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Hume Cronyn
Jessica Tandy and Cronyn at the 1988 Emmy Awards
Born	Hume Blake Cronyn (1911-07-18)July 18, 1911 London, Ontario, Canada
Died	June 15, 2003(2003-06-15) (aged 91) Fairfield, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1942–2003
Spouse	Emily Woodruff (1934-1936) (divorced) [1] Jessica Tandy (1942-1994) (her death) Susan Cooper (1996-2003) (his death)

Hume Blake Cronyn, OC (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.^[2]

Early life[link]

Hume Cronyn, one of five children, was born in London, Ontario, Canada, the son of Hume Blake Cronyn, Sr., a businessman and a Member of Parliament for London (after whom the Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory and asteroid (12050) Humecronyn are named) and Frances Amelia (née Labatt), an heiress of the brewing company of the same name. His paternal grandfather, Verschoyle Cronyn, was the son of the Right Reverend Benjamin Cronyn, an Anglican cleric of the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy, who served as first bishop of the Anglican diocese of Huron, and founder of Huron College, from which grew the University of Western Ontario. His great-uncle, Benjamin, Jr., was both a prominent citizen and early mayor of London, Ontario, but was later indicted for fraud and fled to Vermont; during his tenure in London he built a mansion called Oakwood, which currently serves as the head office of the Info-Tech Research Group. Cronyn was also a cousin of Canadian-born theater producer, Robert Whitehead, and a first cousin of the Canadian-British artist Hugh Verschoyle Cronyn GM (1905–1996).

Hume Cronyn was the first Elmwood School boarder (at the time Elmwood was called Rockliffe Preparatory School) and boarded at Elmwood between 1917 and 1921. After leaving Elmwood, Cronyn went to Ridley College in St. Catharines, and McGill University in Montreal, where he became a member of The Kappa Alpha Society.

Early in life, Cronyn was an amateur featherweight boxer, having the skills to be nominated for the 1932 Canadian Olympic Boxing Team.

Career[link]

His family had hoped he would pursue a law career^{[citation needed]}, but subsequent to graduating from Ridley College, Cronyn switched majors, from pre-law to drama, while attending McGill University, and continued his acting studies thereafter, under Max Reinhardt and at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1934, he made his Broadway debut as a janitor in Hipper's Holiday and became known for his versatility, playing a number of different roles on stage. He won a Drama Desk Special Award in 1986. In 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.^[3]

His first Hollywood film was Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He later appeared in Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944) and worked on the screenplays of Rope (1948) and Under Capricorn (1949). He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in The Seventh Cross (1944) and won a Tony Award for his performance as Polonius opposite Richard Burton's Hamlet (1964). Cronyn bought the screenplay What Nancy Wanted from Norma Barzman — later blacklisted with her husband Ben Barzman — with the idea of producing the film and starring Tandy. However, he sold the screenplay to RKO which later filmed it as The Locket (1946). Cronyn also made appearances in television, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Kill With Kindness" (1956) and Hawaii Five-O episodes "Over Fifty, Steal" (1970) and "Odd Man In" (1971).^[4]

In 1990 he won an Emmy award for his role in the TV Movie Age Old Friends^[5]

Cronyn and Tandy[link]

Cronyn married the actress Jessica Tandy in 1942, and appeared with her in many of their more memorable dramatic stage, film and TV outings, including The Green Years, The Seventh Cross, The Gin Game, Foxfire, *batteries not included, Cocoon and Cocoon: The Return.

The couple starred in a short-lived (1953–1954) radio series, The Marriage (based on their earlier Broadway play, The Fourposter), playing New York attorney Ben Marriott and his wife, former fashion buyer Liz, struggling with her switch to domestic life and their raising an awkward teenage daughter (future soap opera star Denise Alexander). The show was scheduled to move from radio to television, with Cronyn producing as well as acting in the show. However, Tandy - according to the Internet Accuracy Project - suffered a miscarriage and the project had to be shelved.

The couple had a daughter, Tandy, and a son, Christopher. Cronyn and Tandy lived on Children's Bay Cay in the Bahamas, then at a lakeside estate in Pound Ridge, New York, and, finally, in Easton, Connecticut, in a two-story Dutch colonial house on five acres.^[6] Jessica died in 1994.

Personal life[link]

Cronyn appeared on the infamous Hollywood blacklist for a time - not because of his own political activity (Cronyn was long believed to shy away from political activism) - but because he had hired, often without caring about their politics, staff members who had already been blacklisted.^{[citation needed]}

After he was widowed, Cronyn married author Susan Cooper in July 1996. His 1991 autobiography was titled A Terrible Liar (ISBN 0-688-12844-0).

In 1988, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Cronyn was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1999.^[7] He died in 2003 of prostate cancer, aged 91.

Work[link]

Stage[link]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hume Cronyn

• Hume Cronyn at Find a Grave
• Hume Cronyn at the Internet Broadway Database
• Hume Cronyn at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Hume Cronyn at the Internet Movie Database
• Hume Cronyn at Virtual History
• Order of Canada Citation
• Hume Cronyn - Internet Accuracy Project

James Dean
Dean in Giant (1955)
Born	James Byron Dean (1931-02-08)February 8, 1931 Marion, Indiana, U.S.
Died	September 30, 1955(1955-09-30) (aged 24) Cholame, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Motor vehicle accident
Other names	Jimmy Dean
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1951–1955
Signature

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor.^[1] He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were as loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955), and as the surly ranch hand, Jett Rink, in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rests on his performances in only these three films, all leading roles. His premature death in a car crash cemented his legendary status.^[2]

Dean was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Dean the 18th best male movie star on their AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.^[3]

Early life[link]

James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, at the Seven Gables apartment house located at the corner of 4th Street and McClure Street in Marion, Indiana, to Winton Dean and Mildred Wilson. Six years after his father had left farming to become a dental technician, James and his family moved to Santa Monica, California. The family spent several years there, and by all accounts young Dean was very close to his mother. According to Michael DeAngelis, she was "the only person capable of understanding him".^[4] He was enrolled at Brentwood Public School in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles until his mother died of cancer when Dean was nine years old.

Unable to care for his son, Winton Dean sent James to live with Winton's sister Ortense and her husband Marcus Winslow on a farm in Fairmount, Indiana, where he was raised in a Quaker background. Dean sought the counsel and friendship of Methodist pastor, the Rev. James DeWeerd. DeWeerd seemed to have had a formative influence upon Dean, especially upon his future interests in bullfighting, car racing, and the theater. According to Billy J. Harbin, "Dean had an intimate relationship with his pastor... which began in his senior year of high school and endured for many years."^[5] Their sexual relationship was earlier suggested in the 1994 book, Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean by Paul Alexander.^[6] In 2011, it was reported that he once told Elizabeth Taylor, his co-star in Giant, that he was sexually abused by a minister two years after his mother's death.^[7]

In high school, Dean's overall performance was mediocre. However, he was a popular school athlete, having successfully played on the baseball and basketball teams and studied drama and competed in forensics through the Indiana High School Forensic Association. After graduating from Fairmount High School on May 16, 1949, Dean moved back to California with his beagle, Max, to live with his father and stepmother. He enrolled in Santa Monica College (SMC) and majored in pre-law. Dean transferred to UCLA for one semester^[8] and changed his major to drama, which resulted in estrangement from his father. He pledged the Sigma Nu fraternity but was never initiated. While at UCLA, he was picked from a pool of 350 actors to land the role of Malcolm in Macbeth. At that time, he also began acting with James Whitmore's acting workshop. In January 1951, he dropped out of UCLA to pursue a full-time career as an actor.^[9]

Acting career[link]

in East of Eden (1955)

Dean's first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola television commercial.^[10] He quit college to act full time and was cast as John the Beloved Disciple in Hill Number One, an Easter television special, and three walk-on roles in movies, Fixed Bayonets!, Sailor Beware, and Has Anybody Seen My Gal? His only speaking part was in Sailor Beware, a Paramount comedy starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis; Dean played a boxing trainer. While struggling to get jobs in Hollywood, Dean also worked as a parking lot attendant at CBS Studios, during which time he met Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency, who offered him professional help and guidance in his chosen career, as well as a place to stay.^[11][12]

In October 1951, following actor James Whitmore's and his mentor Rogers Brackett's advice, Dean moved to New York City. There he worked as a stunt tester for the game show Beat the Clock. He also appeared in episodes of several CBS television series, The Web, Studio One, and Lux Video Theatre, before gaining admission to the legendary Actors Studio to study method acting under Lee Strasberg. Proud of this accomplishment, Dean referred to the Studio in a 1952 letter to his family as "The greatest school of the theater. It houses great people like Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Arthur Kennedy, Mildred Dunnock. ... Very few get into it ... It is the best thing that can happen to an actor. I am one of the youngest to belong."^[11]

Dean's career picked up and he performed in further episodes of such early 1950s television shows as Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Danger, and General Electric Theater. One early role, for the CBS series Omnibus in the episode "Glory in the Flower", saw Dean portraying the type of disaffected youth he would later immortalize in Rebel Without a Cause. (This summer 1953 program was also notable for featuring the song "Crazy Man, Crazy", one of the first dramatic TV programs to feature rock and roll.) Positive reviews for Dean's 1954 theatrical role as "Bachir", a pandering North African houseboy, in an adaptation of André Gide's book The Immoralist, led to calls from Hollywood.^[13]

[edit] East of Eden

With Julie Harris in East of Eden (1955)

In 1953, director Elia Kazan was looking for a substantive actor to play the emotionally complex role of 'Cal Trask', for screenwriter Paul Osborn's adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 novel East of Eden. The lengthy novel had dealt with the story of the Trask and Hamilton families over the course of three generations, focusing especially on the lives of the latter two generations in Salinas Valley, California, from the mid-19th century through the 1910s.

In contrast, the film chose to deal predominantly with the character of Cal Trask. Though he initially seems more aloof and emotionally troubled than his twin brother Aron, Cal is soon seen to be more worldly, business savvy, and even sagacious than their pious and constantly disapproving father (played by Raymond Massey) who seeks to invent a vegetable refrigeration process. Cal is bothered by the mystery of their supposedly dead mother, and discovers she is still alive and a brothel-keeping 'madame' (Jo Van Fleet). Elia Kazan said of Cal before casting, "I wanted a Brando for the role." Osborn suggested Dean, who then met with Steinbeck; the future Nobel laureate did not like the moody, complex young man personally, but thought him perfect for the part. Kazan set about putting the wheels in motion to cast the relatively unknown young actor in the role; on April 8, 1954, Dean left New York City and headed for Los Angeles to begin shooting.^[14][15][16]

Dean's performance in the film foreshadowed his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are angst-ridden protagonists and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving approval from a father figure.

Much of Dean's performance in the film is unscripted, including his dance in the bean field and his fetal-like posturing while riding on top of a train boxcar (after searching out his mother in nearby Monterey). The most famous improvisation of the film occurs when Cal's father rejects his gift of $5,000 (offered in reparation for his father's business loss). Instead of running away from his father as the script called for, Dean instinctively turned to Massey and in a gesture of extreme emotion, lunged forward and grabbed him in a full embrace, crying. This cut and Massey's shocked reaction were kept in the film by Kazan.

For the 1955 Academy Awards, Dean received a posthumous nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in East of Eden, the first official posthumous acting nomination in Academy Awards history. (Jeanne Eagels was unofficially nominated for Best Actress in 1929, when the rules for selection of the winner were different.)

[edit] Rebel Without a Cause

Dean quickly followed up his role in Eden with a starring role in Rebel Without a Cause, a film that would prove to be hugely popular among teenagers. The film has been cited as an accurate representation of teenage angst.^[17] It co-starred teen actors Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, and Dennis Hopper and was directed by Nicholas Ray.

[edit] Giant

Giant, which was posthumously released in 1956, saw Dean play a supporting role to Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson. This was due to his desire to avoid being typecast as Jim Stark and Cal Trask. In the film, he plays Jett, an oil-rich Texan. His role was notable in that, in order to portray an older version of his character in one scene, Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline.

