Tippi Hedren

January 19, 1935

Lafayette, Minnesota, United States

On the strength of her post-Hitchcock work— R. G. Springsteen’s Tiger by the Tail (68), Chaplin’s A Countess from Hong Kong (67), and The Harrad Experiment (73, Ted Post)—it would be easy to dismiss Tippi Hedren as just another pretty model who made the unnecessary and unrewarding move into films. But her first two films tell a different story, for she was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock for The Birds (63) and Mamie (64). Hitchcock (who lusted after her) drew out all the brittle insecurity in her Melanie Daniels in the first: that might simply be a performance nursed by a great director. But Mamie is an actress’s triumph as well as a director’s, and the way in which Tippi Hedren mutters “There . . . there now” when she shoots her horse is typical of the insight and pathos she brings to the sexually inhibited thief. She appeared in the strange wild life/family picture Roar (81), directed by her husband Noel Marshall, and featuring their daughter, Melanie Griffith. She was briefly in Deadly Spygames (89, Jack M. Sell); as Melanie Griffith’s mother in Pacific Heights (90, John Sehlesinger); and in the old Patricia Collinge role in a TV remake of Shadow of a Doubt (91, Karen Arthur). She worked more in the nineties, yet rarely in decent pictures: Through the Eyes of a Killer (92, Peter Marlde); The Birds II: Land's End (94, Rick Rosenthal); Treacherous Beauties (94, Charles Jarrott); Teresa’s Tattoo (94, | ulie Cypher); Inevitable Grace (94, Alex Canawati); Sense, Sixth (95, Gregg Cannizzaro); Citizen Ruth (96, Alexander Payne); Mulligans! (97, Miles Hood Swarthout); I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (98, Aris Iliopulos); Replacing Dad (98, Joyce Chopra); The Darklings (99, Jeffrey Reiner); The Storytellers (99, Janies D. R. Hickox); the documentary Life with Big Cats (00, Deborah Rivel); Ice Cream Sundae (01, Desiree Nosbusch).

Tippi Hedren

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also known as Nathalie Hedren

actress

Background

Tippi Hedren was born on 19 January 1935 in Lafayette, Minnesota, United States.

Career

On the strength of her post-Hitchcock work— R. G. Springsteen’s Tiger by the Tail (68), Chaplin’s A Countess from Hong Kong (67), and The Harrad Experiment (73, Ted Post)—it would be easy to dismiss Tippi Hedren as just another pretty model who made the unnecessary and unrewarding move into films. But her first two films tell a different story, for she was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock for The Birds (63) and Mamie (64). Hitchcock (who lusted after her) drew out all the brittle insecurity in her Melanie Daniels in the first: that might simply be a performance nursed by a great director. But Mamie is an actress’s triumph as well as a director’s, and the way in which Tippi Hedren mutters “There . . . there now” when she shoots her horse is typical of the insight and pathos she brings to the sexually inhibited thief.

She appeared in the strange wild life/family picture Roar (81), directed by her husband Noel Marshall, and featuring their daughter, Melanie Griffith. She was briefly in Deadly Spygames (89, Jack M. Sell); as Melanie Griffith’s mother in Pacific Heights (90, John Sehlesinger); and in the old Patricia Collinge role in a TV remake of Shadow of a Doubt (91, Karen Arthur).

She worked more in the nineties, yet rarely in decent pictures: Through the Eyes of a Killer (92, Peter Marlde); The Birds II: Land's End (94, Rick Rosenthal); Treacherous Beauties (94, Charles Jarrott); Teresa’s Tattoo (94, | ulie Cypher); Inevitable Grace (94, Alex Canawati); Sense, Sixth (95, Gregg Cannizzaro); Citizen Ruth (96, Alexander Payne); Mulligans! (97, Miles Hood Swarthout); I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (98, Aris Iliopulos); Replacing Dad (98, Joyce Chopra); The Darklings (99, Jeffrey Reiner); The Storytellers (99, Janies D. R. Hickox); the documentary Life with Big Cats (00, Deborah Rivel); Ice Cream Sundae (01, Desiree Nosbusch).