This article possibly contains original research .(April 2023) |
English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 40 of his 53 surviving major films (his second film, The Mountain Eagle , is lost). For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment in a non-speaking part as an extra, such as boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph (as seen in the film Lifeboat , which otherwise provided no other opportunity for him to appear).
During the filming of The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog , Hitchcock later said his cameo came about at the last minute. The actor who was supposed to play the bit part of a telephone operator failed to show up, so Hitchcock filled in for him. This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's trademark signatures, with fans making a sport of trying to spot his cameos. As a recurring theme, he would carry a musical instrument – especially memorable was the double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train . In his earliest appearances, he filled in as an obscure extra in crowds or walking through scenes in long camera shots. His later appearances became more prominent, such as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise as she passes him in Stage Fright , and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot .
His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, [1] and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films, with over half in the first 15 minutes.
Hitchcock's longest cameo appearances are in his British films Blackmail and Young and Innocent . [2] He appears in all 30 features from Rebecca (his first American film) onward; before his move to Hollywood, he only occasionally performed cameos.
This is an alphabetical list of Hitchcock's cameo appearances in films that he directed.
Title | Year | H:M[:S] | Description |
---|---|---|---|
The Birds | 1963 | 0:02:18 | Leaving the pet shop with two of his own Sealyham terriers, Geoffrey and Stanley, as Tippi Hedren enters. [3] |
Blackmail | 1929 | 0:10:25 | Being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. This cameo is 19 seconds long. |
Dial M for Murder | 1954 | 0:13:13 | On the left side in the class-reunion photo sitting at the same table near Swan and Wendice. |
Easy Virtue | 1928 | 0:21:15 | Walking past a tennis court carrying a walking stick. |
Family Plot | 1976 | 0:40:00 | In silhouette through the door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths. |
Foreign Correspondent | 1940 | 0:12:44 | After Joel McCrea leaves his hotel, he is seen wearing a coat and hat and reading a newspaper. |
Frenzy | 1972 | 0:02:24 | At the very end of the aerial shot of the opening credits, wearing a bowler hat and leaning on the riverside wall at the bottom left of the concluding long shot. About a minute later, in the centre of a crowd, the only one not applauding the speaker; and another minute later, right after the victim washes ashore, standing next to a grey-haired bearded man. |
I Confess | 1953 | 0:01:33 | Crossing the top of a flight of steps. |
The Lady Vanishes | 1938 | 1:32:31 | In Victoria Station, wearing a black coat, smoking a cigarette, and making a strange movement with his head. |
Lifeboat | 1944 | 0:25:00 | In the "before" and "after" pictures in the newspaper ad for "Reduco Obesity Slayer". |
The Lodger | 1927 | 0:04:44 | Sitting with his back to the camera at a desk in the newsroom. |
1:23:50 | In the mob scene next to Detective Joe, who is bearing the lodger's weight on the fence by holding his arms. (Disputed) [4] | ||
The Man Who Knew Too Much | 1934 | 0:33:25 | Walking across a road in a dark trench coat as a bus passes. |
The Man Who Knew Too Much | 1956 | 0:25:12 | As the McKennas watch the acrobats in the marketplace, Hitchcock appears at the left in a suit and puts his hands in his pockets. |
Marnie | 1964 | 0:05:00 | Entering from the left of the hotel corridor after Tippi Hedren passes by. |
Mr. & Mrs. Smith | 1941 | 0:42:57 | Passing Robert Montgomery in front of his building. |
Murder! | 1930 | 0:59:45 | Walking past the house where the murder was committed with a female companion, at the end of Sir John's visit to the scene with Markham and his wife Lucy. |
North by Northwest | 1959 | 0:02:09 | Missing a bus, just after his credit passes off screen during the opening title sequence. |
Notorious | 1946 | 1:04:44 | At the big party in Claude Rains's mansion, drinking champagne and then quickly departing as Cary Grant enters. |