Giant would be Dean's last film. At the end of the film, Dean was supposed to make a drunken speech at a banquet; this is nicknamed the 'Last Supper' because it was the last scene before his sudden death. Dean mumbled so much that the scene had to later be overdubbed by Nick Adams, who had a small role in the film, because Dean had died before the film was edited.

For the 1956 Academy Awards, Dean received his second posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in Giant.

Racing career and 'Little Bastard'[link]

In April, 1955, after securing the co-starring role of Cal Trask in East of Eden, Dean purchased a 1955 Triumph Tiger T110, 650 cc motorcycle and later, a used red, 1953 MG TD sports car.^[18] In March, 1955, Dean traded the MG for a new 1955 Porsche Super Speedster purchased from Competition Motors in Hollywood. He traded the Triumph T110 for a 1955 Triumph TR5 Trophy three days after filming wrapped on East of Eden.^[18] Just before filming began on Rebel Without a Cause, Dean entered the Palm Springs Road Races with the Speedster on March 26-27. He finished first overall in Saturday’s novice class and second overall in the Sunday main event. Dean also raced the Speedster at Bakersfield on May 1-2, finishing first in class and third overall. His final race with the Speedster was at Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, where he started in the eighteenth position, worked his way up to fourth, before over-revving his engine and blowing a piston. He did not finish the race.^[19]

James Dean and Porsche Speedster 23F at Palm Springs Races March, 1955

During the filming of Giant from June through mid-September, Warner Bros. had barred Dean from all racing activities. In July, Dean put down a deposit on a new Lotus IX sports racer with Jay Chamberlain, a dealer in Burbank. Dean was told that the Lotus delivery would be delayed until the fall. As Dean was finishing up Giant’s filming, he suddenly traded in his Speedster at Competition Motors for a new, more powerful and faster 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder on September 21 and entered the upcoming Salinas Road Race event scheduled for October 1-2. He also purchased a new 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon to use for towing the new Spyder to and from the races on an open wheel car trailer.^[20]

According to Lee Raskin, Porsche historian, and author of James Dean At Speed, Dean asked custom car painter and pin striper Dean Jeffries to paint Little Bastard on the car:

"Dean Jeffries, who had a paint shop next to Barris did the customizing work which consisted of: painting '130' in black non-permanent paint on the front hood, doors and rear deck lid. He also painted "Little Bastard" in script across the rear cowling. The red leather bucket seats and red tail stripes were original. The tail stripes were painted by the Stuttgart factory, which was customary on the Spyders for racing ID."^[21]

Purportedly, James Dean had been given the nickname "Little Bastard" by Bill Hickman, a Warner Bros stunt driver who became friendly with Dean. Previous references to Hickman say he was Dean's dialogue coach on Giant. Bob Hinkle, a Texan, was actually Dean's Giant dialogue coach. Hickman was part of Dean's group driving to the Salinas Road Races on September 30, 1955. Hickman says he called Dean, "little bastard." And Dean called Hickman, "big bastard." Another version of the "Little Bastard" origin has been corroborated by two of Dean's close friends, Lew Bracker, and photographer, Phil Stern. They believe Jack Warner of Warner Bros. had once referred to Dean as a little bastard after Dean refused to vacate his temporary East of Eden trailer on the studio's lot. And Dean wanted to get 'even' with Warner by naming his race car, "Little Bastard" and to show Warner that despite his sports car racing ban during all filming, Dean was going to be racing the "Little Bastard" in between making movies for Warner Bros.^[22] When Dean introduced himself to British actor Alec Guinness outside the Villa Capri restaurant in Hollywood, he asked him to take a look at his brand new Porsche Spyder. Guinness thought the car appeared 'sinister' and told Dean: "If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week." This encounter took place on September 23, 1955, seven days before Dean's death.^[23][24]

Personal relationships[link]

Dean in 1955

Screenwriter William Bast was one of Dean's closest friends, a fact acknowledged by Dean's family.^[25] According to Dean's first biographer (1956),^[26] Bast was his roommate at UCLA and later in New York, and knew Dean throughout the last five years of his life. Fifty years after Dean's death, he stated that their friendship had included some sexual intimacy.^[27]

Early in Dean's career, after Dean signed his contract with Warner Brothers, the studio's public relations department began generating stories about Dean's liaisons with a variety of young actresses who were mostly drawn from the clientele of Dean's Hollywood agent, Dick Clayton. Studio press releases also grouped "Dean together with two other actors, Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, identifying each of the men as an 'eligible bachelor' who has not yet found the time to commit to a single woman: 'They say their film rehearsals are in conflict with their marriage rehearsals.'"^[28]

Shortly before filming began on East of Eden, Dean befriended horse trainer Monty Roberts. Roberts introduced Dean to the area and the two became close friends. Dean had planned to meet with Roberts shortly after the race on September 30 to discuss plans for the construction of a ranch, which would be owned by Dean but managed by Roberts. Roberts and his wife were the first people to learn of Dean's death through a telephone call placed by Dean's mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, immediately following the incident, in which Wütherich mumbled through a broken jaw that Dean had died. Roberts and his family did not attend Dean's funeral because, although the two considered themselves 'brothers', their friendship was unknown to Dean's family.^[29]

Dean's best-remembered relationship was with young Italian actress Pier Angeli, whom he met while Angeli was shooting The Silver Chalice on an adjoining Warner lot, and with whom he exchanged items of jewelry as love tokens.^[30] Angeli's mother was reported to have disapproved of the relationship because Dean was not Roman Catholic. In his autobiography, East of Eden director Elia Kazan, while dismissing the notion that Dean could possibly have had any success with women, paradoxically alluded to Dean and Angeli's "romance", claiming that he had heard them loudly making love in Dean's dressing room. For a very short time the story of a Dean-Angeli love affair was even promoted by Dean himself, who fed it to various gossip columnists and to his co-star, Julie Harris, who in interviews has reported that Dean told her about being madly in love with Angeli. However, in early October 1954, Angeli had unexpectedly announced her engagement to Italian-American singer Vic Damone, to Dean's expressed irritation.^[31] Angeli married Damone the following month, and gossip columnists reported that Dean, or someone dressed like him, watched the wedding from across the road on a motorcycle. However, when Bast questioned him about the reports, Dean denied that he would have done anything so "dumb", and Bast, like Paul Alexander, believes the relationship was a mere publicity stunt.^[32][33] Pier Angeli only talked once about the relationship in her later life in an interview, giving vivid descriptions of romantic meetings at the beach. Dean biographer John Howlett said these read like wishful fantasies,^[34] as Bast claims them to be.^[35]

Actress Liz Sheridan claims that she and Dean had a short affair in New York. In her memoir, she also states that Dean was having a sexual involvement with director Rogers Brackett, and describes her negative response to this situation.^[36] However, again Bast is skeptical whether this was a true love affair and says Dean and Sheridan did not spend much time together.^[11] He has also dated actress Ursula Andress.

Dean avoided the draft by registering as a homosexual, then classified by the US government as a mental disorder. When questioned about his orientation, he is reported to have said, "No, I am not a homosexual. But, I'm also not going to go through life with one hand tied behind my back."^[37]

Death[link]

On Friday morning, 30 September 1955, Dean and his Porsche factory-trained mechanic, Rolf Wütherich were at Competition Motors in Hollywood preparing Dean’s new Porsche 550 Spyder for the weekend sports car races at Salinas, California. Dean originally intended to trailer the Porsche to Salinas, behind his 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon, driven by friend and movie stunt man Bill Hickman and accompanied by professional photographer Sanford H. Roth who was planning a photo story of Dean at the races for Colliers Magazine. Because the Porsche didn’t have enough ‘break-in’ miles prior to the race, Wütherich recommended that Dean drive the Spyder to Salinas to get more ‘seat time’ behind the wheel. The group had coffee and donuts at the Hollywood Ranch Market on Vine Street across from Competition Motors (not the legendary Farmer’s Market at W 3rd St & S Fairfax Ave as previously reported) before leaving around 1:15 p.m. PST. They stopped at the Mobil station for gasoline on Ventura Blvd. at Beverly Glen Blvd. in Sherman Oaks around 2:00 p.m. The group then headed north on CA Route 99 and then over the ‘Grapevine’ toward Bakersfield.^[38]

At 3:30 p.m., Dean was stopped by California Highway Patrolman O.V. Hunter at Mettler Station on Wheeler Ridge, just south of Bakersfield, for driving 65 mph (105 km/h) in a 55 mph (89 km/h) zone. Hickman, following behind the Spyder in the Ford with the trailer, was also ticketed for driving 20 mph (32 km/h) over the limit, as the speed limit for all vehicles towing a trailer was 45 mph (72 km/h). After receiving the speeding citations, Dean and Hickman turned left onto Route 166/33 to avoid going through Bakersfield’s slow 25 mph downtown district. Route 166/33 was a known short-cut for all the sports car drivers going to Salinas, called ‘the racer’s road,’ which took them directly to Blackwells Corner at CA Route 466 (later SR 46). At Blackwells Corner, Dean stopped briefly only for refreshments and met up with fellow racers Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, who were also on their way to the Salinas road races in Reventlow’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupe. As Reventlow and Kessler were leaving, they all agreed to meet for dinner in Paso Robles.^[39]

At approximately 5:15 p.m., Dean and Hickman left Blackwells Corner driving west on Route 466 toward Paso Robles, approximately sixty miles away. Dean accelerated in the Porsche and left the Ford station wagon far behind. Further along on Route 466, the Porsche crested Polonio Pass and headed down the long Antelope Grade, passing cars along the way toward the junction floor at Route 466 and 41. Dean spotted a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom coupe, driving at a high rate of speed heading east on Rt. 466 toward the junction. The time was approximately 5:45 p.m., PST. Its driver, 23-year-old Cal Poly student Donald Turnupseed, suddenly turned in front of the Porsche to take the left fork onto Route 41. Turnupseed then hesitated as he 'spiked' the brakes just as the Ford crossed over the center line. Dean saw an impending crash and apparently tried to 'power steer' the Spyder in a 'side stepping' racing maneuver, but there wasn't enough time or space as the two cars crashed almost head-on. The Spyder flipped up into the air and landed back on its wheels off in a gully, northwest of the junction. The sheer velocity of the impact sent the much-heavier Ford broad-sliding thirty-nine feet down Route 466 in the westbound lane.^[40]

According to a story in the 1 October 2005, edition of the Los Angeles Times,^[41] California Highway Patrol Captain Ernest Tripke and his partner, Corporal Ronald Nelson, had been finishing a coffee break in Paso Robles when they were called to the scene of the accident at the Route 466/41 junction. Before Officers Tripke and Nelson arrived, James Dean had been extricated from the Spyder's mangled cockpit, his left foot had been crushed between the clutch and brake pedal. Dean was severely injured as he took the brunt of the crash with a broken neck and several internal and external injuries. Nelson witnessed an unconscious and dying Dean being placed into an ambulance; and a barely conscious Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder, was lying on the shoulder of the road next to the wrecked Porsche. Dean and Wütherich were taken in the same ambulance to the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, 28 miles away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:20 p.m. PST by the attending emergency room physician, Dr. Robert Bossert.^[42]

Junction of highways 46 and 41 as it looked in 2007

Wütherich survived with a broken jaw and serious hip and femur injuries that required immediate surgery. Turnupseed was only slightly injured with facial bruises and a bloodied nose. After being interviewed by the CHP, Turnupseed hitch-hiked in the dark to his home in Tulare. Hickman and Roth arrived at the accident scene approximately ten minutes after the crash. Hickman assisted in extricating Dean from the wreckage. Roth took photographs of the accident scene, which are now owned by Seita Ohnishi, a retired Kobe, Japan businessman. Ohnishi, in 1977, designed and erected a stainless steel memorial in tribute to James Dean at Cholame, just a mile west of the accident site.^[43]

There have been many questions raised over the decades about the accident: who was driving the Porsche? Were Turnupseed and Dean both recklessly speeding? What was said prior to the accident? Some say that Dean's last known words, uttered right before the impact after Wütherich told Dean to slow down when they both saw the Ford Custom coupe about to pull into their lane, was: "That guy's gotta stop... He'll see us."^[44] James Dean historian Lee Raskin believes that this is pure conjecture about Wütherich saying anything to Dean, or Dean saying anything to Wütherich prior to the crash. According to the Coroner's deposition taken of Wütherich in the hospital, and later in a 1960 interview given to an official Porsche magazine, Christophorus, he couldn't recall any of the exact moments leading up to and after the crash.^[45]

