Biography

Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in Leytonstone, Essex, England. He was the son of Emma Jane (Whelan; 1863 - 1942) and East End greengrocer William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914). His parents were both of half English and half Irish ancestry. He had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock (born 1892). Raised as a strict Catholic and attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time, frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals.

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry. He started off drawing the sets (he was a very skilled artist). It was there that he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only after the director for Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitchcock was named director to complete the film that he and Reville began to collaborate. Hitchcock had his first real crack at directing a film, start to finish, in 1923 when he was hired to direct the film Number 13 (1922), though the production wasn't completed due to the studio's closure (he later remade it as a sound film). Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed The Pleasure Garden (1925), a British/German production, which was very popular. Hitchcock made his first trademark film in 1927, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) . In the same year, on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child, _Patricia Hitchcock_ who was born on July 7th, 1928. His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as The Lady Vanishes (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of which also gained him fame in the USA.

In 1940, the Hitchcock family moved to Hollywood, where the producer _David O. Selznick_had hired him to direct an adaptation of 'Daphne du Maurier''s Rebecca (1940). After Saboteur (1942), as his fame as a director grew, film companies began to refer to his films as 'Alfred Hitchcock's', for example Alfred Hitcock's Psycho (1960), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976), Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972).

Hitchcock was a master of pure cinema who almost never failed to reconcile aesthetics with the demands of the box-office.

During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk very well. On March 7, 1979, Hitchcock was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award, where he said: "I beg permission to mention by name only four people who have given me the most affection, appreciation, and encouragement, and constant collaboration. The first of the four is a film editor, the second is a scriptwriter, the third is the mother of my daughter Pat, and the fourth is as fine a cook as ever performed miracles in a domestic kitchen and their names are Alma Reville." By this time, he was ill with angina and his kidneys had already started to fail. He had started to write a screenplay with _Ernest Lehman_ called The Short Night but he fired Lehman and hired young writer David Freeman to rewrite the script. Due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made, but Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death. In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep due to renal failure. His funeral was held in the Church of Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Father Thomas Sullivan led the service with over 600 people attended the service, among them were Mel Brooks (director of High Anxiety (1977), a comedy tribute to Hitchcock and his films), Louis Jourdan, Karl Malden, Tippi Hedren, Janet Leigh and François Truffaut.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Col Needham <col@imdb.com> and Samtroy

[Cameo] Often has a quick cameo in his films. He 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. He made a live cameo appearance in all of his movies beginning with The Lady Vanishes (1938) (Man in London Railway Station walking on the station train platform), Young and Innocent (1937) (Photographer Outside Courthouse) ... aka The Girl Was Young (USA), The 39 Steps (1935) (Passerby Near the Bus), Murder! (1930) (Man on Street), Blackmail (1929) (Man on subway), Easy Virtue (1928) (Man with stick near tennis court), The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) (Extra in newspaper office) ... aka The Case of Jonathan Drew., excluding Lifeboat (1944), in which he appeared in a newspaper advertisement; Dial M for Murder (1954), in which he appeared in a class reunion photo; Rope (1948) 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 (1976) in which his "appearance" is as a silhouette of someone standing on the other side of a frosted glass door.

[Bathrooms] Often a plot device, a hiding place or a place where lovemaking is prepared for. Hitchcock also frequently used the letters "BM", which stand for "Bowel Movement".

[Blondes] The most famous actresses in his filmography (mostly in leading roles) were Anny Ondra, Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Kim Novak, Vera Miles, Janet Leigh and Tippi Hedren.

Always formally dressed, wearing a suit on film sets

[Profile] The famous profile sketch, most often associated with Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962). It was actually from a Christmas card Hitchcock designed himself while still living in England.

Inspired the adjective "Hitchcockian" for suspense thrillers

He hated to shoot on location. He preferred to shoot at the studio where he could have full control of lighting and other factors. This is why even his later films contain special effects composite and rear screen shots.

Frequent collaborators: actors James Stewart and Cary Grant, editor George Tomasini, composer Bernard Herrmann, costume designer Edith Head and director of photography Robert Burks.

