English film director, a US citizen from 1955. A master of the suspense thriller, he was noted for his meticulously drawn storyboards that determined his camera angles and for cameo walk-ons in his own films. His
Blackmail (1929) was the first successful British talking film.
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935) and
The Lady Vanishes (1938) are British suspense classics. He went to Hollywood in 1940, and his work there included
Rebecca (1940; Academy Award),
Notorious (1946),
Strangers on a Train (1951),
Rear Window (1954),
Vertigo (1958),
North by Northwest (1959),
Psycho (1960), and
The Birds (1963).
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