Tippi Hedren (born January 19, 1930, New Ulm, Minnesota, U.S.) American film actress best known for her role in the 1963 Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds and for her advocacy work, particularly on behalf of big cats.
Alfred Hitchcock, The Birds, and the 1960s
Alfred Hitchcock, the director of 1961’s The Interview, noticed Hedren in a TV ad for a diet drink. He quickly got her to sign a seven-year contract and cast her in the lead role of The Birds, a 1963 natural horror movie about feathered assailants besieging the people of Bodega Bay, a small California town. Hedren played socialite Melanie Daniels, a guest in the town. Hedren became a celebrity after the movie, which made over $11 million at the box office. She and Hitchcock went to the 1963 Cannes film festival together. The following year, Hedren wed Noel Marshall, her agent, and acted with Sean Connery in Marnie (1964), her final and second Hitchcock thriller. Her relationship with Hitchcock was not safe or healthy; on several occasions, the director made inappropriate sexual approaches toward her. She was paid and kept under contract by Hitchcock, but he forbade her from working for other directors, and she held him responsible for the decline in her career. Her subsequent picture after departing from Hitchcock was the flop A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Charlie Chaplin.
Influence edit
In 2006, a Louis Vuitton advertising campaign honored Hedren and Hitchcock by reinterpreting the opening sequence of Marnie’s abandoned train station in a contemporary manner. Designer Bill Gaytten was inspired to create the John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection by her appearance in The Birds (1963). [102].
Naomi Watts claimed that the appearance and acting of Tipper Hedren in Hitchcock movies had an impact on how she interpreted a character in Mulholland Drive (2001). [103] Although they both made appearances in I Heart Huckabees (2004), Watts and Hedren did not share any scenes. Off screen, the films director David O. Watts said of Hedren, “I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said were alike,” after Russell introduced them both. [104] Watts staged a photo shoot for the March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair while dressed as Hedren’s Marnie character. [105] Jodie Foster appeared in the same issue dressed as The Birds’ Melanie Daniels, played by Tipper Hedren. [106].
Career setbacks (1967–1973) edit Hedren in
Hedren made her feature film debut following Marnie in 1967’s A Countess from Hong Kong, which also starred Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando. Charlie Chaplin, the writer and director, informed her that he was giving her a significant supporting role as Brando’s estranged wife, but she was forced to take it without reading the script. But when she finally got the script and arrived in England, where the movie was being filmed, she discovered that her role was essentially a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he had lied to her. “Every actor on the planet was requesting to be a walk-on in this movie and not even get paid for it.” He responded, “I didn’t think you would come,” which was really sweet, when I said, “Why didn’t you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway.” He was a very clever man. “[72].
The story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren’s character boards near the end of the movie, so even though Chaplin tried to accommodate her request, he was unable to expand the role. [73] She ultimately decided to stay in the movie and subsequently remarked that working with Chaplin was both funny and unusual. [74] She thought he was a very serious man and admired the way he directed. Later on, she expressed, “I wish someone had been given permission to make a documentary.” The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. After completing Sophia’s, Marlons, and my portions, he would say, “Okay, now you can do it.” Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it. “[75] Hedren in.
Following the premiere of A Countess from Hong Kong, the media hailed Hedren’s career as “spectacular.” She said to a reporter at the time, “I’m going to wait for something special to come along because working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me. I don’t want to wait myself out of this business.” “[76] She agreed to work with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter on the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas in 1968, but the project was never completed. [77] Hedren made a comeback to the screen in 1968’s Tiger by the Tail, where she plays a socialite who assists her boyfriend (George Armstrong) in apprehending a murderer. She made two appearances as a guest star on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father in 1970 and 1971. She only consented to participate in the films Satans Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreets War (1973), which were filmed in Africa even though their release dates weren’t consecutive. [38].
In The Harrad Experiment (1973), Hedren played a teacher at an experimental sex school alongside James Whitmore and Don Johnson, the latter of whom would go on to wed Melanie Griffith, Hedren’s daughter. Hedren believed that the movie “addresses important themes—themes like the diminishing significance of concepts like ownership and resentment and, implicitly, marriage.” Having four teenage children, I believe this picture conveys some important messages to them. [78] At the time, she acknowledged that her lack of major motion pictures caused her to experience periodic depression. She told a magazine, “My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent.” Hes the type who wont stand for sustained down feelings. “[79].
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