Definition of sir alfred hitchcock in English English dictionary
a British film director who made films in the UK and then in Hollywood for almost 50 years. He made thrillers (=films that tell exciting stories about crime and murder) such as The Thirty-Nine Steps (1935), Psycho (1960), and The Birds (1963). He is famous for his use of suspense (=a feeling of fear and excitement that you have when you expect that something bad is going to happen) . People sometimes use the word "Hitchcockian" to describe a story or situation in which there is a lot of suspense (1899-1980). born Aug. 13, 1899, London, Eng. died April 29, 1980, Bel Air, Calif., U.S. British-born film director. He worked in the London office of a U.S. film company from 1920 and was promoted to director in 1925. His film The Lodger (1926) concerned an ordinary person caught in extraordinary events, a theme that was to recur in many of his films. Fascinated with voyeurism and crime, he proved himself a master of suspense with The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934; remade 1956), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). His first U.S. film, Rebecca (1940), was a tense psychological drama. His virtuosity was evident in his later films Lifeboat (1944), Spellbound (1945), Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), and Frenzy (1972)