Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, born in 1899 in East London, England, is considered to be one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history, and is especially famous for the psychological thrillers that earned him the title of the ‘Master of Suspense’. The son of a disciplinarian father, Hitchcock suffered a profound experience as a young boy when he was locked up in the local prison for a few minutes after presenting to the officer on duty with a note from his father stating that he had misbehaved.

Hitchcock attended St Ignatius College then the University of London, intent on pursuing a career in electrical engineering. Following university, he worked in a telegraph company then an advertising agency before he secured a job writing title cards for silent movies with a company affiliated with Paramount Pictures. Between the two World Wars, Hitchcock worked on films for independent producers in roles that included art director, production designer, editor, assistant director, and writer. His first directorial film was The Pleasure Garden (1923) that was filmed in Germany. Other notable works from this period include The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), both of which were filmed in Britain, reviving the British moving making industry.

After settling with his wife and daughter in Hollywood, California, in 1939, Hitchcock began producing higher-budget films and directing the classics for which he is well known, Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959) to name a few. It was during this time that he began his signature appearances, or cameos, in one scene of each of his films. Hitchcock films frequently employ the theme of ordinary people embroiled in situations beyond their control, hinge on murder or espionage, and include deception and mistaken identities, occasional humour and the macabre.

The most terrifying of Hitchcock’s films, Psycho (1960), was also his most controversial due to his killing off his leading lady early in the film and for its depiction of violence. His later works include the films, The Birds (1963), Marnie (1964) and Family Plot (1976), and the American television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents that ran from 1955 to 1965.

The Master of Suspense’s legacy to motion pictures continues today with many of his films having been remade and Hitchcock himself being portrayed in film by Anthony Hopkins in Hitchcock (2012). Arguably, his greatest gift has been his mastery of technique in building and maintaining suspense, including through the use of innovative camera viewpoints and movements such as is seen in Rear Window, and in his elaborate editing techniques and soundtracks.

Hitchcock has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for television and one for motion pictures, and he has won multiple awards including lifetime achievement awards, Golden Globes and Academy Awards. By 2018, eight of his films had been selected for preservation by the US National Film Registry, with Rear Window among them.

Hitchcock retired from directing when his health started to fail. He was knighted in 1979 and died soon afterwards of kidney failure in Los Angeles on April 29, 1980.