Number Seventeen | 1932 | 0:51:25 | On the bus amongst other passengers, in a dark coat and hat, facing away, he bounces up and down; approx. four seconds. |
The Paradine Case | 1947 | 0:38:00 | Leaving the train at a railway station, carrying a cello case. |
Psycho | 1960 | 0:06:59 | Seen through an office window wearing a Stetson cowboy hat as Janet Leigh comes through the door. |
Rear Window | 1954 | 0:26:12 | Winding the clock at the fireplace in the songwriter's apartment. |
Rebecca | 1940 | 2:06:57 | The man wearing a bowler and topcoat with upturned collar that walks right to left behind Favell, played by George Sanders, and the policeman after Favell calls Mrs. Danvers. |
Rope | 1948 | 0:01:51 | Just after Hitchcock's credit towards the end of the opening sequence, walking alongside a woman. |
0:55:00 | In the background as a red flashing neon sign of his trademark profile. | ||
Sabotage | 1936 | 0:08:56 | Just after the lights come back on in front of the Bijou, looking up as he crosses in front of the crowd. |
Saboteur | 1942 | 1:04:45 | Standing in front of "Cut Rate Drugs" as the saboteurs' car stops. |
Shadow of a Doubt | 1943 | 0:16:27 | On the train to Santa Rosa, playing cards, his back to the camera; he has a full hand of spades. |
Spellbound | 1945 | 0:39:01 | Coming out of an elevator at the Empire State Hotel, carrying a violin case and smoking a cigarette. |
Stage Fright | 1950 | 0:39:49 | Turning to look back at Jane Wyman in her disguise as Marlene Dietrich's maid as she is rehearsing her cover. |
Strangers on a Train | 1951 | 0:02:22 | On the cover of the book Farley Granger is reading. |
0:10:34 | Boarding a train with a double bass as Farley Granger gets off in his hometown. | ||
Suspicion | 1941 | 0:03:25 | Walking a horse across the screen at the hunt meet. |
0:44:58 | Mailing a letter at the village postbox (long shot). | ||
The 39 Steps | 1935 | 0:06:56 | The man littering by tossing a white cigarette box while the bus pulls up for Robert Donat and Lucie Mannheim to leave the theatre. |
To Catch a Thief | 1955 | 0:09:40 | Sitting next to Cary Grant on the bus. |
Topaz | 1969 | 0:32:27 | Being pushed in a wheelchair at the airport by a nurse. Hitchcock gets up from the chair, shakes hands with a man, and walks off to the right. |
Torn Curtain | 1966 | 0:08:00 | Sitting in the Hotel d'Angleterre lobby with a baby on his knee. The music playing at this point is an adaptation of Funeral March of a Marionette , the theme for Alfred Hitchcock Presents |
The Trouble with Harry | 1955 | 0:22:14 | Seen outside of the window—the man walking past the parked limousine of an old man who is looking at paintings. |
Under Capricorn | 1949 | 0:02:11 | In the town square during new governor's speech with his back to the camera, wearing a blue coat and brown top hat. |
0:12:17 | One of three men on the steps of the Government House. | ||
Vertigo | 1958 | 0:11:22 | In a grey suit walking across a street with a trumpet case. |
The Wrong Man | 1956 | 0:00:18 | Seen in silhouette narrating the film's prologue. Donald Spoto's biography says that Hitchcock chose to make an explicit appearance in this film (rather than a cameo) to emphasize that, unlike his other movies, The Wrong Man was a true story about an actual person. |
Young and Innocent | 1937 | 0:15:00 | Outside the courthouse main entrance as one of several reporters and journalists (he is holding a camera) as Robert Tisdall (Derrick De Marney) walks out. |
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. 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, his cameo appearances in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director, despite five nominations.
François Roland Truffaut was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. With a career of more than 25 years, he is an icon of the French film industry.
North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".
Suspicion is a 1941 American romantic psychological thriller film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).
Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov. It follows a psychoanalyst who falls in love with the new head of the Vermont hospital in which she works, only to find that he is an imposter suffering dissociative amnesia, and potentially, a murderer. The film is based on the 1927 novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer.
