Tippi Hedren as Melanie
Spoilt socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister's birthday; he recognises Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.
Biography for Tippi Hedren
Date of birth
19 January 1935
New Ulm, Minnesota, USA
Birth name
Nathalie Hedren
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From working for (Best Director) Hitchcock, to a movie written by (Worst Director) Ed Wood: Tippi Hedren, the Minnesota girl of Scandinavian descent, has had a fabulous career. Tippi was working as a New York fashion model when she married her first husband, Peter Griffith, in 1952 (married until 1961). They had a daughter, Melanie Griffith, on August 9, 1957. Alfred Hitchcock discovered Tippi, the pretty cover girl, while viewing a commercial on NBC's "Today Show" and summoned her to Hollywood under personal contract; he cast her in "The Birds." In a cover article about the movie in Look magazine (Dec. 4, 1962) Hitchcock praised her; he also told Associated Press: "Tippi Hedren is really remarkable. She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Tippi's performance in the film earned her a Golden Globe award. Her next film was "Marnie" (1964). That year she married her second husband, Noel Marshall (married until 1982). Tippi continued to appear in many different movies, playing a variety of roles. "Roar" (1981), a movie which she starred in and produced, seemed to be a turning point in her life; she became actively involved in animal rights, as well as a wide variety of humanitarian and environmental causes. She married her third husband, Luis Barrenecha in 1985. Tippi has devoted much time and effort to charitable causes: she is a volunteer International Relief Coordinator for "Food for the Hungry." Tippi traveled worldwide to set up relief programs following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. Tippi has received numerous awards for her efforts, including the "Humanitarian Award" presented to her by the B'hai Faith. As for animal causes, Tippi is founder and President of "The Roar Foundation." Onscreen, Tippi continues to work frequently in motion pictures, theatre and TV. She appeared in "I Woke Up Early the Day I Died" (1998), finally bringing to the big screen the last screenplay written by the late Ed Wood in 1974, (and featuring Vampira and Conrad Brooks, just about the only surviving members of Ed Wood's stock company). Tippi's contributions to world cinema have been honored with Life Achievement awards in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia 1994, and in Spain by The Fundacion Municipal De Cine in 1995. In 1999, Tippi was honored as "Woman of Vision" by Women in Film and Video in Washington, D.C., and received the Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University.
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Trivia
At the end of shooting Mr. Kingstreet's War (1973) Tippi discovered that the big cats used in the production had no place to go and would likely languish in small cages. This promped her to obtain a parcel of land on her own to establish a home with a natural setting for retired big cats. She named it Shambala and exists to this day.
Mother of Melanie Griffith.
Hedren presides over The Roar Foundation, an animal preserve outside of Los Angeles.
Director Alfred Hitchcock unsuccessfully pursued a relationship with her during the filming of The Birds.
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Personal quotes
On Alfred Hitchcock: "To be the object of somebody's obsession is a really awful feeling when you can't return it."
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Sophisticated, icy blonde whose screen persona was molded by Alfred Hitchcock in one of his latter-day attempts to develop another Grace Kelly. Hedren worked as a fashion model while still in her teens, making her film debut in 1950's The Petty Girl Hitchcock "discovered" her much later, and effectively launched her film career by giving her the lead in The Birds (1963), in which she replaced a pregnant Vera Miles. Hedren reportedly went through hell making that classic chiller, reportedly suffering innumerable pecks and scrapes from her avian costars. Her reward, unfortunately, was lukewarm reaction to her tyro performance. Undaunted, Hitchcock cast her opposite Sean Connery in Marnie (1964), a psychological thriller that presumably offered her better opportunities. Saddled with a diffi cult role and an enigmatic script, Hedren proved unequal to the challenge and was again critically lambasted. Charlie Chaplin gave her a supporting role in his lackluster A Countess From Hong Kong (1967); after that she worked less frequently. In 1973 Hedren appeared in two offbeat films:The Harrad Experiment a freelove-among-college-kids drama that featured her daughter Melanie Griffith, then 14, in a bit part, and Mr. Kingstreet's War an interesting WW2-era drama in which she and screen hubby John Saxon resisted Nazis in Africa. Hedren and then-husband Noel Marshall spent much of the 1970s (and most of their money) making a film called Roar based on their experiences living among wild animals in Africa; it finally debuted in 1981. Her subsequent film roles have all been minor ones in the likes of Foxfire Light (1986), Deadly Spygames (1989), and In the Cold of the Night (1991). In 1990 she appeared once again in a film with her daughter, but this time in support of Melanie, the star of Pacific Heights She has been more visible of late on television, in made-for-TV movies including a 1994 sequel to The Birds.
