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
Rod Lauren Rod Lauren Rod Lawrence Strunk (March 20, 1940 – July 11, 2007), popularly known as Rod Lauren, was an American actor and singer. As an actor, he worked mostly in television, appearing in single episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." amongst others during the 1960s. Lauren's most notable film is "The Crawling Hand" (1963) which achieved latter-day notoriety when it was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". As a singer, Lauren is a one-hit wonder who hit #31 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart with the song "If I Had a Girl" in 1960 and performed twice