Alfred Hitchcock Hitchcock had intended to film "Marnie" first, and in March 1962 it was announced that Grace Kelly, Princess Grace of Monaco since 1956, would come out of retirement to star in it. When Kelly asked Hitchcock to postpone "Marnie" until 1963 or 1964, he recruited Evan Hunter, author of "The Blackboard Jungle" (1954), to develop a screenplay based on a Daphne du Maurier short story, "The Birds" (1952), which Hitchcock had republished in his "My Favorites in Suspense" (1959). He hired Tippi Hedren to play the lead role. It was her first role; she had been a model in New
Pat Hitchcock mother gave her for her wedding night. Patricia had a small uncredited role as an extra in her father's 1936 "Sabotage". She and her mother, Alma Reville, are in the crowd waiting for, then watching, the Lord Mayor's Show parade. Hitchcock also worked for Jean Negulesco on "The Mudlark" (1950), which starred Irene Dunne and Alec Guinness, playing a palace maid, and she had a bit-part in DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" (1956). As well as appearing in ten episodes of her father's half-hour television programme, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", Hitchcock worked on a few others, including "Playhouse 90", which was live,