Alfred Hitchcock

• Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock born 13 August 1899 was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and films with spoken dialogues, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood.Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. He remains one of the best-known and most popular filmmakers of all time.

• Hitchcock used some of his own experiences as a child in some of his films such as "Psycho", Hitchcock told how his father once gave him a note to give to a policeman to lock him up for 10 minutes for behaving badly and how his mother would make him stand for hours at the foot of her bed when he had misbehaved and he uses these past experiences in some of his well known films.

• Hitchcock's films were very diverse and made films ranging from romantic dramas such as Mr. and Mrs. Smith to the dark and sinister "shadow of a doubt" and "notorious".


• Near the end of his life, Hitchcock had worked on the script for a spy thriller called "The short night", but the story was never filmed. This was due to Hitchcock's own failing health and his concerns over the health of his wife, Alma, who had suffered a stroke. The script was eventually published posthumously, in a book on Hitchcock's last years.

• Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest." (interview with Roger Ebert in 1969)

Alfred Hitchcock's oscar nominations were:

• Best Director in 1960 for Psycho
• Best Director for Rebecca (1940), Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), and Rear Window (1954).
  
• Producer for best picture: Suspicion (1941).