At the Official Coroner’s Inquest, held at the San Luis Obispo Court House on 11 October 1955, Turnupseed told the jury that he did not see the low-profile Porsche until after he was turning left onto Route 41. After other testimony by the CHP, and witnesses to the accident, the coroner's jury retired to deliberate. It came back with a verdict of "accidental death with no criminal intent" finding Donald Turnupseed not guilty of any contributory wrongdoing in the death of James Dean. The deceased Dean was also found not guilty of any criminal intent or contributory wrongdoing for the accident.^[46]

Although not charged with (what could have been) vehicular manslaughter, Turnupseed had nevertheless been dealt a devastating blow that would haunt him for the rest of his life. "Not only was he involved in an accident that resulted in one man's death, but it was a death that will never be forgotten, a death whose reverberations are still being felt all over the world."^[47]

Turnupseed granted just one interview to the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, but after that he refused to speak publicly about the accident. Turnupseed went on to own and operate a very successful family electrical contracting business in Tulare; only later, to die at age 63 from lung cancer in 1995.^[48] Wütherich, after having several complicated surgeries on his hip and femur, went back to Germany in 1957 having psychological and legal problems. He worked with the Porsche Factory's testing department and international rallye and racing teams during the 1960's. Wütherich was one of the first employees of Porsche and he worked for the factory eighteen years before being terminated. Wütherich died in July 1981, in Kupferzell, Germany, when he lost control of his car and crashed into a residence. Like James Dean, Rolf Wütherich had to be extricated from the wreck and he died at the accident scene. He was 53 years old.^[49]

There is an ironic epilogue to James Dean's fatal crash in 1955: while filming Giant, Dean also filmed a short Public Service Announcement (PSA) with actor Gig Young for the National Safety Council. It featured James Dean dressed as the young Jett Rink talking about how driving fast on the highway can be more dangerous than racing on the track. It ends with Dean, instead of saying the popular phrase "The life you save may be your own" he humorously ad-libbed, "The life you might save might be mine." This legendary black and white PSA, released following Dean's death, can now be viewed on YouTube.^[50]

Memorial[link]

James Dean Memorial in Cholame. Dean died approximately one mile east of this tree.

James Dean is buried in Park Cemetery in Fairmount, Indiana, less than a mile from where he grew up on his aunt and uncle's farm. In 1977, a Dean memorial was erected in Cholame, California. The stylized sculpture is composed of stainless steel around a tree of heaven growing in front of the former Cholame post office building. The sculpture was designed in Japan and transported to Cholame, accompanied by the project's benefactor, Seita Ohnishi of Kobe, Japan, a retired business man and devoted Dean fan. Ohnishi chose the site after examining the location of the accident, less than a mile away. The original Highway 41 and 46 junction where the accident occurred is now a pasture, and the two roadways were realigned over the decades to make it safer. On 30 September 2005, the junction at Highways 46 and 41 was dedicated as the James Dean Memorial Junction as part of the State of California's official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death.^[51] (Maps of the intersection 35°44′5″N 120°17′4″W / 35.73472°N 120.28444°W / 35.73472; -120.28444)

The dates and hours of Dean's birth and death are etched into the sculpture, along with a handwritten description by Dean's friend William Bast of one of Dean's favorite lines from Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince: "What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Dean's grave in his hometown, Fairmount, Indiana

Documentary[link]

On 15 February 2009, all three CHP officers who dealt with James Dean on the day of his death—Officer Otie Hunter, who ticketed Dean for speeding; and Officers Ernie Tripke and Ronald Nelson, who investigated the fatal crash—participated in an SCVTV documentary co-produced by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society and shared their memories of that fateful day. The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride (Documentary).

Legacy and iconic status[link]

Impact on culture and media[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2012)

American teenagers at the time of Dean's major films identified with Dean and the roles he played, especially in Rebel Without A Cause: the typical teenager, caught where no one, not even his peers, can understand him. Joe Hyams says that Dean was "one of the rare stars, like Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift, whom both men and women find sexy." According to Marjorie Garber, this quality is "the undefinable extra something that makes a star."^[52] Dean's iconic appeal has been attributed to the public's need for someone to stand up for the disenfranchised young of the era,^[53] and to the air of androgyny^[54] that he projected onscreen. Dean's "loving tenderness towards the besotted Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause continues to touch and excite gay audiences by its honesty. The Gay Times Readers' Awards cited him as the male gay icon of all time."^[55]

Dean is mentioned or featured in various songs. In addition, he is often noted within television shows, films, books and novels. In an episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, the character Liberty likens the rebellious, anti-social Sean Cameron to James Dean. On the sitcom Happy Days, Fonzie has a picture of Dean in his closet next to his mirror. A picture of Dean also appears on Rizzo's wall in the film Grease. On the American version of the TV series Queer as Folk, the main character Brian Kinney mentions James Dean together with Cobain and Hendrix, saying, "They're all legends. They'll always be young, and they will always be beautiful". In the alternate history book Homeward Bound by Harry Turtledove, Dean is stated to have not died in a car crash and to have made several more films, including Rescuing Private Ranfall, based on Saving Private Ryan.

Dean's estate still earns about $5,000,000 per year, according to Forbes Magazine.^[56]

On April 20, 2010, a long "lost" live episode of the General Electric Theater called "The Dark, Dark Hours" featuring James Dean in a performance with Ronald Reagan was uncovered by NBC writer Wayne Federman while working on a Ronald Reagan television retrospective.^[57] The episode, originally broadcast December 12, 1954, drew international attention and highlights were featured on numerous national media outlets including: The CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and Good Morning America. It was later revealed that some footage from the episode was first featured in the 2005 documentary, James Dean: Forever Young.^[58]

Debated sexual orientation[link]

Today, Dean is often considered an icon because of his "experimental" take on life, which included his ambivalent sexuality.^[55] There have been several claims and assertions that Dean has had sexual relationships with men and women.

William Bast, one of Dean's closest friends,^[25] was Dean's first biographer (1956).^[59] He recently published a revealing update of his first book, in which, after years of successfully dodging the question as to whether he and Dean were sexually involved,^[60][61] he finally stated that they were.^[27] In this second book, Bast describes the difficult circumstances of their involvement and also deals frankly with some of Dean's other reported gay relationships, notably the actor's friendship with Rogers Brackett, the influential producer of radio dramas who encouraged Dean in his career and provided him with useful professional contacts.^[62]

Journalist Joe Hyams suggests that any gay activity Dean might have been involved in appears to have been strictly "for trade", as a means of advancing his career. Val Holley notes that, according to Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk, gay Hollywood columnist Mike Connolly "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including Robert Francis, Guy Madison, Anthony Perkins, Nick Adams and James Dean."^[63] However, the "trade only" notion is debated by Bast^[27] and other Dean biographers.^[64] Aside from Bast's account of his own relationship with Dean, Dean's fellow biker and "Night Watch" member John Gilmore claims he and Dean "experimented" with gay acts on one occasion in New York, and it is difficult to see how Dean, then already in his twenties, would have viewed this as a "trade" means of advancing his career.^[65]

Screenwriter Gavin Lambert, himself gay and part of the Hollywood gay circles of the 1950s and 1960s, described Dean as being gay. Rebel director Nicholas Ray is on record as saying that Dean was gay.^[66] Additionally, William Bast and biographer Paul Alexander conclude that Dean was gay, while John Howlett concludes that Dean was "certainly bisexual".^[32][67][68] George Perry's biography reduces these aspects of Dean's sexuality to "experimentation".^[69] Still, Hyams and Paul Alexander also claim that Dean's relationship with pastor De Weerd had a sexual aspect, too.^[32][70] Bast also shows that Dean had knowledge of gay bars and customs.^[71] Consequently, Robert Aldrich and Garry Wotherspoon's book Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History: From World War II to the Present Day (2001) includes an entry on James Dean.

The "curse" of "Little Bastard"[link]

The ‘curse’ of James Dean’s “Little Bastard” has become part of America’s cultural mythology, first printed in the tabloids, later put into biographies, and TV documentaries; and now it's found readily on internet blogs and James Dean web sites. Warren Beath, a James Dean archivist and author believes the source of the myth is Hollywood’s George Barris, the original ‘King of the Kustomizers,' who says he was the first to purchase the wrecked “Little Bastard.” Barris heavily promoted the ‘curse’ after he placed the wreck on public display in 1956. Over the years, Barris described a series of accidents that mysteriously occurred from 1956 to 1960 involving the “Little Bastard,” which resulted in serious injuries to spectators and even a truck driver’s death.^[72] Lee Raskin, a noted Porsche historian, feels that many of the current internet postings regarding the ‘curse’ of the “Little Bastard” appear to have been ‘borrowed’ directly from George Barris’ 1974 book, Cars of the Stars,^[73] which is highlighted throughout with ‘factoids.’^[74]

Reliable information obtained through dozens of interviews with James Dean's family, personal friends of Dean, the Eschrich family, and numerous members of the California Sports Car Club (CSCC), many of whom raced with and against Dean, tell a very different version from Barris’ Cars of the Stars “Little Bastard” account: After the death of James Dean, the wreckage of the Porsche Spyder, VIN 550-0055, was declared as a total loss by the insurance company, and who paid Dean’s father, Winton, the fair market value as a settlement. The insurance company, in turn, through a salvage yard in Burbank, sold the entire wrecked Porsche Spyder with a bill of sale to Dr. William F. Eschrich of Burbank, CA. Dr. Eschrich, a CSCC racer, who had competed against Dean in his own sports car ‘specials’ at three race events during 1955, realized that the undamaged Porsche 4-cam engine, transaxle, and hard to find spare parts were extremely valuable. Dr. Eschrich took the wrecked Porsche Spyder to his own garage and dismantled all of the engine and mechanical parts. Dr. Eschrich installed the Porsche 4-cam engine (mounted up front) in his Lotus IX race car chassis. Eschrich then raced the Porsche-powered Lotus, which he called a ‘Potus,’ at seven CSCC events during 1956. At the Pomona Sports Car Races on October 21, 1956, Dr. Eschrich, while driving his Potus sports racer, was involved in a very minor ‘shunt’ with another driver. Dr. Eschrich was not injured in this incident. During the same race however, Dr. Troy McHenry was killed instantly when the steering mechanism (the Pittman arm) in his Porsche 550 failed, and he drove off the course into a tree.^[75]

Barris’ Cars of the Stars erroneously states that Dr. McHenry, “driving a car powered by the engine from Dean’s car, was killed when his vehicle went out of control and struck a tree in the first race in which the motor had been used since Dean’s mishap. Another doctor, William F. Eschrid (sic) of Burbank, was injured in the same race when his car, which contained the drivetrain from Dean’s car, rolled over.”^[76] Dr. Eschrich, interviewed a day after Dr. McHenry’s fatal accident, said he had loaned the Dean transmission and several other parts to Dr. McHenry. “I don’t believe he was using the transmission when he crashed, but he was using the back swinging arms which holds the rear end.”^[77] Dr. McHenry appears to have the distinction of being the only bona fide victim of the ‘curse’ of Dean’s “Little Bastard.”^[78]

Personal friends of Dean also say that he was not close with Barris. That although Barris may have ‘customized’ several cars for the Rebel Without a Cause movie, he never customized any of Dean’s personal cars and certainly not either of the Porsches.^[79] Lew Bracker, Dean’s best friend in L.A. and fellow Porsche racer, maintains that Barris wasn’t involved with Dean’s sports car racing activities; and he was never considered to be part of Dean's ‘inner circle’ invited to go to Salinas on 30 September 1955.^[80] It’s not known exactly how Barris knew Dr. Echrich, but he was ‘given’ the Spyder’s mangled body after Dr. Eschrich had stripped out the Porsche. In 1956, Barris announced that he was going to rebuild the Porsche Spyder, but that proved to be a Herculean task as the wrecked chassis had no remaining integral strength. Instead, Barris decided to weld aluminum sheet metal over the caved-in left front fender and cockpit area. He proceeded to beat on the aluminum panels with a ‘2x4’ to try to ‘simulate’ what would appear to be collision damage.^[81] Later in 1956, Barris loaned out the “Little Bastard” to the Los Angeles chapter of the National Safety Council for a local rod and custom car show. The gruesome display was promoted as: “James Dean’s Last Sports Car.” During 1957-1959, the “Little Bastard” exhibit began to appear at various rod and custom car shows, movie theatres, bowling alleys, and highway safety displays throughout California.^[82]

