Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock August 13 1899 April 29 1980 was an English film director He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in cinema history In a career spanning six decades he directed over 50 feature films many of which are still widely watched and studied today Known as the Master of Suspense Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews cameo appearances in most of his films and hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents 195565 His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations including six wins However despite five nominations he never won the  Best Director award Hitchcock initially trained as a technical clerk and copywriter before entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer The BritishGerman silent film The Pleasure Garden 1925 was his directorial debut His first successful film The Lodger A Story of the London Fog 1927 helped to shape the thriller genre and Blackmail 1929 was the first British talkie His thrillers The 39 Steps 1935 and The Lady Vanishes 1938 are ranked among the greatest British films of the 20th century By 1939 he had international recognition and producer David O Selznick persuaded him to move to Hollywood A string of successful films followed including Rebecca1940 Foreign Correspondent 1940 Suspicion 1941 Shadow of a Doubt 1943 and Notorious 1946 Rebecca won the Academy Award for Best Picture with Hitchcock nominated as Best Director He also received Oscar nominations for Lifeboat 1944 Spellbound 1945 Rear Window 1954 and Psycho 1960 Hitchcocks other notable films include Rope 1948 Strangers on a Train 1951 Dial M for Murder 1954 To Catch a Thief 1955 The Trouble with Harry 1955 Vertigo 1958 North by Northwest 1959 The Birds 1963 Marnie 1964 and Frenzy 1972 all of which were also financially successful and are highly regarded by film historians Hitchcock made several films with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood including four with Cary Grant four with James Stewart three with Ingrid Bergman and three consecutively with Grace Kelly Hitchcock became an American citizen in 1955 In 2012 Hitchcocks psychological thriller Vertigo starring Stewart displaced Orson Welles Citizen Kane 1941 as the British Film Institutes greatest film ever made based on its worldwide poll of hundreds of film critics As of 2021 nine of his films had been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry including his favourite Shadow of a Doubt 1943 He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 1971 the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1979 and was knighted in December of that year four months before his death on 29 April 1980