Topaz is a 1969 American espionage thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Frederick Stafford, Dany Robin, Karin Dor, John Vernon, Claude Jade, Michel Subor, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and John Forsythe. Based on the 1967 novel of the same title by Leon Uris, the film is about a French intelligence agent (Stafford) who becomes entangled in Cold War politics before the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and then the breakup of an international Soviet spy ring.
A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo, is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly either appearances in a work in which they hold some special significance or renowned people making uncredited appearances. Short appearances by celebrities, film directors, politicians, athletes or musicians are common. A crew member of the movie or show playing a minor role can be referred to as a cameo role as well, such as director Alfred Hitchcock who made frequent cameo appearances in his films.
The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is a 1927 British silent thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen and Ivor Novello. Hitchcock's third feature film, it was released on 14 February 1927 in London and on 10 June 1928 in New York City. The film is based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes and the play Who Is He? co-written by Belloc Lowndes. Its plot concerns the hunt for a Jack the Ripper-like serial killer in London.
Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950); and he guest starred on Hitchcock's TV show in 1963. He was married four times, including to Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had two sons.
The Mountain Eagle is a 1926 silent film, and Alfred Hitchcock's second as director, following The Pleasure Garden. The film, a romantic drama set in Kentucky, is about a widower who jealously competes with his crippled son and a man he loathes over the affections of a schoolteacher. The film was mostly produced at the Emelka Film studios in Munich, Germany in autumn of 1925, with exterior scenes shot in the village of Obergurgl in the State of Tyrol, Austria. Production was plagued with problems, including the destruction of a village roof and Hitchcock experiencing altitude sickness. Due to producing the film in Germany, Hitchcock had more directorial freedom than he would have had in England, and he was influenced by German cinematic style and technique.
Saboteur is a 1942 American spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock with a screenplay written by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison and Dorothy Parker. The film stars Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane and Norman Lloyd.
Waltzes from Vienna is a 1934 British biographical film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, sometimes known as Strauss' Great Waltz. It was part of the cycle of operetta films made in Britain during the 1930s.
Number Seventeen is a 1932 British comedy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring John Stuart, Anne Grey and Leon M. Lion. The film, which is based on the 1925 burlesque stage play Number Seventeen written by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, concerns a group of criminals who commit a jewel robbery and hide their loot in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel. The film's title is derived from the house's street number.
Champagne is a 1928 British silent comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Betty Balfour, Gordon Harker and Jean Bradin. The screenplay was based on an original story by writer and critic Walter C. Mycroft. The plot concerns a young woman forced to take a job after her father loses his fortune.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1934 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, featuring Leslie Banks and Peter Lorre, and released by Gaumont British. It was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period.
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 American mystery thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. It is Hitchcock's second film using this title, following his own 1934 film of the same name but featuring a significantly altered plot and script.
The following is a partial list of unproduced Alfred Hitchcock projects, in roughly chronological order. During a career that spanned more than half a century, Alfred Hitchcock directed over fifty films, and worked on a number of others which never made it beyond the pre-production stage.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) was an English director and filmmaker. Popularly known as the "Master of Suspense" for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers, Hitchcock started his career in the British film industry as a title designer and art director for a number of silent films during the early 1920s. His directorial debut was the 1925 release The Pleasure Garden. Hitchcock followed this with The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, his first commercial and critical success. It featured many of the thematic elements his films would be known for, such as an innocent man on the run. It also featured the first of his famous cameo appearances. Two years later he directed Blackmail (1929) which was his first sound film. In 1935, Hitchcock directed The 39 Steps; three years later, he directed The Lady Vanishes, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.
Alfred Hitchcock's films show an interesting tendency towards recurring themes and plot devices throughout his life as a director.
Hitchcock/Truffaut is a 1966 book by François Truffaut about Alfred Hitchcock, originally released in French as Le Cinéma selon Alfred Hitchcock.