Alfred Hitchcock Net Worth

Alfred Hitchcock's Quotes

• 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.
• [on his cameos] One of the earliest of these was in The Lodger (1927), the story of Jack the Ripper. My appearance called for me to walk up the stairs of the rooming house. Since my walk-ons in subsequent pictures would be equally strenuous - boarding buses, playing chess, etc. - I asked for a stunt man. Casting, with an unusual lack of perception, hired this fat man!
• The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.
• There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.
• To me, Psycho (1960) was a big comedy. Had to be.

Interesting Facts about Alfred Hitchcock

1. According to many people who knew Hitchcock, he could not stand to even look at his wife, Alma Reville, while she was pregnant.
2. He once dressed up in drag for a party he threw. Footage of this was kept in his office, but after his death, his office was cleaned out and the footage not found. It is not known if the footage still exists.
3. 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.
4. Was close friends with Albert R. Broccoli, well known as the producer of the James Bond - 007 franchise. Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) was the influence for the helicopter scene in From Russia with Love (1963). Actors Sean Connery, Karin Dor, Louis Jourdan and Anthony Dawson have appeared in both a Hitchcock film and a Bond film.
5. 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.
6. As a child, Hitchcock was sent to the local police station with a letter from his father. The desk sergeant read the letter and immediately locked the boy up for ten minutes. After that, the sergeant let young Alfred go, explaining, "This is what happens to people who do bad things." Hitchcock had a morbid fear of police from that day on. He also cited this phobia as the reason he never learned to drive (as a person who doesn't drive can never be pulled over and given a ticket). It was also cited as the reason for the recurring "wrong man" themes in his films.
7. 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.".
8. He never won a best director Academy Award in competition, although he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Academy Awards.
9. 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).
10. In the 1980 Queen's New Year's Honours list (only a few months before his death), he was named an Honorary (as he was a United States citizen) Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
11. 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.
12. His bridling under the heavy hand of producer David O. Selznick was exemplified by the final scene of Rebecca (1940). Selznick wanted his director to show smoke coming out of the burning house's chimney forming the letter 'R'. Hitchcock thought the touch lacked any subtlety; instead, he showed flames licking at a pillow embroidered with the letter 'R'.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. He was director William Girdler's idol. Girdler made Day of the Animals (1977) borrowing elements from Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).
16. Asked writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac to write a novel for him after Henri-Georges Clouzot had been faster in buying the rights for "Celle qui n'était plus" which became Les Diaboliques (1955). The novel they wrote, "From Among the Dead", was shot as Vertigo (1958).
17. 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".
18. Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang was his declared favorite movie.
19. 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).
20. Lent his name and character to a series of adolescent books entitled "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" (circa late 1960s - early 1970s). The premise was that main character and crime-solver Jupiter Jones won the use of Mr. Hitchcock's limousine in a contest. Hitch also wrote forewords to this series of books. After his death, his famous silhouette was taken off the spine of the books, and the forewords (obviously) stopped appearing as well.