On the other hand, there are a few stories associated with the ‘curse’ that can be corroborated. For example, a wire service story on March 12, 1959, reported that the “Little Bastard,” temporarily stored in a Fresno, California garage at 3158 Hamilton Avenue, caught fire “awaiting display as a safety exhibit in a coming sports and custom automobile show,” The May 12, 1959, Fresno Bee, went on to say that the fire occurred on the night of March 11th, and only slight damage occurred to the Spyder without any damage to other cars or property in the garage. No one was injured. “The cause of the fire is unknown. It burned two tires and scorched the paint on the vehicle.”^[83] Later that year, the ‘Little Bastard” was moved around the country like a travelling circus to annual auto shows and traffic safety exhibitions. Legend also holds that the “Little Bastard” mysteriously disappeared in 1960. According to Barris, the Spyder was returning from a traffic safety exhibit in Florida in a sealed truck. When the trailer arrived back in Los Angeles, the trailer was unlocked and the car had completely disappeared into ‘thin air,’ according to Barris. In Barris’ book and in many TV documentaries, he said the “Little Bastard” was being shipped back in a sealed boxcar. When the train arrived in LA, Baris said he signed the manifest and verified that the seal was intact -- but the boxcar was empty.^[84]

Raskin theorizes that Barris’ “Little Bastard” side show had finally lost its fan appeal just as the 1960’s pop culture began to focus on a need for more speed with ‘big block’ Muscle Cars, and later, the high reving ‘car tunes’ from Jan and Dean, Ronny and the Daytonas, the Rip Chords, and the Beach Boys.[1]

Raskin also believes that Barris opted to ‘misplace’ the “Little Bastard.” The mysterious disappearance stories were Barris’ way of perpetuating the Dean myth, especially on the milestone anniversaries of James Dean’s death.^[85]

Although the legendary “Little Bastard” seemingly has disappeared from sight, Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, IL claims to have an original piece of Dean’s Spyder on display (a small chunk of aluminum, a few square inches in size) that was actually pried off and stolen from an area near the broken windscreen while the Spyder was being stored in the Cholame Garage following the accident. Also, in 2005, for the 50th Anniversary of James Dean’s death, the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, IL announced they were displaying what was purported to be the “Little Bastard’s” passenger door. Volo and George Barris offered $1 million to anyone who could prove that they owned the remains of the “Little Bastard.” No one came forth to claim the prize.^[86]

The 4-Cam Porsche engine (#90059) along with the original California Owner’s Registration (aka CA Pink Slip) listing the engine number is still in the possession of the family of the late Dr. Eschrich. The Porsche’s transaxle assembly (#10046), is currently owned by Porsche collector and restorer, Jack Styles in Massachusetts. Historian and author Lee Raskin originally documented and published all the serial numbers (VINs) for Dean’s Porsche Spyder (chassis, engine, transmission); as well as for his 356 Super Speedster. To date, neither of Dean’s Porsches have been located.^[87][88]

Filmography[link]

Stage[link]

Broadway[link]

• See the Jaguar (1952)
• The Immoralist (1954) – based on the book by André Gide

Off-Broadway[link]

• The Metamorphosis (1952) – based on the novella by Franz Kafka
• The Scarecrow (1954)
• Women of Trachis (1954) – translation by Ezra Pound

Television[link]

• Father Peyton's Family Theater, "Hill Number One" (Easter Sunday, April 1, 1951)
• The Web, "Sleeping Dogs" (February 20, 1952)
• Studio One, "Ten Thousand Horses Singing" (March 3, 1952)
• Lux Video Theatre, "The Foggy, Foggy Dew" (March 17, 1952)
• Kraft Television Theatre, "Prologue to Glory" (May 21, 1952)
• Studio One, "Abraham Lincoln" (May 26, 1952)
• Hallmark Hall of Fame, "Forgotten Children" (June 2, 1952)
• The Kate Smith Show, "Hounds of Heaven" (January 15, 1953)
• Treasury Men In Action, "The Case of the Watchful Dog" (January 29, 1953)
• You Are There, "The Capture of Jesse James" (February 8, 1953)
• Danger, "No Room" (April 14, 1953)
• Treasury Men In Action, "The Case of the Sawed-Off Shotgun" (April 16, 1953)
• Tales of Tomorrow, "The Evil Within" (May 1, 1953)
• Campbell Soundstage, "Something For An Empty Briefcase" (July 17, 1953)
• Studio One Summer Theater, "Sentence of Death" (August 17, 1953)
• Danger, "Death Is My Neighbor" (August 25, 1953)
• The Big Story, "Rex Newman, Reporter for the Globe and News" (September 11, 1953)
• Omnibus, "Glory In Flower" (October 4, 1953)
• Kraft Television Theatre, "Keep Our Honor Bright" (October 14, 1953)
• Campbell Soundstage, "Life Sentence" (October 16, 1953)
• Kraft Television Theatre, "A Long Time Till Dawn" (November 11, 1953)
• Armstrong Circle Theater, "The Bells of Cockaigne" (November 17, 1953)
• Robert Montgomery Presents the Johnson's Wax Program, Harvest (November 23, 1953)
• Danger, "The Little Women" (March 30, 1954)
• Philco TV Playhouse, "Run Like A Thief" (September 5, 1954)
• Danger, "Padlocks" (November 9, 1954)
• General Electric Theater, "I'm A Fool" (November 14, 1954)
• General Electric Theater, "The Dark, Dark Hour" (December 12, 1954)
• The United States Steel Hour, "The Thief" (January 4, 1955)
• Lux Video Theatre, "The Life of Emile Zola" (March 10, 1955) – appeared in a promotional interview for East of Eden shown after the program aired
• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, "The Unlighted Road" (May 6, 1955)

Biographical films[link]

• James Dean: Portrait of a Friend aka James Dean (1976)^[89]
• James Dean: The First American Teenager (1976), a television biography that includes interviews with Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood and Nicholas Ray.^[90]
• Sense Memories (PBS American Masters television biography) (2005)^[91]
• Forever James Dean (1988), Warner Home Video (1995)^[92]
• James Dean (fictionalized TV biographical film) (2001)
• James Dean – Kleiner Prinz, Little Bastard aka James Dean – Little Prince, Little Bastard, German television biography, includes interviews with William Bast, Marcus Winslow Jr, Robert Heller (2005)^[93]
• James Dean: The Final Day features interviews with William Bast, Liz Sheridan and Maila Nurmi. Dean's bisexuality is openly discussed. Episode of Naked Hollywood television miniseries produced by The Oxford Film Company in association the BBC, aired in the US on the A&E Network, 1991.^[94]
• Living Famously: James Dean, Australian television biography includes interviews with Martin Landau, Betsy Palmer, William Bast, and Bob Hinkle (2003, 2006).^[95]
• James Dean – Mit Vollgas durchs Leben, Austrian television biography includes interviews with Rolf Weutherich and William Bast (2005).^[93]
• James Dean – Outside the Lines (2002), episode of Biography, US television documentary includes interviews with Rod Steiger, William Bast, and Martin Landau (2002).^[96]

• Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean (2012) ^[97]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Alexander, Paul: Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times, and Legend of James Dean . Viking, 1994. ISBN 0-670-84951-0
• Bast, William : James Dean: A Biography. Ballantine Books, 1956.
• Bast, William : Surviving James Dean. Barricade Books, 2006. ISBN 1-56980-298-X
• Beath, Warren: Death of James Dean. Grove Press, 1986. ISBN 0-394-55758-1
• Beath, Warren, with Wheeldon, Paula; James Dean in Death: A Popular Encyclopedia of a Celebrity Phenomenon, McFarland & Co.,Inc., 2005. ISBN 07864200006
• Dalton, David : James Dean-The Mutant King: A Biography. Chicago Review Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55652-398-X
• Frascella, Lawrence and Weisel, Al : Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause. Touchstone, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-6082-1
• Gilmore, John : Live Fast-Die Young: Remembering the Short Life of James Dean. Thunder's Mouth Press, 1998. ISBN 1-56025-169-7
• Gilmore, John: The Real James Dean. Pyramid Books, 1975. ISBN 0-515-03814-8
• Heinrichs, Steve; Marinello, Marco; Perrin, Jim; Raskin, Lee; Stoddard, Charles A; Zigg, Donald; Porsche Speedster TYP540: Quintessential Sports Car, 2004, Big Lake Media, Inc.,ISBN 0-9746468-0-6
• Holley, Val: James Dean: The Biography. St. Martin's Griffin, 1996. ISBN 0-312-15156-X
• Howell, John: James Dean: A Biography. Plexus Publishing, 1997. Second Revised Edition. ISBN 0-85965-243-2
• Hyams, Joe; Hyams, Jay: James Dean: Little Boy Lost. Time Warner Publishing, 1992. ISBN 0-446-51643-0
• Martinetti, Ronald: The James Dean Story, Pinnacle Books, 1975. ISBN 0-523-00633-0
• Morrissey: James Dean Is Not Dead. Babylon books, 1983. ISBN 0-907188-06-0
• Perry, George: James Dean. DK Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-4053-0525-8
• Riese, Randall: The Unabridged James Dean: His Life from A to Z. Contemporary Books, 1991. ISBN 0-8092-4061-0
• Raskin, Lee: James Dean: At Speed. David Bull Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-893618-49-8
• Sheridan, Liz: Dizzy & Jimmy: My Life With James Dean : A Love Story. HarperCollins Canada / Harper Trade, 2000. ISBN 0-06-039383-1
• Spoto, Donald: Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean. Harpercollins, 1996. ISBN 0-06-017656-3

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James Dean

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: James Dean

• James Dean at the Internet Movie Database
• James Dean at the Internet Broadway Database
• James Dean at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• AMC's James Dean Photo Gallery: Living Fast and Dying Young
• James Dean.com link to "Official" CMG James Dean website
• 10 James Dean Essentials: Photo Essay on AMCtv.com
• James Dean: Hollywood's Rebel Icon - slideshow by Life magazine
• Mad about the boy on the Guardian Unlimited.
• James Dean Gallery site
• James Dean at Find a Grave, includes photos of Dean's Tombstone.
• James Dean at American Legends.
• JamesDeanArchives.com
• William Bast, Dean's biographer.
• The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride (Documentary)

Fred Savage
Savage in 1989
Born	Fredrick Aaron Savage (1976 -07-09) July 9, 1976 (age 35) Glencoe, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, director and producer
Years active	1986–present
Spouse	Jennifer Lynn Stone 2 children

Fredrick Aaron "Fred" Savage (born July 9, 1976) is an American actor, director and producer of television and film.^[1] He is best known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series The Wonder Years and as the grandson in The Princess Bride. He voiced Noah in Generator Rex.

In later years, he has directed and produced numerous episodes of television series, such as Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Hannah Montana, and Phil of the Future, as well as the primetime series Ugly Betty, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Modern Family, Happy Endings and 2 Broke Girls. He also directed several episodes of the Starz pay-per-view cable series Party Down.

Early life[link]

Savage was born in Chicago, the son of Joanne and Lewis Savage, who was an industrial real estate broker and consultant.^[2] His brother is actor Ben Savage, and his sister is actress/musician Kala Savage. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Poland, Ukraine, Germany, and Latvia.^[3]

Acting career[link]

Savage's first recorded performance was in the 1987 video Dinosaurs!. He then appeared onscreen in The Boy Who Could Fly and several television shows, including The Twilight Zone and Crime Story before gaining national attention as the grandson in the 1987 film The Princess Bride opposite Peter Falk.