Liked to use major stars in his films that the audience was familiar with, so he could dispense with character development and focus more on the plot.

Unusual subjective point of view shots

According to many people who knew Hitchcock, he could not stand to even look at his wife, Alma Reville, while she was pregnant.

According to Hitchcock himself, he was required to stand at the foot of his mother's bed, and tell her what happened to him each day.

He appears on a 32-cent U.S. postage stamp, in the "Legends of Hollywood" series, that was released 8/3/98 in Los Angeles, California.

On April 29, 1974, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York sponsored a gala homage to Alfred Hitchcock and his contributions to the cinema. Three hours of film excerpts were shown that night. François Truffaut who had published a book of interviews with Hitchcock a few years earlier, was there that night to present "two brilliant sequences: the clash of the cymbals in the second version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) , and the plane attack on Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959)." After the gala, Truffaut reflected again on what made Hitchcock unique and concluded: "It was impossible not to see that the love scenes were filmed like murder scenes, and the murder scenes like love scenes...It occurred to me that in Hitchcock's cinema...to make love and to die are one and the same.".

Alma Reville and Hitchcock had one daughter, Patricia Hitchcock, who appeared in three of his movies: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960).

From 1977 until his death, he worked with a succession of writers on a film to be known as "The Short Night". The majority of the writing was done by David Freeman, who published the final screenplay after Hitchcock's death.

First visited Hollywood in the late 1930s, but was turned down by virtually all major motion picture studios because they thought he could not make a Hollywood-style picture. He was finally offered a seven-year directing contract by producer David O. Selznick. His first project was supposed to be a film about the Titanic, but Selznick scrapped the project because he "couldn't find a boat to sink." Selznick assigned Hitch to direct Rebecca (1940) instead, which later won the best picture Oscar.

He was director William Girdler's idol. Girdler made Day of the Animals (1977) borrowing elements from Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

He delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Academy Award history: while accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Academy Awards, he simply said "Thank you".

In a recent USC class on Hitchcock (fall 2000), guest speaker Patricia Hitchcock revealed that two guilty pleasures of Hitch's were Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Benji (1974).

He was listed as the editor of a series of anthologies containing mysteries and thillers. However, he had little to do with them. Even the introductions, credited to him, were, like the introductions on his television series, written by others.

He allegedly refused the British honour of CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1962.

Was voted the Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly. The same magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Films of all time includes more films directed by Hitchcock than by any other director, with four. On the list were his masterworks Psycho (1960) (#11), Vertigo (1958) (#19), North by Northwest (1959) (#44) and Notorious (1946) (#66).

Had a hard time devising one of his signature walk-ons for Lifeboat (1944), a film about a small group of people trying to survive on a small boat. What he eventually came up with was to have his picture in a newspaper advertisement for weight loss that floated among some debris around the boat. He had happened to have lost a considerable amount of weight from dieting around that time, so he was seen in both the "Before" and the "After" pictures. The text of the ad uses the tag line, "Obesity Slayer".

Was a supporter of West Ham United Football Club. He told colleagues in Hollywood that he subscribed to English newspapers in order to keep track of their results.

He was infamous with cast and crews for his practical jokes. While some inspired laughs, such as suddenly showing up in a dress, most were said to have been a bit more scar than funny. Usually, he found out about somebody's phobias, such as mice or spiders, and in turn sent them a box full of them.

Directed the pilot episode of the radio series "Suspense" (1942-1962), and made a brief appearance at the end. It was an adaptation of his film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) and starred Herbert Marshall and Edmund Gwenn, who reprised his brother Arthur Chesney 's role as Mr. Bunting.

Directed eight different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, Albert Bassermann, Michael Chekhov, Claude Rains, Ethel Barrymore and Janet Leigh. Fontaine won an Oscar for Suspicion (1941).

As with W.C. Fields and Arthur Godfrey before him, he was legendary for gently tweaking his sponsors during the run of his television show. One typical example runs, "We now interrupt our story for an important announcement. I needn't tell you to whom it will be most important of all.".

