- Born August 13, 1899
- He was knighted in 1980, and died the same year.
- Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films, in a career spanning six decades, from the silent era, through the invention of sound films, and far into the color era
- Hitchcock had a dislike of egg yolk. He once said "I’m frightened of eggs, worse than frightened, they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes … have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I’ve never tasted it."
- Hitchcock also had a serious fear of the police, which was the reason he said he never learned to drive. In an attempt to punish Hitchcock for an instance of misbehavior, Alfred's father detailed in writing that the young Hitchcock had engaged in some form of childish mischief, then handed the description to Alfred, sending him to the local police station. The on-duty police officer immediately locked Hitchcock in an empty cell for a full 10 minutes as a means to reprimand the young boy. This perhaps influenced his signature theme in his movies where an innocent person would become entangled in the web of another guilty person's behaviour.
- According to many people who knew Hitchcock, he couldn't stand to even look at his wife, Alma Reville, while she was pregnant.
- Alma Reville and Hitch had one daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, who appeared in several of his movies: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960)
- Hitchcock eventually began making his appearances in the beginning of his films, because he knew viewers were watching for him and he didn't want to divert their attention away from the story's plot.
- The famous Hitchcock profile sketch, most often associated with "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955), was actually from a Christmas card Hitchcock designed himself while still living in England.
- When finishing a cup of tea while on the set, he would often non-discriminatingly toss the cup and saucer over his shoulder, letting it fall (or break) wherever it may.
- Hitchcock delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar history: while accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars, he simply said "Thank you."
- Is the "voice" of the "Jaws" ride at Universal Studios.
- A statistical survey he did among audiences revealed that according to moviegoers the most frightening noise in films was the siren of a police patrol-car, followed by the crash of a road accident, cracklings of a burning forest, far galloping horses, howling dogs, the scream of a stabbed woman and the steps of a lame person in the dark.
- Though he was Oscar-nominated 5 times as Best Director, DGA-nominated 6 times as Best Director, and received 3 nominations from Cannes, he has never won in any of these competitive categories.
- Made a live cameo appearance in all of his movies beginning with Rebecca (1940), excluding Lifeboat in which he appeared in a newspaper advertisement; Dial M for Murder in which he appeared in a class reunion photo; Rope in which his "appearance" is as a neon version of his famous caricature on a billboard outside the window in a night scene and Family Plot in which his "appearance" is as a silhouette of someone standing on the other side of a frosted glass door
- Walt Disney refused to allow him to film at Disneyland in the early 1960s because Hitchcock had made "that disgusting movie Psycho
- Always wore a suit on film sets
No comments:
Post a Comment