In 1988, Savage appeared as Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years, the role for which he is best known. His tenure in the show resulted in two Golden Globe nominations and two Emmy^[4] nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; at the age of 13 he was the youngest actor ever to receive these honors. He remained on the show until it ended in 1993. During this period, he appeared in several movies, most notably Vice Versa. After The Wonder Years, Savage primarily did guest and supporting roles, such as the show Boy Meets World (which starred his brother Ben) and in the film Austin Powers in Goldmember as Number Three.

He has lent his voice to several animated projects, including Family Guy, Kim Possible, Justice League Unlimited, Oswald, and Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen. His two lead roles since The Wonder Years were on the short-lived sitcoms Working and Crumbs.

Savage appeared as a serial rapist on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and as a womanizing professor on Boy Meets World. He ranked at #27 on VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars.

In July 2008, Savage guest-starred in the web series The Rascal on Crackle.^[5]

Behind-the-scenes career[link]

In 1999, Savage began his directing career in which he helmed episodes of over a dozen television series. His credits include Boy Meets World, Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, Ned's Declassified, and Big Time Rush for Nickelodeon, as well as That's So Raven, Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place for the Disney Channel.

Besides directing several episodes, Savage co-produced the Disney Channel Original Series Phil of the Future. In 2007, he was nominated for a Directors Guild award for the Phil episode "Not-So-Great-Great Grandpa".

More recently, he has served as a producer for several episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Friends with Benefits, Party Down, and Phil of the Future and Happy Endings.

Personal life[link]

Savage graduated from Stanford University in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in English. He is married to his childhood friend, Jennifer Lynn Stone. They have two children, a son named Oliver born August 5, 2006 and a daughter named Lily born May 3, 2008.^[6]

Filmography[link]

• The Boy Who Could Fly (1986) as Louis Michaelson
• Dinosaurs! - A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time! (1987)
• The Princess Bride (1987) as the Grandson
• Vice Versa (1988)
• Little Monsters (1989) as Brian Stevenson
• The Wizard (1989) as Corey Woods
• Runaway Ralph (1988) as Garfield
• No One Would Tell (1996) as Bobby Tennison
• A Guy Walks Into a Bar (1997)
• Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998)
• The Rules of Attraction (2002) as 'A Junkie Named Marc'
• Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) as Number Three/Mole
• The Last Run (2004)
• Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
• Men in Black 3 (2012) as the voice of Alien Axis Bounty Hunter

Television[link]

• The Twilight Zone (Episode: "What Are Friends For") (1986)
• Morningstar/Eveningstar (1986–1987)
• Convicted: A Mother's Story (1987)
• Runaway Ralph (1988)
• Run Till You Fall (1988)
• The Wonder Years (1988–1993)
• When You Remember Me (1990)
• Saturday Night Live (1990)
• Christmas on Division Street (1991)
• Seinfeld ("The Trip") (1992)
• No One Would Tell (1996)
• How Do You Spell God? (1996)
• Working (1997)
• Boy Meets World (Episode: "Everybody Loves Stuart") (1998)
• Area 52 (2001)
• Oswald (2001) (Animated Voice of Oswald)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2003) as Michael Gardner (Episode: "Futility")
• Justice League Unlimited (2004) as Hawk
• Big Time Rush ("Big Time Christmas") (2010) as Director
• Crumbs (2006)
• Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen (2006)
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2007)
• Family Guy (2009)
• Generator Rex (2010) as Noah
• Happy Endings (2011) as Himself

Directing credits[link]

• Working (1999) 1 episode
• Boy Meets World (1999–2000) 2 episodes
• All About Us (2001) 2 episodes
• Even Stevens (2001–2002) 2 episodes
• Drake & Josh (2004) 1 episode
• Kitchen Confidential (2005) 1 episode
• Zoey 101 (2005) 2 episodes
• What I Like About You (2005) 1 episode
• That's So Raven (2003–2005) 2 episodes
• Stephen's Life (2005) TV film
• Unfabulous (2004–2005) 5 episodes
• Phil of the Future (2004–2006) 9 episodes
• Cavemen (2007) 1 episode
• Hannah Montana (2006–2007) 2 episodes
• Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (2004–2007) 6 episodes
• Daddy Day Camp (2007) (Theatrical film, Tristar Pictures)
• Aliens in America (2007–2008) 4 episodes
• Wizards of Waverly Place (2007–2008) 3 episodes
• Ugly Betty (2008) 1 episode
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2007–2010) 18 episodes
• Worst Week (2008) 1 episode
• Party Down (2009–2010) 9 episodes
• Zeke and Luther (2009) Pilot episode
• Ruby & The Rockits (2009) 1 episode
• Greek (2009) 2 episodes
• Sons of Tucson (2010) 1 episode
• Big Time Rush (2010) 1 episode
• Blue Mountain State (2010) 2 episodes
• Gigantic (2011) 2 episodes
• Happy Endings (2011) 3 episodes
• How to Be a Gentleman (2011) 2 episodes
• Perfect Couples (2011) 2 episodes
• Modern Family (2011) 2 episodes
• Breaking In (2011) 1 episode
• Franklin & Bash (2011) 1 episode
• Friends with Benefits (2011) 1 episode
• 2 Broke Girls (2011) 2 episodes
• Whitney (2012) 1 episode
• Best Friends Forever (2012) 6 episodes

Awards[link]

Directors Guild of America[link]

Razzie Awards[link]

Golden Globes[link]

Emmy Awards[link]

People's Choice Awards[link]

Viewers for Quality Television Awards[link]

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films[link]

Young Artist Awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Fred Savage at the Internet Movie Database
• Fred Savage at NNDB
• World Poker Tour Profile
• eFilmCritic Interviews Fred Savage
• Fred Savage at Emmys.com

Sir Alfred Hitchcock
Studio publicity photo
Born	Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (1899-08-13)13 August 1899 Leytonstone, London, England, UK
Died	29 April 1980(1980-04-29) (aged 80) Bel Air, California, US
Other names	Hitch The Master of Suspense
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1921–76
Influenced by	D. W. Griffith, Fritz Lang, Sergei Eisenstein,[1] F.W. Murnau[2]
Influenced	Brian De Palma, François Truffaut, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Claude Chabrol, Robert Zemeckis, M. Night Shyamalan, David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Jonathan Demme, Tim Burton, Mel Brooks, David Fincher
Religion	Roman Catholic[3]
Spouse	Alma Reville (m.1926-80; his death)
Children	Patricia Hitchcock
Parents	William Hitchcock (father) Emma Jane Whelan (mother)

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980)^[4] was an English film director and producer.^[5] He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. On 19 April 1955, he became an American citizen while remaining a British subject.

Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognisable directorial style.^[6] He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism.^[7] He framed shots to maximise anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing.^[7] His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run from the law alongside "icy blonde" female characters.^[8] Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the extremely complex psychological examinations of the characters. Hitchcock's films also borrow many themes from psychoanalysis and feature strong sexual undertones. Through his cameo appearances in his own films, interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. Hitchocks reputation as a filmmaker is offset by claims that he engaged in obsessive and controlling behaviour towards many of his leading ladies, and that in some cases this extended to physical abuse and sexual harrassment.^[9]

Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he came first in a 2007 poll of film critics in Britain's Daily Telegraph, which said: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else."^[10][11] The magazine MovieMaker has described him as the most influential filmmaker of all time,^[12] and he is widely regarded as one of cinema's most significant artists.^[13]

Early life[link]

Hitchcock mosaic at Leytonstone Station

Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England, the second son and youngest of three children of William Hitchcock (1862–1914), a greengrocer and poulterer, and Emma Jane Hitchcock (née Whelan; 1863–1942). Named Alfred after his father's brother, Hitchcock was raised Catholic and was sent to Salesian College (London)^[14] and the Jesuit Classic school St Ignatius' College in Stamford Hill, London.^[15][16] His mother and paternal grandmother were of Irish extraction.^[17][18] He often described his childhood as being very lonely and sheltered, a situation compounded by his obesity.^[19]

Around the age of 5, according to Hitchcock, he was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for ten minutes as punishment for behaving badly.^[20] This idea of being harshly treated or wrongfully accused is frequently reflected in Hitchcock's films.^[21]

Hitchcock's father died when he was 14. In the same year, Hitchcock left St. Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London.^[22] After leaving, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company called Henley's.^[23]

It was while working at Henley's that he first started to dabble creatively. Upon the formation of the company's in-house publication The Henley Telegraph in 1919, Hitchcock started to submit short articles, eventually becoming one of its most prolific contributors. His first piece was Gas (1919), published in the very first issue, in which a young woman imagines that she is being assaulted one night in Paris – only for the twist to reveal that it was all just a hallucination in the dentist's chair, induced by the anaesthetic. His second piece was The Woman's Part (1919), which involves the conflicted emotions a husband feels as he watches his wife, an actress, perform onstage.^[24] Sordid (1920) surrounds an attempt to buy a sword from an antiques dealer, with another twist ending. The short story And There Was No Rainbow (1920) was Hitchcock's first brush with possibly censurable material. A young man goes out looking for a brothel, only to stumble into the house of his best friend's girl. What's Who? (1920), while being very funny, was also a precursor to the famous Abbott and Costello "Who's on First?" routine. The History of Pea Eating (1920) was a satirical disquisition on the various attempts mankind has made over the centuries to eat peas successfully. His final piece, Fedora (1921), was his shortest and most enigmatic contribution. It also gave a strikingly accurate description of his future wife, Alma (whom he had not yet met).^[25]

During this period, Hitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film production in London, working as a title-card designer for the London branch of what would become Paramount Pictures.^[26] In 1920, he received a full-time position at Islington Studios with its American owner, Famous Players-Lasky, and their British successor, Gainsborough Pictures,^[27] designing the titles for silent movies.^[28] His rise from title designer to film director took five years.

Inter-war British career[link]

Hitchcock's last collaboration with Graham Cutts led him to Germany in 1924. The film Die Prinzessin und der Geiger (UK title The Blackguard, 1925), directed by Cutts and co-written by Hitchcock, was produced in the Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam near Berlin. Hitchcock also observed part of the making of F. W. Murnau's film Der letzte Mann (1924).^[29] He was very impressed with Murnau's work and later used many techniques for the set design in his own productions. In his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock/Truffaut (Simon and Schuster, 1967), Hitchcock also said he was influenced by Fritz Lang's film Destiny (1921).

Hitchcock's first few films faced a string of bad luck. His first directing project came in 1922 with the aptly titled Number 13.^[30] The production was cancelled due to financial problems^[30] and the few scenes that were finished at that point were apparently lost. In 1925, Michael Balcon^[31] of Gainsborough Pictures gave Hitchcock another opportunity for a directing credit with The Pleasure Garden made at UFA Studios^[32] in Germany; the film was a commercial flop.^[33] Next, Hitchcock directed a drama called The Mountain Eagle (possibly released under the title Fear o' God in the United States). This film was also eventually lost.^[34] In 1926, Hitchcock's luck changed with his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. The film, released in January 1927, was a major commercial and critical success in the United Kingdom.^[35] As with many of his earlier works, this film was influenced by Expressionist techniques Hitchcock had witnessed first-hand in Germany.^[36] Some commentators regard this piece as the first truly "Hitchcockian"^[37][38] film, incorporating such themes as the "wrong man".^[39]

Following the success of The Lodger, Hitchcock hired a publicist to help enhance his growing reputation. On 2 December 1926, Hitchcock married his assistant director, Alma Reville, at the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington. Their only child, daughter Patricia, was born on 7 July 1928. Alma was to become Hitchcock's closest collaborator, but her contributions to his films (some of which were credited on screen) Hitchcock would discuss only in private, as she was keen to avoid public attention.^[40]

In 1929, Hitchcock began work on his tenth film Blackmail. While the film was still in production, the studio, British International Pictures (BIP), decided to convert it to sound. As an early 'talkie', the film is frequently cited by film historians as a landmark film,^[41] and is often considered to be the first British sound feature film.^[42][43] With the climax of the film taking place on the dome of the British Museum, Blackmail began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences. It also features one of his longest cameo appearances, which shows him being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground.^[44] In the PBS series The Men Who Made The Movies,^[45] Hitchcock explained how he used early sound recording as a special element of the film, emphasising the word "knife" in a conversation with the woman suspected of murder.^[46] During this period, Hitchcock directed segments for a BIP musical film revue Elstree Calling (1930) and directed a short film featuring two Film Weekly scholarship winners, An Elastic Affair (1930). Another BIP musical revue, Harmony Heaven (1929), reportedly had minor input from Hitchcock, but his name does not appear in the credits.