Education: St. Ignatius College, London, School of Engineering and Navigation (Studied mechanics, electricity, acoustics and navigation); University of London (Studied art).

Due to his death in 1980, he never got to see Psycho II (1983). It remains unsure as to whether or not he was approached regarding the second movie, or any other "Psycho (1960) - Expansion" motion picture.

He was reportedly furious when Brian De Palma decided to make Obsession (1976), because he thought it was a virtual remake of Vertigo (1958). Ironically, De Palma stopped making mystery/adventure films after Hitchcock's death in 1980, with the possible exception of Body Double (1984).

For Psycho (1960), he deferred his standard $250,000 salary in lieu of 60% of the film's net profits. His personal earnings from the film exceeded $15 million. Adjusted for inflation, that amount would now top $150 million in 2006 terms.

On August 2, 1968, he visited Finland to scout filming locations for his next film "The Short Night". Of course, the film was never made. In the airport, he was interviewed by Finnish reporters. He was asked why his films were so popular. His answer was: "Everybody likes to be scared".

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.

He suggested some improvements to a scene in Gone with the Wind (1939) but the shots integrating his improvements were not used.

Walt Disney refused to allow him to film at Disneyland in the early 1960s because Hitchcock had made "that disgusting movie Psycho (1960)".

As of the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), Hitchcock is the most represented director, with 18 films. Included are his films Blackmail (1929), The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), Rebecca (1940), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Wrong Man (1956), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964) and Frenzy (1972).

At five, he received more Academy Award nominations for Best Director without a win than anyone other than Clarence Brown. He was nominated for Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954) and Psycho (1960).

Appears on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp, issued 11 August 2009, in the Early TV Memories issue honoring Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).

He appears momentarily in a trademark/cameo role in all of his movies. In addition the neon silhouette in Rope (1948), he is seen walking down the street during the opening credits. During the movie, the characters of Mrs. Atwater and Janet are discussing a movie whose one-word title they can not remember. It was a plug for one of Hitchcock's other movies, Notorious (1946).

Many of Hitchcock's films have one-word titles: Blackmail (1929), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rope (1948), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960), Marnie (1964), Topaz (1969) and Frenzy (1972). He favored one-word titles because he felt that it was uncluttered, clean and easily remembered by the audience.

He was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock (2012).

From 1942 until his death, the Hitchcocks lived at 10957 Bellagio Road, Bel Air, California. They had been living at 609 St. Cloud Road in Bel Air in a home leased from friends Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

His Dial M for Murder (1954) was re-released in 3D in 1980.

Director Alexander Payne could not imagine Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) in color because it's more chilling in black and white, but it was later remade in color as Psycho (1998), to universal disapproval.

If you watch his films closely noting the endings or portrayal of cops, you will see that if a cop is required to die, the death will be slow, gruesome or uncompromisingly grisly. If cops survive they are nearly always portrayed as baddies, though in reality they are the good guys. This is because Hitchcock had a life-long phobia of policemen.

In the early 1950s, he planned an adaption of David Duncan's novel The Bramble Bush about a disaffected Communist agitator who, on the run from the police, is forced to adopt the identity of a murder suspect. The story would be adapted to take place in Mexico and San Francisco. The project, originally to come after I Confess (1953) as a Transatlantic Pictures production to be released by Warner Brothers, had a high budget which made it a difficult project. Hitchcock did not feel that any of the scripts lifted the movie beyond an ordinary chase story, and Warner Brothers allowed him to kill the project and move on to Dial M for Murder (1954).