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Links:
Mob Dot Com (2002) .... Grammy
Ice Cream Sundae (2001) .... Lady
Tea with Grandma (2001) .... Grandma Rae
AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001) (TV) .... Herself
All About the Birds (2000) (V) .... Interviewee
Life with Big Cats (2000)
Mind Rage (2000) .... Dr. Wilma Randolph
... aka Mind Lies (2000) (USA)
Trouble with Marnie, The (2000) (TV) (also archive footage) .... Interviewee
Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story, The (1999) .... Herself (interviewee)
Sophia Loren: Actress Italian Style (1999) (V) .... Herself
... aka A&E Biography, Sophia Loren: Actress Italian Style (1999) (V) (USA: complete title)
Storytellers, The (1999) .... Lillian Glosner
Hitchcock: Shadow of a Genius (1999) (TV) .... Herself
... aka Dial H Hitchcock: The Genius Behind the Showman (1999) (TV)
... aka Dial H for Hitchcock (1999) (TV) (Canada: English title)
Darklings, The (1999) (TV) .... Martha Jackson
Expos� (1998)
Internet Love (1998) .... Herself
Replacing Dad (1998) (TV) .... Dixie
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998) .... Maylinda Austed
... aka Ed Wood's I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)
... aka I Awoke Early the Day I Died (1999) (USA)
Break Up, The (1998) .... Mom
Mulligans! (1997) .... Dottie
Citizen Ruth (1996) .... Jessica Weiss
... aka Meet Ruth Stoops (1996)
Sense, Sixth (1995)
Inevitable Grace (1994) .... Dr. Marcia Stevens
Teresa's Tattoo (1994) .... Evelyn Hill
Treacherous Beauties (1994) (TV) .... Lettie Hollister
Birds II: Land's End, The (1994) (TV) .... Helen
Perry Mason: The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal (1993) (TV) .... Beverly Courtney
Through the Eyes of a Killer (1992) (TV) .... Mrs. Bellano
... aka Master Builder, The (1992) (TV)
Shadow of a Doubt (1991) (TV) .... Mrs. Mathewson
Pacific Heights (1990) .... Florence Peters
Return to Green Acres (1990) (TV) .... Arleen
"Bold and the Beautiful, The" (1987) TV Series .... Helen McClain (#1) (1990-1993)
... aka "Glamour" (1987)
Deadly Spygames (1989) .... Chastity
In the Cold of the Night (1989) .... Clara
Hitchcock: il brividio del genio (1985) (TV)
... aka Thrill of Genius, The (1985) (TV)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) (TV) .... Waitress (segment "Man From The South")
Terror in the Aisles (1984) (archive footage) .... Melanie Daniels (segment "The Birds")
... aka Time for Terror (1984) (Europe: English title: video title)
Foxfire Light (1982) .... Elizabeth Morgan
Roar (1981) .... Madeleine
Ad�nde (1975)
... aka Muere el viento (1975)
... aka Where the Wind Dies (1975)
Harrad Experiment, The (1973) .... Margaret Tenhausen
Mr. Kingstreet's War (1973) .... Maggie Kingstreet
... aka Heroes Die Hard (1973)
Man and the Albatross, The (1969)
Tiger by the Tail (1968) .... Rita Armstrong
Countess from Hong Kong, A (1967) .... Martha
Satan's Harvest (1965) .... Marla Oaks
... aka Devil's Harvest (1965)
Marnie (1964) (as 'Tippi' Hedren) .... Marnie Edgar
Birds, The (1963) (as 'Tippi' Hedren) .... Melanie Daniels
... aka Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) (UK: complete title)
Petty Girl, The (1950) (uncredited) .... Ice Box Petty Girl
... aka Girl of the Year (1950) (UK)