In 1933, Hitchcock was once again working for Michael Balcon^[31] at Gaumont-British Picture Corporation.^[47] His first film for the company, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), was a success and his second, The 39 Steps (1935), is often considered one of the best films from his early period.^[48] This film was also one of the first to introduce the concept of the "MacGuffin", a plot device around which a whole story seems to revolve, but ultimately has nothing to do with the true meaning or ending of the story. In The 39 Steps, the MacGuffin is a stolen set of design plans. Hitchcock told French director François Truffaut:

There are two men sitting in a train going to Scotland and one man says to the other, "Excuse me, sir, but what is that strange parcel you have on the luggage rack above you?", "Oh", says the other, "that's a Macguffin.", "Well", says the first man, "what's a Macguffin?", The other answers, "It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.", "But", says the first man, "there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands.", "Well", says the other, "then that's no Macguffin."^[49]

Hitchcock's next major success was his 1938 film The Lady Vanishes, a fast-paced film about the search for a kindly old Englishwoman Miss Froy (Dame May Whitty), who disappears while on board a train in the fictional country of Bandrika.^[50]

By 1938, Hitchcock had become known for his alleged observation, "Actors are cattle". He once said that he first made this remark as early as the late 1920s, in connection to stage actors who were snobbish about motion pictures. However, Michael Redgrave said that Hitchcock had made the statement during the filming of The Lady Vanishes. The phrase would haunt Hitchcock for years to come and would result in an incident during the filming of his 1941 production of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, where Carole Lombard brought some heifers onto the set with name tags of Lombard, Robert Montgomery, and Gene Raymond, the stars of the film, to surprise the director. Hitchcock said he was misquoted: "I said 'Actors should be treated like cattle'."^[51]

At the end of the 1930s, David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in March 1939, when the Hitchcocks moved to the United States.

Hollywood[link]

In Hollywood, the suspense and the gallows humour that had become Hitchcock's trademark in film continued to appear in his productions. The working arrangements with Selznick were less than optimal. Selznick suffered from perennial money problems, and Hitchcock was often displeased with Selznick's creative control over his films. In a later interview, Hitchcock summarised the working relationship thus:

[Selznick] was the Big Producer. [...] Producer was king, The most flattering thing Mr. Selznick ever said about me—and it shows you the amount of control—he said I was the "only director" he'd "trust with a film".^[52]

Selznick loaned Hitchcock to the larger studios more often than producing Hitchcock's films himself. In addition, Selznick, as well as fellow independent producer Samuel Goldwyn, made only a few films each year, so he did not always have projects for Hitchcock to direct. Goldwyn had also negotiated with Hitchcock on a possible contract, only to be outbid by Selznick. Hitchcock was quickly impressed with the superior resources of the American studios compared to the financial restrictions he had frequently encountered in England.^{[citation needed]}

Hitchcock's fondness for his homeland resulted in numerous American films set in, or filmed in, the United Kingdom,^[53] including his penultimate film, Frenzy.

With the prestigious Selznick picture Rebecca in 1940, Hitchcock made his first American movie, set in England and based on a novel by English author Daphne du Maurier. The film starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. This Gothic melodrama explores the fears of a naïve young bride who enters a great English country home and must adapt to the extreme formality and coldness she finds there. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940.^[54] The statuette was given to Selznick, as the film's producer.^[54] The film did not win the Best Director award for Hitchcock.

There were additional problems between Selznick and Hitchcock. Selznick was known to impose very restrictive rules upon Hitchcock, forcing him to shoot the film as Selznick wanted.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, Selznick complained about Hitchcock's "goddamn jigsaw cutting", which meant that the producer did not have nearly the leeway to create his own film as he liked, but had to follow Hitchcock's vision of the finished product.^[55] Rebecca was the fourth longest of Hitchcock's films, at 130 minutes, exceeded only by The Paradine Case (132 minutes), North by Northwest (136 minutes), and Topaz (142 minutes).^[56]

Hitchcock's second American film, the European-set thriller Foreign Correspondent (1940), based on Vincent Sheean's Personal History and produced by Walter Wanger, was nominated for Best Picture that year. Hitchcock and many other English nationals felt uneasy living and working in Hollywood while their home country was at war, so his concern resulted in the making of the film that supported the British war effort.^[57] The movie was filmed in the first year of World War II and was inspired by the rapidly changing events in Europe, as fictionally covered by an American newspaper reporter portrayed by Joel McCrea. The film mixed actual footage of European scenes and scenes filmed on a Hollywood back lot. In compliance with Hollywood's Production Code censorship, the film avoided direct references to Germany and Germans.^[58]

1940s films[link]

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Notorious (1946)

Hitchcock's films during the 1940s were diverse, ranging from the romantic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) to the courtroom drama The Paradine Case (1947) to the dark and disturbing film noir Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

In September 1940, the Hitchcocks purchased the 200-acre (0.81 km²) Cornwall Ranch, located near Scotts Valley in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ranch became the primary residence of the Hitchcocks for the rest of their lives, although they kept their Bel Air home. Suspicion (1941) marked Hitchcock's first film as a producer as well as director. Hitchcock used the north coast of Santa Cruz, California, for the English coastline sequence.^[26] This film was to be actor Cary Grant's first time working with Hitchcock, and it was one of the few times that Grant would be cast in a sinister role.^[26] Joan Fontaine^[59] won Best Actress Oscar^[26] and the New York Film Critics Circle Award^[60] for her "outstanding performance in Suspicion". "Grant plays an irresponsible husband whose actions raise suspicion and anxiety in his wife (Fontaine)".^{[citation needed]} In what critics regard as a classic scene^{[citation needed]}, Hitchcock uses a light bulb to illuminate what might be a fatal glass of milk that Grant is bringing to his wife. In the book the movie is based on (Before the Fact by Francis Iles), the Grant character is a killer, but Hitchcock and the studio felt Grant's image would be tarnished by that ending. Though a homicide would have suited him better, as he stated to François Truffaut, Hitchcock settled for an ambiguous finale.^[61]

Saboteur (1942) was the first of two films that Hitchcock made for Universal, a studio where he would continue his career during his later years. Hitchcock was forced^{[citation needed]} to use Universal contract players Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane, both known for their work in comedies and light dramas. Breaking with Hollywood conventions of the time, Hitchcock did extensive location filming, especially in New York City, and depicted a confrontation between a suspected saboteur (Cummings) and a real saboteur (Norman Lloyd) atop the Statue of Liberty. That year he also directed Have You Heard?, a photographic dramatisation of the dangers of rumours during wartime, for Life magazine.^[62]

Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Hitchcock's personal favourite of all his films and the second of the early Universal films,^[63] was about young Charlotte "Charlie" Newton (Teresa Wright), who suspects her beloved uncle Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) of being a serial murderer. Critics have said that in its use of overlapping characters, dialogue, and closeups it has provided a generation of film theorists with psychoanalytic potential^{[citation needed]}, including Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek. Hitchcock again filmed extensively on location, this time in the Northern California city of Santa Rosa, California, during the summer of 1942. The director showcased his own personal fascination with crime and criminals when he had two of his characters discuss various ways of killing people, to the obvious annoyance of Charlotte.

Working at 20th Century Fox, Hitchcock adapted a script of John Steinbeck's that chronicled the experiences of the survivors of a German U-boat attack in the film Lifeboat (1944). The action sequences were shot in a small boat in the studio water tank. The locale also posed problems for Hitchcock's traditional cameo appearance. That was solved by having Hitchcock's image appear in a newspaper that William Bendix is reading in the boat, showing the director in a before-and-after advertisement for "Reduco-Obesity Slayer".^[64]

While at Fox, Hitchcock seriously considered directing the film version of A.J. Cronin's novel about a Catholic priest in China^{[citation needed]}, The Keys of the Kingdom, but the plans for this fell through. John M. Stahl ended up directing the 1944 film, which was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starred Gregory Peck, among other luminaries.^[65]

Returning to England for an extended visit in late 1943 and early 1944, Hitchcock made two short films for the Ministry of Information, Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache. Made for the Free French, these were the only films Hitchcock made in the French language, and "feature typical Hitchcockian touches".^[66] In the 1990s, the two films were shown by Turner Classic Movies and released on home video.

In 1945, Hitchcock served as "treatment advisor" (in effect, a film editor) for a Holocaust documentary produced by the British Army. The film, which recorded the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, remained unreleased until 1985, when it was completed by PBS Frontline and distributed under the title Memory of the Camps.^[67][68]

Hitchcock worked for Selznick again when he directed Spellbound (1945), which explored psychoanalysis^[69] and featured a dream sequence designed by Salvador Dalí. Gregory Peck plays amnesiac Dr. Anthony Edwardes under the treatment of analyst Dr. Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), who falls in love with him while trying to unlock his repressed past.^[70] The dream sequence as it actually appears in the film is considerably shorter than was originally envisioned, which was to be several minutes long,^{[citation needed]} because it proved to be too disturbing for the audience. Two point-of-view shots were achieved by constructing a large wooden hand (which would appear to belong to the character whose point of view the camera took) and out-sized props for it to hold: a bucket-sized glass of milk and a large wooden gun. For added novelty and impact, the climactic gunshot was hand-coloured red on (some copies of) the black-and-white film. Some of the original musical score by Miklós Rózsa (which makes use of the theremin) was later adapted by the composer into a concert piano concerto.

Grant and Bergman in Notorious (1946)

Notorious (1946) followed Spellbound. According to Hitchcock, in his book-length interview with François Truffaut, Selznick sold the director, the two stars (Grant and Bergman) and the screenplay (by Ben Hecht) to RKO Radio Pictures as a "package" for $500,000 due to cost overruns on Selznick's Duel in the Sun (1946). Notorious starred Hitchcock regulars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, and features a plot about Nazis, uranium, and South America. It was a huge box office success and has remained one of Hitchcock's most acclaimed films^{[citation needed]}. His use of uranium as a plot device led to Hitchcock's being briefly under FBI surveillance. McGilligan writes that Hitchcock consulted Dr. Robert Millikan of Caltech about the development of an atomic bomb. Selznick complained that the notion was "science fiction", only to be confronted by the news stories of the detonation of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1945.^[71]

After completing his final film for Selznick, The Paradine Case (a courtroom drama that critics found lost momentum because it apparently ran too long and exhausted its resource of ideas), Hitchcock filmed his first colour film, Rope (1948). Here Hitchcock experimented with marshaling suspense in a confined environment, as he had done earlier with Lifeboat (1943). Appeaering to have been shot entirely in a single take, Rope (1948) was actually shot in 10 takes ranging from four and a half to 10 minutes each; a 10-minute length of film being the maximum a camera's film magazine could hold. Some transitions between reels were hidden by having a dark object fill the entire screen for a moment. Hitchcock used those points to hide the cut, and began the next take with the camera in the same place. Featuring James Stewart in the leading role, Rope was the first of four films Stewart would make with Hitchcock. It was based on the Leopold and Loeb case of the 1920s. Somehow Hitchcock's cameraman managed to move the bulky, heavy Technicolor camera quickly around the set as it followed the continuous action of the long takes.

Under Capricorn (1949), set in nineteenth-century Australia, also used the short-lived technique of long takes, but to a more limited extent. He again used Technicolor in this production, then returned to black-and-white films for several years. For Rope and Under Capricorn, Hitchcock formed a production company with Sidney Bernstein called Transatlantic Pictures, which became inactive after these two unsuccessful pictures. Hitchcock continued to produce his own films for the rest of his life.