British thriller writer Dennis Wheatley had been a guest on the set of many of the early Hitchcock movies, and when The Forbidden Territory was published in January 1933, he presented the director with a copy. Hitchcock so enjoyed the book that he wanted to make a film of it, but he was just in the process of moving to Gaumont-British studios to work for Michael Balcon; he asked Wheatley to hold onto the rights until he could persuade his new employer to purchase them. When the time came, however, Balcon wasn't interested and instead insisted that Hitchcock direct the musical Waltzes from Vienna. Hitchcock then approached Richard Wainwright, a distinguished producer who had been head of UFA films in Germany, and had recently relocated to Britain. Wainwright was keen to pick up a promising subject for his first British film, and immediately bought the rights. Although there was a verbal understanding that Hitchcock was to direct, Balcon refused to release him, and instead began production of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Wainwright, committed to studio space, technicians and actors, had no alternative but to proceed without him, and placed the film into the hands of American director Phil Rosen. In 1936, at Hitchcock's instigation, Wheatley wrote a screenplay The Bombing of London, but the controversial project could find no backer and was shelved.

Following Psycho (1960), Hitchcock re-united with Ernest Lehman for an original screenplay idea: A blind pianist, Jimmy Shearing (a role for James Stewart), regains his sight after receiving the eyes of a dead man. Watching a Wild West show at Disneyland with his family, Shearing would have visions of being shot and would come to realize that the dead man was in fact murdered and the image of the murderer is still imprinted on the retina of his eyes. The story would end with a chase around the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary. Walt Disney reputedly barred Hitchcock from shooting at Disneyland after seeing Psycho (1960). Stewart left the project, Lehman argued with Hitchcock, and the script was never shot.

Hitchcock's last, unfinished project was The Short Night, an adaptation of the spy thriller of the same name by Ronald Kirkbride. A British double agent (loosely based on George Blake) escapes from prison and flees to Moscow via Finland, where his wife and children are waiting. An American agent - whose brother was one of the traitor's victims - heads to Finland to intercept him but ends up falling for the wife. It was Hitchcock's third attempt - after Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969) - to produce a "realistic Bond film". Clint Eastwood, and Sean Connery were possible male leads. Liv Ullmann was asked to play the double agent's wife. Catherine Deneuve was also asked to star. Walter Matthau was considered for the villain role. Ed Lauter was also discussed for a role as one of Matthau's prison mates.

The first writer assigned to the picture, James Costigan, quarreled with the director, who asked for him to be paid off. Then Ernest Lehman agreed to work on the script. Lehman felt the story should focus on the American spy, and left out the double agent's jailbreak. Lehman left the film too, and Hitchcock asked old friend Norman Lloyd to help him write a long treatment. Lloyd, like Universal, was concerned that Hitchcock's failing health meant that the movie might not get made. When Hitchcock suggested moving straight on to the screenplay, Lloyd objected saying they were unprepared. Hitchcock reacted angrily, fired Lloyd, and worked on the treatment himself.

After a while, Hitchcock accepted that he needed another writer to work with him, and Universal suggested Dave Freeman, helped Hitchcock complete the treatment and wrote the screenplay. He wrote about his experiences in the 1999 book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock, which includes his completed screenplay. The circumstances surrounding Hitchcock's retirement were given by producer Hilton A. Green during the documentary Plotting "Family Plot". According to Green, during pre-production for The Short Night Hitchcock met Green to tell him that his poor health would prevent him from making the film that was to be the follow-up to Family Plot. After trying to talk Hitchcock out of his decision, Green agreed to Hitchcock's request to bring the news of his decision to retire to studio head Lew Wasserman, a long-time friend of Hitchcock.

In the late 1950s, he planned an adaptation of Henry Cecil's novel No Bail for the Judge, about a London barrister who, with the assistance of a gentleman thief, has to defend her father, a High Court judge, when he is accused of murdering a prostitute. In a change of pace from his usual blonde actresses, Audrey Hepburn would have played the barrister, with Laurence Harvey as the thief, and John Williams as the Hepburn character's father. Some sources, including Writing with Hitchcock author Steven DeRosa say that Hitchcock's interest in the novel started in the summer of 1954 while filming To Catch a Thief (1955), and that Hitchcock hoped to have John Michael Hayes write the screenplay. Hepburn was an admirer of Hitchcock's work and had long wanted to appear in one of his films.

