Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, England to William Hitchcock and Emma Jane Hitchcock. He completed his education from the Salesian college and the Jesuit School St. Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, London. He later joined London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London to pursue a career in electrical engineering.
Hitchcock started his career in the film industry as a screenwriter, art director and assistant director in movies such as Woman to Woman (1923), The White Shadow (1924), The Blackguard (1925), and The Prude’s Fall (1925). He ventured into direction in 1925 with a movie called The Pleasure Garden, which was commercially unsuccessful. In 1926, he helmed his first suspense thriller The Lodger, which garnered critical and commercial success and subsequently rendered his other box office hits in the genre. Popularly known as the Master of Suspense, Hitchccok rose to global prominence with successful hits like Blackmail (1929), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). He then continued to rise and shine with his streak of psychological and suspense thrillers like Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Strangers on a Train (1951), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and several other such classics. He received two Golden Globe Awards and eight Laurel Awards for his work. He was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1968 Oscars. He became the recipient of five Lifetime Achievement Awards including the one by the American Film Institute in 1979 and the first BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award. In 1980, he was honoured with a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II and he was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE).
Some of his notable films include:
Rebecca
Shadow of a Doubt
Notorious
Rear Window
Vertigo
Hitchcock was honoured with the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 8 February 1960 with two stars: one for television and a second for his motion pictures. Hitchcock married Alma Reville in 1926. They had a daughter Patricia Hitchcock. He passed away on April 29, 1980 in California due to kidney failure. In a career spanning six decades, Hitchcock is remembered for directing 50 feature films.
Comments are closed.