1950s: Peak years[link]

James Stewart and Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954)

Hitchcock filmed Stage Fright (1950) in the UK. For the first time, he matched one of Warner Bros.'^[72] biggest stars, Jane Wyman, with the sultry German actress Marlene Dietrich. Hitchcock used a number of prominent British actors, including Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, and Alastair Sim. This was Hitchcock's first production for Warner Bros., which had distributed Rope and Under Capricorn, because Transatlantic Pictures was experiencing financial difficulties.^[73]

With the film Strangers on a Train (1951), based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Hitchcock combined many elements from his preceding films. He approached Dashiell Hammett to write the dialogue but Raymond Chandler took over, then left over disagreements with the director.^[74] Two men casually meet, one of whom speculates on a foolproof murder technique. He suggests that two people, each wishing to do away with someone, should each perform the other's murder. Farley Granger's role was as the innocent victim of the scheme, while Robert Walker, previously known for "boy-next-door" roles, played the villain.^[75]

MCA head Lew Wasserman, whose client list included James Stewart, Janet Leigh and other actors who would appear in Hitchcock's films, had a significant impact in packaging and marketing Hitchcock's films beginning in the 1950s.

After I Confess (1953) with Montgomery Clift, three popular films starring Grace Kelly followed. Dial M for Murder (1954) was adapted from the stage play by Frederick Knott. Ray Milland plays the scheming villain, an ex-tennis pro who tries to murder his unfaithful wife Grace Kelly for her money. When she kills the hired assassin in self-defense, Milland manipulates the evidence to pin the death on his wife. Her lover, Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings), and Police Inspector Hubbard (John Williams), work urgently to save her from execution.^[76] Hitchcock experimented with 3D cinematography. The depth effect was utilised in a major way only in one key scene. The public was growing weary of 3D by the time of the film's release, however, and it was shown in 3D only in a few first-run engagements. The 3D version has been revived from time to time, including a brief reissue in some major US cities in the 1980s. The film marked a return to color productions for Hitchcock.

Hitchcock then moved to Paramount Pictures and filmed Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Kelly again, as well as Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr. Stewart's character, a photographer based on Robert Capa, must temporarily use a wheelchair; out of boredom he begins observing his neighbours across the courtyard, and becomes convinced one of them (Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Stewart tries to sway both his glamorous model-girlfriend (Kelly), which screenwriter John Michael Hayes based on his own wife, and his policeman buddy (Wendell Corey) to his theory, and eventually succeeds.^[77] As with Lifeboat and Rope, the principal characters were almost entirely confined to a small space, in this case Stewart's tiny studio apartment overlooking a massive courtyard. Hitchcock used closeups of Stewart's face to show his character's reactions to all he sees, "from the comic voyeurism directed at his neighbours to his helpless terror watching Kelly and Burr in the villain's apartment".^[77]

The third Kelly film, To Catch a Thief (1955), set in the French Riviera, paired her with Cary Grant. He plays retired thief John Robie, who becomes the prime suspect for a spate of robberies in the Riviera. An American heiress played by Kelly surmises his true identity, attempts to seduce him. "Despite the obvious age disparity between Grant and Kelly and a lightweight plot, the witty script (loaded with double-entendres) and the good-natured acting proved a commercial success."^[78] It was Hitchcock's last film with Kelly. She married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, and the residents of her new land were against her making any more films.

Hitchcock successfully remade his own 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1956, this time starring Stewart and Doris Day, who sang the theme song, "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", which won the Oscar for Best Original Song and became a big hit for her. They play a couple whose son is kidnapped to prevent them from interfering with an assassination.

James Stewart and Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)

The Wrong Man (1957), Hitchcock's final film for Warner Brothers, was a low-key black-and-white production based on a real-life case of mistaken identity reported in Life Magazine in 1953. This was the only film of Hitchcock's to star Henry Fonda. Fonda plays a Stork Club musician mistaken for a liquor store thief who is arrested and tried for robbery while his wife (newcomer Vera Miles) emotionally collapses under the strain. Hitchcock told Truffaut that his lifelong fear of the police attracted him to the subject and was embedded in many scenes.^[79]

Vertigo (1958) again starred Stewart, this time with Kim Novak and Barbara Bel Geddes. Stewart plays "Scottie", a former police investigator suffering from acrophobia, who develops an obsession with a woman he is shadowing (Novak). Scottie's obsession leads to tragedy, and this time Hitchcock does not opt for a happy ending. The film contains a camera technique developed by Irmin Roberts that has been copied many times by filmmakers, wherein the image appears to "stretch". This is achieved by moving the camera in the opposite direction of the camera's zoom. It has become known by many nicknames, including Dolly zoom, "Zolly," "Hitchcock Zoom," and "Vertigo Effect."

Although the film is widely considered a classic today, Vertigo met with negative reviews and poor box office receipts upon its release, and was the last collaboration between Stewart and Hitchcock.^[80] The film is ranked second (behind Citizen Kane) in the 2002 Sight & Sound decade poll. It was premiered in the San Sebastián International Film Festival,^[81] where Hitchcock won a Silver Seashell.

Cary Grant in North by Northwest (1959)

By this time, Hitchcock had filmed in many areas of the United States.^[82] He followed Vertigo with three more successful films. Two are also recognised as among his best movies: North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960). The third film was The Birds (1963).

In North by Northwest, Cary Grant portrays Roger Thornhill, a Madison Avenue advertising executive who is mistaken for a government secret agent.^[83] He is hotly pursued by enemy agents across America, apparently one of them being Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint), in fact working undercover.

From 1960[link]

Psycho is almost certainly Hitchcock's best-known film.^[84] Produced on a highly constrained budget of $800,000, it was shot in black-and-white on a spare set.^[85] The unprecedented violence of the shower scene, the early demise of the heroine, the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer were all hallmarks of Hitchcock, copied in many subsequent horror films.^[86] After completing Psycho, Hitchcock moved to Universal, where he made the remainder of his films.

The Birds, inspired by a Daphne Du Maurier short story and by an actual news story about a mysterious infestation of birds in California, was Hitchcock's 49th film.^[87] He signed up Tippi Hedren as his latest blonde heroine opposite Rod Taylor. The scenes of the birds attacking included hundreds of shots mixing actual and animated sequences. The cause of the birds' attack is left unanswered, "perhaps highlighting the mystery of forces unknown".^[88]

The latter two films had unconventional soundtracks, both orchestrated by Bernard Herrmann: the screeching strings played in the murder scene in Psycho were unusually dissonant, and The Birds dispensed completely with conventional instruments, instead using an electronically produced soundtrack and an unaccompanied song by schoolchildren (just prior to the attack at the Bodega Bay School). These films are considered his last great films, after which critical opinion was usually against his new films, although some critics, such as Robin Wood and Donald Spoto, contend that Marnie (1964) is first-class Hitchcock, and some have argued that Frenzy is unfairly overlooked.

Failing health took its toll on Hitchcock, reducing his output during the last two decades of his career. He filmed two spy thrillers set with Cold War-related themes. The first, Torn Curtain (1966), with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, displays the bitter end of the twelve-year collaboration between Hitchcock and composer Bernard Herrmann. Herrmann was fired when Hitchcock was unsatisfied with his score. Topaz (1969), (based on a Leon Uris novel), is partly set in Cuba. Both received mixed reviews from critics.

Hitchcock at work on location in San Francisco for Family Plot

In 1972, Hitchcock returned to London to film Frenzy. After two only moderately successful espionage films, the plot marks a return to the murder thriller genre of earlier in his career. The basic story recycles his early film The Lodger. Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), a volatile barkeeper with a history of explosive anger, becomes the prime suspect for the "Necktie Murders," which are actually committed by his friend Bob Rusk (Barry Foster).^[89] This time, Hitchcock makes the victim and villain twins, rather than opposites, as in Strangers on a Train. Only one of them, however, has crossed the line to murder.^[89] For the first time, Hitchcock allowed nudity and profane language, which had before been taboo, in one of his films. He also shows rare sympathy for the chief inspector and his comic domestic life.^[90] Biographers have noted that Hitchcock had always pushed the limits of film censorship, often managing to fool Joseph Breen, the longtime head of Hollywood's Production Code. Many times Hitchcock slipped in subtle hints of improprieties forbidden by censorship until the mid-1960s. Yet Patrick McGilligan wrote that Breen and others often realised that Hitchcock was inserting such things and were actually amused as well as alarmed by Hitchcock's "inescapable inferences".^[91] Beginning with Torn Curtain, Hitchcock was finally able to blatantly include plot elements previously forbidden in American films and this continued for the remainder of his film career.

Family Plot (1976) was Hitchcock's last film. It related the escapades of "Madam" Blanche Tyler played by Barbara Harris, a fraudulent spiritualist, and her taxi driver lover Bruce Dern making a living from her phoney powers. William Devane, Karen Black and Cathleen Nesbitt co-starred. It was the only Hitchcock film scored by John Williams.

Last project and death[link]

Near the end of his life, Hitchcock had worked on the script for a projected spy thriller, The Short Night, collaborating with screenwriters James Costigan and Ernest Lehman. Despite some preliminary work, the story was never filmed. This was due primarily 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.^[92][93]

Hitchcock died in his Bel Air home of renal failure at 9:17 am on 29 April 1980. He was survived by his wife and their daughter. Hitchcock's funeral service was held at Good Shepherd Catholic Church^[94] in Beverly Hills, after which his body was cremated and his remains were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.^[95]

Themes, plot devices and motifs[link]

Hitchcock returned several times to cinematic devices such as suspense, the audience as voyeur, and his well-known "MacGuffin," an apparently minor detail serving as a pivot upon which the narrative turns.

Signature appearances in his films[link]

Hitchcock appeared briefly in most of his own films. For example, he is seen struggling to get a double bass onto a train (Strangers on a Train), or walking dogs out of a pet shop (The Birds).

Psychology of characters[link]

Hitchcock's films sometimes feature characters struggling in their relationships with their mothers. In North by Northwest (1959), Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant's character) is an innocent man ridiculed by his mother for insisting that shadowy, murderous men are after him. In The Birds (1963), the Rod Taylor character, an innocent man, finds his world under attack by vicious birds, and struggles to free himself of a clinging mother (Jessica Tandy). The killer in Frenzy (1972) has a loathing of women but idolises his mother. The villain Bruno in Strangers on a Train hates his father, but has an incredibly close relationship with his mother (played by Marion Lorne). Sebastian (Claude Rains) in Notorious has a clearly conflictual relationship with his mother, who is (correctly) suspicious of his new bride Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman). Norman Bates has troubles with his mother in Psycho.

Hitchcock heroines tend to be lovely, cool blondes who seem proper at first but, when aroused by passion or danger, respond in a more sensual, animal, or even criminal way. The famous victims in The Lodger are all blondes. In The 39 Steps, Hitchcock's glamorous blonde star, Madeleine Carroll, is put in handcuffs. In Marnie (1964), the title character (played by Tippi Hedren) is a thief. In To Catch a Thief (1955), Francie (Grace Kelly) offers to help a man she believes is a burglar. In Rear Window, Lisa (Grace Kelly again) risks her life by breaking into Lars Thorwald's apartment. The best-known example is in Psycho where Janet Leigh's unfortunate character steals $40,000 and is murdered by a reclusive psychopath. Hitchcock's last blonde heroine was—years after Dany Robin and her "daughter" Claude Jade in Topaz—Barbara Harris as a phony psychic turned amateur sleuth in his final film, 1976's Family Plot. In the same film, the diamond smuggler played by Karen Black could also fit that role, as she wears a long blonde wig in various scenes and becomes increasingly uncomfortable about her line of work.

Some critics and Hitchcock scholars, including Donald Spoto and Roger Ebert, agree that Vertigo represents the director's most personal and revealing film, dealing with the obsessions of a man who crafts a woman into the woman he desires. Vertigo explores more frankly and at greater length his interest in the relation between sex and death than any other film in his filmography.^{[citation needed]}

Hitchcock often said that his favourite film (of his own work) was Shadow of a Doubt.^[96]

Style of working[link]

Writing[link]

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." In an interview with Roger Ebert in 1969, Hitchcock elaborated further:

Once the screenplay is finished, I'd just as soon not make the film at all... I have a strongly visual mind. I visualize a picture right down to the final cuts. I write all this out in the greatest detail in the script, and then I don't look at the script while I'm shooting. I know it off by heart, just as an orchestra conductor needs not look at the score... When you finish the script, the film is perfect. But in shooting it you lose perhaps 40 percent of your original conception.^[97]

In Writing with Hitchcock, a book-length study of Hitchcock's working method with his writers, author Steven DeRosa noted that "Although he rarely did any actual 'writing', especially on his Hollywood productions, Hitchcock supervised and guided his writers through every draft, insisting on a strict attention to detail and a preference for telling the story through visual rather than verbal means. While this exasperated some writers, others admitted the director inspired them to do their very best work. Hitchcock often emphasised that he took no screen credit for the writing of his films. However, over time the work of many of his writers has been attributed solely to Hitchcock’s creative genius, a misconception he rarely went out of his way to correct. Notwithstanding his technical brilliance as a director, Hitchcock relied on his writers a great deal."^[98]

Storyboards and production[link]

Hitchcock's films were strongly believed to have been extensively storyboarded to the finest detail by the majority of commentators over the years. He was reported to have never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he did not need to do so, though in publicity photos he was shown doing so. He also used this as an excuse to never have to change his films from his initial vision. If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider.

