At 95 years old, this actress remains one of the big names in Hollywood. She starred in great classics, but her career was slowed down by a huge filmmaker.
Hollywood knows how to make and break careers in the blink of an eye. Actors are often well aware of this, and know that their success can end overnight depending on the box office, the wishes of the producers or the public. And this great name in American cinema, who celebrates his 95th birthday on January 19, 2025, will not say the opposite.
Although she has not acted for several years, this actress starred in two of the greatest classics of American cinema of the 1960s. Promised for a great career, it was however slowed down because of the very director who had launched her. . This actress is Tippi Hedren.
This model was discovered in an advertisement by Alfred Hitchcock in 1961. As the director later became accustomed to with other actresses, he made Tippi Hedren his new muse. She signed a contract with him and played the main roles in two of the master of suspense’s great films; she played the leading role in the film. The Birds in 1963, and the title role of No spring for Marnie the following year. Enough to launch a huge career in the long term… If Hitchcock himself had not decided otherwise.
Because Tippi Hedren refuses the repeated advances of the American director (he kisses her by force, forbids anyone to approach her…), and is offended by the control that he wants to exercise over her. However, the contract she signed with Alfred Hitchcock stipulates that he can accept or refuse the offers he receives for the actress. He will thus refuse all the scenarios that he then receives for Tippi Hedren. The actress will therefore lose roles offered by François Truffaut, Ralph Levy and Edward Dmytryk. The director will take advantage of this to defame her in Hollywood.
Once Tippi Hedren gets her contract back, she stars in The Countess of Hong Kong under the direction of Charlie Chaplin (commercial as well as critical disaster). Alexander Payne or David O. Russell would eventually direct it, but no film in which Tippi Hedren starred would achieve the success of Hitchcock’s two films.
Although her career has not had the scale it should have had, Tippi Hedren remains cited by many actresses, such as Jodie Foster or Naomi Watts, as a source of inspiration. And for the record, Tippi Hedren is also the head of a large family in Hollywood: she is the mother of Mélanie Griffith (Double Bodysuit, Working Girl), and the grandmother of Dakota Johnson (50 shades of gray).