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 Taylor Dragon" (1973). The film was directed by Robert Clouse, who had also directed Taylor in the film "Darker than Amber" (1970). Taylor was supposedly deemed too tall for the part, and the role instead went to John Saxon. In 1973, Taylor was cast in "The Train Robbers" with John Wayne and Ann-Margret. The film was a box office success. Taylor also had some television roles: he starred in "Bearcats!" (1971) on CBS and in "The Oregon Trail" (1976) on NBC. He had a regular role in the short-lived spy drama series "Masquerade" (1983) and played one of the leads in