock began working as a title card designer at Famous Players-Lasky's Islington Studios in Hoxton. He gained experience as co-writer, art director, and production manager on at least eighteen silent films. By March 1926, British film magazine Picturegoer published an article titled "Alfred the Great" praising his complete grasp of all different branches of film technique. His first thriller The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog released in January 1927 became both a commercial and critical success. The Bioscope trade journal called it possibly the finest British production ever made. The film concerned the hunt for a Jack the Ripper-style serial killer who murdered young blonde women only on Tuesdays. Hitchcock had wanted the leading man Ivor Novello to be guilty but the star system prevented this outcome. He made his first cameo appearance sitting in a newsroom during the film's opening scenes.
Producer David O. Selznick persuaded Hitchcock to move to Hollywood with a four-film contract worth approximately forty thousand dollars per picture. In June 1938, Hitchcock sailed to New York aboard the RMS Queen Mary and found himself already celebrated by magazines and radio interviews. His first American film Rebecca released in 1940 won Best Picture at the thirteenth Academy Awards though the statuette went to producer Selznick rather than Hitchcock. He received his first nomination for Best Director that year. During World War II he produced propaganda films including Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache for Britain's Ministry of Information. In 1945 he served as treatment advisor on a Holocaust documentary using Allied Forces footage from Nazi concentration camps. That film remained unreleased until 1985 when an edited version aired as Memory of the Camps on PBS Frontline.
Between 1954 and 1963 Hitchcock created what many consider his greatest works including Rear Window Vertigo Psycho and The Birds. Rear Window starred James Stewart and Grace Kelly while exploring voyeurism through a wheelchair-bound photographer observing neighbors across a courtyard. Vertigo featured Kim Novak and explored themes of obsession and acrophobia using a camera technique called dolly zoom developed by Irmin Roberts. The film initially attracted mixed reviews but later ranked behind only Citizen Kane in Sight & Sound polls before becoming the best film ever made according to critics ten years later. Psycho released in 1960 was produced on a tight budget of eight hundred thousand dollars yet became the most profitable film of his career earning him over fifteen million personally. The shower scene broke box office records worldwide and established new horror genre conventions with its unprecedented violence.
From 1955 to 1965 Hitchcock hosted the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents making him a global celebrity through his distinctive droll delivery and gallows humor. His minimalist caricature profile composed of nine strokes appeared in the title sequence before being filled by his real silhouette. The theme tune used Funeral March of a Marionette by French composer Charles Gounod. He directed eighteen episodes during this period which aired until NBC broadcast the final episode on the 10th of May 1965. The series spawned short story collections including Tales My Mother Never Told Me and licensed his name for Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Foreign-language versions brought revenues up to one hundred thousand dollars annually while his television success cemented his status as an international icon beyond cinema alone.
Failing health reduced Hitchcock's output during the last two decades of his life though he still made significant films like Frenzy and Family Plot. Frenzy released in 1972 marked his return to murder-thriller genre after two espionage films and allowed nudity for the first time despite censorship battles with Joseph Breen head of the Motion Picture Production Code. Two scenes showed naked women though models were used since actors Barbara Leigh-Hunt and Anna Massey refused to perform them. Family Plot became his final film relating the escapades of fraudulent spiritualist Blanche Tyler played by Barbara Harris. His penultimate work Torn Curtain precipitated the bitter end of his twelve-year collaboration with composer Bernard Herrmann who was replaced due to Hitchcock's unhappiness with the score. Despite declining health he continued working until shortly before his death from kidney failure on the 29th of April 1980 at age eighty.
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Common questions
When was Alfred Hitchcock born and where did he grow up?
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on the 13th of August 1899 in a flat above his parents' greengrocer shop at 517 High Road in Leytonstone. His father William ran the store with a pony to deliver groceries while his mother Emma managed the household.
What childhood event caused Alfred Hitchcock's phobia of law enforcement?
At age five, Alfred Hitchcock's father sent him to a local police station with a note asking for help. The policeman locked young Alfred in a cell for a few minutes before releasing him, creating a lifelong fear of law enforcement that influenced many of his films.
Which film marked Alfred Hitchcock's first major success as a director?
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog released in January 1927 became both a commercial and critical success for Alfred Hitchcock. The Bioscope trade journal called it possibly the finest British production ever made.
How much money did Alfred Hitchcock earn personally from Psycho?
Psycho released in 1960 earned Alfred Hitchcock over fifteen million dollars personally despite being produced on a tight budget of eight hundred thousand dollars. The shower scene broke box office records worldwide and established new horror genre conventions.
When did Alfred Hitchcock Presents end its run on NBC television?
Alfred Hitchcock Presents aired until NBC broadcast the final episode on the 10th of May 1965. He directed eighteen episodes during this period which cemented his status as an international icon beyond cinema alone.
What caused the death of Alfred Hitchcock and when did he die?
Alfred Hitchcock died from kidney failure on the 29th of April 1980 at age eighty. His failing health reduced his output during the last two decades of his life though he still made significant films like Frenzy and Family Plot.