Samuel A. Taylor, scenarist for Vertigo (1958) and Topaz (1969), wrote the screenplay after Ernest Lehman rejected it. The Taylor screenplay included a scene, not in the original novel, where the heroine disguises herself as a prostitute and has to fend off a rapist. Hepburn left the film, partly because of the near-rape scene, but primarily due to a pregnancy. (Hepburn suffered a miscarriage during the filming of The Unforgiven (1960) then gave birth to son Sean Ferrer in July 1960.) Harvey still ended up working with Hitchcock in 1959, however, on an episode that Hitchcock directed of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).

Without Hepburn, the project didn't have the same appeal for Hitchcock. Changes in British law concerning prostitution and entrapment - changes which took place after the novel was published - made some aspects of the screenplay implausible. Hitchcock told Paramount Pictures it was better to write off $200,000 already spent on the film's development than to spend another $3 million for a film he no longer cared for. In the fall of 1959, a Paramount publicity brochure titled "Success in the Sixties!" had touted No Bail for the Judge as an upcoming feature film starring Hepburn, to be filmed in Technicolor and VistaVision.

In 1963, he was scheduled to direct Trap for a Solitary Man in widescreen by Twentieth Century-Fox. The story, based on the French play Piege Pour un Homme Seul by M. Robert Thomas, follows a young married couple on holiday in the Alps. The wife disappears, and after a prolonged search the police bring back someone they claim to be her; she even says she is the man's wife, but the man has never seen her before.

In the late 1940s, Hitchcock had plans to make a modernized version of Hamlet. Hitchcock's Shakespearean vision was of a "psychological melodrama" (set in contemporary England, and starring Cary Grant in the title role). The project was scrapped when Hitchcock's studio caught wind of a potential lawsuit from a professor who had already written a modern-day version of Hamlet.

Hitchcock had long desired to turn J.M. Barrie's 1920 play Mary Rose into a film. In 1964, after working together on Marnie (1964), Hitchcock asked Jay Presson Allen to adapt the play into a screenplay. Hitchcock would later tell interviewers that his contract with Universal allowed him to make any film, so long as the budget was under $3 million, and so long as it was not Mary Rose. Whether or not this was actually true, Lew Wasserman was not keen on the project, though Hitchcock never gave up hope of one day filming it.

In 1945, Hitchcock was brought in as a supervising director for a documentary film about Nazi crimes and Nazi concentration camps. The film was originally to include segments produced by military film units from the UK, US, France, and the USSR. Cold War developments meant that the USSR segment was withdrawn, and the film remained uncompleted, with some footage kept in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

However, a reconstruction of the film was aired as Memory of the Camps in 1984-85 in the UK and the US. The US version was shown on the PBS series Frontline (1983) on May 7, 1985. In October 2014, a new documentary about the unfinished film, Night Will Fall (2014), premiered at the BFI London Film Festival.

He directed Cary Grant in four films: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959).

He directed Clare Greet in seven films: the unfinished Number 13 (1922), The Ring (1927/I)_, The Manxman (1929), Murder! (1930), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Sabotage (1936) and Jamaica Inn (1939). Greet appeared in more Hitchcock films than anyone other than Hitchcock himself.

He appeared in all but 18 of the 56 films that he directed: the unfinished Number 13 (1922), The Pleasure Garden (1925), The Mountain Eagle (1926), When Boys Leave Home (1927), The Farmer's Wife (1928), Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1929), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Elstree Calling (1930), The Skin Game (1931), Mary (1931), East of Shanghai (1931), Number 17 (1932), Strauss' Great Waltz (1934), Secret Agent (1936), Jamaica Inn (1939), Lifeboat (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954). However, in both Lifeboat (1944) and Dial M for Murder (1954), he can be seen in photographs.

He directed Leonard Carey in four films: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), The Paradine Case (1947) and Strangers on a Train (1951).

He directed John Longden in six films: Blackmail (1929), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Elstree Calling (1930), The Skin Game (1931), Young and Innocent (1937) and Jamaica Inn (1939).

He was given an Honorary Doctorate by Great Britain's Royal College of Art.

All copies of The White Shadow (1924) were thought to be lost but 3 reels containing the first half of the film were found in the vaults of the New Zealand Film Archive in 2011.

