HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Alfred Hitchcock

THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND

Hitchcock was born on 13th August 1899.

He was raised in Leytonstone, London, England.

Due to the families religious preference he became

Catholic.

Hitchcock viewed his early life as lonely and

isolated.

This led to his struggle with obesity from a young

age.

DEATH OF A FATHER

Upon Hitchcock leaving St.Ignatius School, his

father William Hitchcock died.

At the time Hitchcock was only 14 years old.

Due to this grief he applied for service in World

War 1 where he was rejected due to his size.

After this denial Hitchcock found himself a job at

The Henley Telegraph.

THE START OF A LEGACY

Once receiving his job at Henley’s, Alfred began to submit

short stories most notably known as “Gas” “The Woman’s

Part” and “Sordid”.

Throughout this time Hitchcock started to work as a title

card designer for a company which would ultimately

become

Paramount Pictures.

Overall it took Hitchcock five years to become a director.

BRITISH CAREER

His first film titled ‘Number 13’ was in fact

cancelled due to financial problems.

His success started with ‘The Lodger: A Story of

London Fog’ the film was an initial success and took

inspiration from some of Hitchcock’s shorter films.

After a number of successful films Alfred Hitchcock

became known as ‘Alfred the Great’.

THE UNITED STATES

Upon moving to the United States, Hitchcock experimented

with 3D Cinematography for use in ‘Dial M for Murder’.

However due to the audiences response to 3D at the time the

effect was only used in the first few screenings.

Hitchcock then created a film for Paramount Pictures called

‘Rear Window’ , the film starred two of his favorite actors –

James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

After this Hitchcock made is final film for Warner Bro’s – ‘

The Wrong Man’. Hitchcock later commented on this film in an

interview by saying he took inspiration for this film from his

own personal fear of the police.

‘PSYCHO’

Psycho was developed and released in 1960, this is

without a doubt Hitchcock's best work to be shown to the

world. The film was shot in black and white on a spare set

on a highly restricting budget of $800,000.

The shower scene in ‘Psycho’ is renowned for being one of

the very best scenes ever to be filmed.

After ‘Psycho’ Hitchcock moved to Universal where he

made the remainder of his films.

LEGEND

Failing health took a toll on Hitchcock's Career

during his last 20 years in the industry.

He started his final project a spy thriller called

“The Short Night” however due to his fears for his

wife’s health the filming was never completed

Shortly after Alfred Hitchcock died at 9:17am on

the 29th of April 1980.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK

13 / 4 / 1899 – 29 / 8 / 1980