However, this view of Hitchcock as a director who relied more on pre-production than on the actual production itself has been challenged by the book Hitchcock At Work, written by Bill Krohn, the American correspondent of Cahiers du cinéma. Krohn, after investigating several script revisions, notes to other production personnel written by or to Hitchcock alongside inspection of storyboards, and other production material, has observed that Hitchcock's work often deviated from how the screenplay was written or how the film was originally envisioned. He noted that the myth of storyboards in relation to Hitchcock, often regurgitated by generations of commentators on his movies was to a great degree perpetuated by Hitchcock himself or the publicity arm of the studios. A great example would be the celebrated crop-spraying sequence of North by Northwest which was not storyboarded at all. After the scene was filmed, the publicity department asked Hitchcock to make storyboards to promote the film and Hitchcock in turn hired an artist to match the scenes in detail.

Even when storyboards were made, scenes that were shot differed from it significantly. Krohn's extensive analysis of the production of Hitchcock classics like Notorious reveals that Hitchcock was flexible enough to change a film's conception during its production. Another example Krohn notes is the American remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, whose shooting schedule commenced without a finished script and moreover went over schedule, something that, as Krohn notes, was not an uncommon occurrence on many of Hitchcock's films, including Strangers on a Train and Topaz. While Hitchcock did do a great deal of preparation for all his movies, he was fully cognizant that the actual film-making process often deviated from the best-laid plans and was flexible to adapt to the changes and needs of production as his films were not free from the normal hassles faced and common routines utilised during many other film productions.

Krohn's work also sheds light on Hitchcock's practice of generally shooting in chronological order, which he notes sent many films over budget and over schedule and, more importantly, differed from the standard operating procedure of Hollywood in the Studio System Era. Equally important is Hitchcock's tendency to shoot alternate takes of scenes. This differed from coverage in that the films were not necessarily shot from varying angles so as to give the editor options to shape the film how he/she chooses (often under the producer's aegis). Rather they represented Hitchcock's tendency of giving himself options in the editing room, where he would provide advice to his editors after viewing a rough cut of the work. According to Krohn, this and a great deal of other information revealed through his research of Hitchcock's personal papers, script revisions and the like refute the notion of Hitchcock as a director who was always in control of his films, whose vision of his films did not change during production, which Krohn notes has remained the central long-standing myth of Alfred Hitchcock.

His fastidiousness and attention to detail also found its way into each film poster for his films. Hitchcock preferred to work with the best talent of his day—film poster designers such as Bill Gold and Saul Bass—and kept them busy with countless rounds of revision until he felt that the single image of the poster accurately represented his entire film.

Approach to actors[link]

Similarly, much of Hitchcock's supposed dislike of actors has been exaggerated. Hitchcock simply did not tolerate the method approach, as he believed that actors should only concentrate on their performances and leave work on script and character to the directors and screenwriters. In a Sight and Sound interview, he stated that, 'the method actor is OK in the theatre because he has a free space to move about. But when it comes to cutting the face and what he sees and so forth, there must be some discipline'.^[99] During the making of Lifeboat, Walter Slezak, who played the German character, stated that Hitchcock knew the mechanics of acting better than anyone he knew. Several critics have observed that despite his reputation as a man who disliked actors, several actors who worked with him gave fine, often brilliant performances and these performances contribute to the film's success.

For Hitchcock, the actors, like the props, were part of the film's setting, as he said to Truffaut:

In my opinion, the chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds. He should be willing to be utilised and wholly integrated into the picture by the director and the camera. He must allow the camera to determine the proper emphasis and the most effective dramatic highlights.^[100]

Regarding Hitchcock's sometimes less than pleasant relationship with actors, there was a persistent rumour that he had said that actors were cattle. Hitchcock addressed this story in his interview with François Truffaut:

I'm not quite sure in what context I might have made such a statement. It may have been made...when we used actors who were simultaneously performing in stage plays. When they had a matinee, and I suspected they were allowing themselves plenty of time for a very leisurely lunch. And this meant that we had to shoot our scenes at breakneck speed so that the actors could get out on time. I couldn't help feeling that if they'd been really conscientious, they'd have swallowed their sandwich in the cab, on the way to the theatre, and get there in time to put on their make-up and go on stage. I had no use for that kind of actor.^[101]

Carole Lombard, tweaking Hitchcock and drumming up a little publicity, brought some cows along with her when she reported to the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.^[101]

In the late 1950s, French New Wave critics, especially Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut, were among the first to see and promote Hitchcock's films as artistic works. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their auteur theory, which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the film-making process.

Hitchcock's innovations and vision have influenced a great number of filmmakers, producers, and actors. His influence helped start a trend for film directors to control artistic aspects of their movies without answering to the movie's producer.

The ugly side of Hitchcock - Sexual harrassment and abuse of leading ladies[link]

“The trouble today is that we don’t torture women enough.” —Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock engaged in obsessive sexually abusive behaviour towards many of his female leads. He used his position as director to seek to dominate and control his leading ladies. In the case of Tippi Hedren this extended to sexual harrassment. Hitchcock often used filming conditions to physically abuse actresses.

He insisted, for example, that Madeleine Carroll submit herself to painful physical demands during the making of The 39 Steps.

Awards and honours[link]

Hitchcock was a multiple nominee and winner of a number of prestigious awards, receiving two Golden Globes, eight Laurel Awards and five lifetime achievement awards, as well as being six times nominated for, albeit never winning, an Academy Award as Best Director. His film Rebecca (nominated for 11 Oscars) won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1940—particularly notable considering the fact that another Hitchcock film, Foreign Correspondent, was also nominated that same year.

Television, radio, and books[link]

Along with Walt Disney, Hitchcock was among the first prominent motion picture producers to fully envisage just how popular the medium of television would become. From 1955 to 1965, Hitchcock was the host and producer of a television series titled Alfred Hitchcock Presents.^[102] While his films had made Hitchcock's name strongly associated with suspense, the TV series made Hitchcock a celebrity himself. His irony-tinged voice and signature droll delivery, gallows humour, iconic image and mannerisms became instantly recognisable and were often the subject of parody.

The title-theme of the show pictured a minimalist caricature of Hitchcock's profile (he drew it himself; it is composed of only nine strokes), which his real silhouette then filled. His introductions before the stories in his program always included some sort of wry humour, such as the description of a recent multi-person execution hampered by having only one electric chair, while two are now shown with a sign "Two chairs—no waiting!" He directed a few episodes of the TV series himself, and he upset a number of movie production companies when he insisted on using his TV production crew to produce his motion picture Psycho. In the late 1980s, a new version of Alfred Hitchcock Presents was produced for television, making use of Hitchcock's original introductions in a colourised form.

The series used a curious little tune^[103] by the French composer Charles Gounod (1818–1893),^[104] the composer of the 1859 opera Faust, as the theme for his television programs, after it was suggested to him by composer Bernard Herrmann. Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra included the piece, Funeral March of a Marionette, on one of their extended play 45-rpm discs for RCA Victor during the 1950s.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents was parodied by Friz Freleng's 1961 cartoon The Last Hungry Cat, which contains a plot similar to Blackmail.

Hitchcock appears as a character in the popular juvenile detective book series, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. The long-running detective series was created by Robert Arthur, who wrote the first several books, although other authors took over after he left the series. The Three Investigators—Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews and Peter Crenshaw—were amateur detectives, slightly younger than the Hardy Boys. In the introduction to each book, "Alfred Hitchcock" introduces the mystery, and he sometimes refers a case to the boys to solve. At the end of each book, the boys report to Hitchcock, and sometimes give him a memento of their case.

When the real Hitchcock died, the fictional Hitchcock in the Three Investigators books was replaced by a retired detective named Hector Sebastian. At this time, the series title was changed from Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators to The Three Investigators.

At the height of Hitchcock's success, he was also asked to introduce a set of books with his name attached. The series was a collection of short stories by popular short-story writers, primarily focused on suspense and thrillers. These titles included Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to be Read with the Door Locked, Alfred Hitchcock's Monster Museum, Alfred Hitchcock's Supernatural Tales of Terror and Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbinders in Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Witch's Brew, Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock's A Hangman's Dozen and Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful. Hitchcock himself was not actually involved in the reading, reviewing, editing or selection of the short stories; in fact, even his introductions were ghost-written. The entire extent of his involvement with the project was to lend his name and collect a check.

Some notable writers whose works were used in the collection include Shirley Jackson (Strangers in Town, The Lottery), T.H. White (The Once and Future King), Robert Bloch, H. G. Wells (The War of the Worlds), Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and the creator of The Three Investigators, Robert Arthur.

Hitchcock also wrote a mystery story for Look magazine in 1943, "The Murder of Monty Woolley". This was a sequence of captioned photographs inviting the reader to inspect the pictures for clues to the murderer's identity; Hitchcock cast the performers as themselves, such as Woolley, Doris Merrick and make-up man Guy Pearce, whom Hitchcock identified, in the last photo, as the murderer. The article was reprinted in Games Magazine in November/December 1980.

In September 2010, BBC Radio 7 broadcast a series of five fifteen-minute programs entitled The Late Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Michael Roberts impersonating Alfred Hitchcock for introductory/concluding comments and reading the stories in his own voice. These five stories were originally intended for the television series, but were rejected because of their rather gruesome nature:

• "The Waxwork" by A. M. Burrage (broadcast 13 September 2010)
• "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (broadcast 14 September 2010)
• "The Perfectionist" by Margaret St. Clair (broadcast 15 September 2010)
• "Being a Murderer Myself" by Arthur Williams (broadcast 16 September 2010)
• "The Dancing Partner" by Jerome K. Jerome (broadcast 17 September 2010)

Filmography[link]

Frequently cast actors and actresses[link]

• 7 films: Clare Greet: Number 13 (1922), The Ring (1927), The Manxman (1929), Murder! (1930), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Sabotage (1936), Jamaica Inn (1939)
• 6 films: Leo G. Carroll: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), Strangers on a Train (1951), and North By Northwest (1959)
• 4 films: Cary Grant: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North By Northwest (1959)
• 4 films: James Stewart: Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958)
• 4 films: Edmund Gwenn: The Skin Game (1931), Waltzes from Vienna (1934), Foreign Correspondent (1940), and The Trouble with Harry (1955)
• 4 films: Phyllis Konstam: Champagne (1928), Blackmail (1929), Murder! (1930), and The Skin Game (1931)
• 3 films: Ingrid Bergman: Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), and Under Capricorn (1949)
• 3 films: Grace Kelly: Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955)
• 3 films: Basil Radford: Young and Innocent (1937), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Jamaica Inn (1939)
• 3 films: John Williams: The Paradine Case (1947), Dial M for Murder, (1954), and To Catch a Thief (1955)
• 3 films: Patricia Hitchcock: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), Psycho (1960)
• 3 films: Charles Halton: Foreign Correspondent (1940), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), Saboteur (1942)
• 2 films: Gregory Peck: Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947)
• 2 films: Robert Cummings: Saboteur (1942), Dial M for Murder (1954)
• 2 films: Tippi Hedren: The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964)
• 2 films: Joan Fontaine: Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941)
• 2 films: Joseph Cotten: Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Under Capricorn (1949)

Frequent collaborators[link]

See also[link]

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• Alfred Hitchcock filmography
• List of unproduced Hitchcock projects
• List of film collaborations
• List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances

References[link]