There is a dreadful story that I hate actors. Imagine anyone hating James Stewart... Jack L. Warner. I can't imagine how such a rumor began. Of course it may possibly be because I was once quoted as saying that actors are cattle. My actor friends know I would never be capable of such a thoughtless, rude and unfeeling remark, that I would never call them cattle... What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle.

The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.

To me, Psycho (1960) was a big comedy. Had to be.

Always make the audience suffer as much as possible.

[His entire acceptance speech for the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award] Thank you.

[on Michelangelo Antonioni and his film Blow-Up (1966)] This young Italian guy is starting to worry me.

I enjoy playing the audience like a piano.

I was an uncommonly unattractive young man.

There is nothing quite so good as a burial at sea. It is simple, tidy, and not very incriminating.

[on Claude Jade, who starred in Topaz (1969)] Claude Jade is a brave nice young lady. But I don't give any guarantee what she will do on a taxi's back seat.

The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop.

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella (1937), the audience would immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it.

[on The Birds (1963)] You know, I've often wondered what the Audubon Society's attitude might be to this picture.

[Walt Disney] has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor he just tears him up.

I am scared easily, here is a list of my adrenaline-production: 1: small children, 2: policemen, 3: high places, 4: that my next movie will not be as good as the last one.

I don't understand why we have to experiment with film. I think everything should be done on paper. A musician has to do it, a composer. He puts a lot of dots down and beautiful music comes out. And I think that students should be taught to visualize. That's the one thing missing in all this. The one thing that the student has got to do is to learn that there is a rectangle up there - a white rectangle in a theater - and it has to be filled.

[on North by Northwest (1959)] Our original title, you know, was "The Man in Lincoln's Nose". Couldn't use it, though. They also wouldn't let us shoot people on Mount Rushmore. Can't deface a national monument. And it's a pity, too, because I had a wonderful shot in mind of Cary Grant hiding in Lincon's nose and having a sneezing fit.

[on his lifelong fear of eggs ("ovophobia")] 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.

[When asked by a member of the press why, at his advanced age, it took so long for the British government to grant him the title of Knight] I think it's just a matter of carelessness.

All love scenes started on the set are continued in the dressing room.

[on the making of Psycho (1960) and a fake torso made by the special effects department that spurted blood when stabbed with a knife] But I never used it. It was all unnecessary because the cocking of the knife, the girl's face and the feet and everything was so rapid that there were 78 separate pieces of film in 45 seconds.

[A portion of his AFI Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech] Had the beautiful Ms. Reville [his wife Alma Reville] not accepted a lifetime contract without options as Mrs. Alfred Hitchcock some 53 years ago, Mr. Alfred Hitchcock might be in this room tonight, not at this table but as one of the slower waiters on the floor.

I like stories with lots of psychology.

Cartoonists have the best casting system. If they don't like an actor, they just tear him up.

[on how to properly build suspense] Four people are sitting around a table talking about baseball or whatever you like. Five minutes of it. Very dull. Suddenly, a bomb goes off. Blows the people to smithereens. What does the audience have? Ten seconds of shock. Now take the same scene and tell the audience there is a bomb under that table and will go off in five minutes. The whole emotion of the audience is totally different because you've given them that information. In five minutes time that bomb will go off. Now the conversation about baseball becomes very vital. Because they're saying to you, "Don't be ridiculous. Stop talking about baseball. There's a bomb under there." You've got the audience working.

[to an interviewer on why he does not make comedies] But every film I made IS a comedy!

[1955, as host of his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)] For those of you watching this show in the year 2000, write us a letter and tell us how things are going where you are.

If you've designed a picture correctly, the Japanese audience should scream at the same time as the Indian audience.

[on Mary Anderson in Lifeboat (1944)]One of the young ladies in the boat had great ambitions to become a film star. And I discovered that she was stuffing kleenex into her brassiere to build herself up. And one day she said to me, "Oh Mr. Hitchcock, which do you think is my best side?" And I said, "You're sitting on it, my dear."

Films should not be photographs of people talking.