20 Facts You Don’t Know About Alfred Hitchcock

As one of the greatest directors in the 20th century, Alfred Hitchcock gained great popularity from his personal appearance in his TV series, movie trailers and interesting cameos. But what else do you know besides he was a fat guy and made great suspense films? More than that, here are 20 facts you should know about Alfred Hitchcock.

1. Hitchcock was a close friend of 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).

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

3. 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.

4. Hitchcock 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 Diabolique (1955). The novel they wrote, “From Among the Dead”, was shot as Vertigo (1958).

5. He delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar history: while accepting the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1967 Oscars, he simply said “Thank you.”

6. Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang was his declared favorite movie.

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

8. When he won his Lifetime Achievement award in 1979, he joked with friends that he must be about to die soon. He died a year later.

9. Was at his heaviest in the late 1930s, when he weighed over 300 pounds. Although always overweight, he dieted and lost a considerable amount of weight in the early 1950s, with pictures from sets like To Catch a Thief (1955) showing a surprisingly thin Hitchcock. His weight continued to fluctuate throughout his life.

10. 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).