Alma Lucy, Lady Hitchcock (August 14, 1899,
NottinghamshireNottinghamshire is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
– July 6, 1982,
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, CaliforniaBel Air is a faux-gated residential community in the hills of the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills it forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods....
) was an
assistant directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and editor. She was the second daughter of Edward and Lucy Reville.
She is best known as the wife of
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, whom she met while they were working together at
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
's
Famous Players-Lasky studioFamous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created from the merger of the Famous Players Film Company and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company on July 19 1916...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, during the early 1920s. She converted to Roman Catholicism before their marriage.
They married on 2 December 1926 at Brompton Oratory in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
.
Alma Lucy, Lady Hitchcock (August 14, 1899,
NottinghamshireNottinghamshire is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
– July 6, 1982,
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, CaliforniaBel Air is a faux-gated residential community in the hills of the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills it forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods....
) was an
assistant directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and editor. She was the second daughter of Edward and Lucy Reville.
She is best known as the wife of
Alfred HitchcockSir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
, whom she met while they were working together at
ParamountParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
's
Famous Players-Lasky studioFamous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created from the merger of the Famous Players Film Company and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company on July 19 1916...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, during the early 1920s. She converted to Roman Catholicism before their marriage.
They married on 2 December 1926 at Brompton Oratory in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. Alma became his collaborator and sounding board, with a keen ear for dialogue and an editor's sharp eye for scrutinizing a film's final version for continuity flaws so minor they escaped Hitchcock's own notice and that of his crew. It was Reville who noticed
Janet LeighJanet Leigh was an American actress.Discovered by the actress Norma Shearer, Leigh secured a contract with MGM and began her film career in the late 1940s...
inadvertently swallowed after her character's fatal encounter with Norman Bates' "mother" in
PsychoPsycho is an American suspense/horror movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, from the screenplay by Joseph Stefano. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Bloch, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein....
(1960), necessitating an alteration to the negative.
Cinema was the couple’s passion. A talented editor, Alma worked on British films with directors like
Berthold ViertelBerthold Viertel , born in Vienna, Austria was a screen writer and film director.-Arrival in America:He was married to screenplay writer and actress Salka Viertel née, Steuermann, from 30 April 1918 to 20 December 1947. The pair came to Los Angeles in 1928 planning to stay for just three years...
and
Maurice ElveyMaurice Elvey , the most prolific film director in British history , helmed nearly 200 movies between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year ....
, though her main focus was her husband’s work. She was particularly good at revising dialogue and spotting inconsistencies in his plots.
The Hitchcocks had one daughter,
Patricia HitchcockPatricia Hitchcock O'Connell is a British-born American actress and producer.She is the only child of the film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville. The family moved to Los Angeles, California, in March 1939....
, born July 7, 1928. Patricia made a few movies, then retired to marry Joseph O'Connell, nephew of Archbishop of Boston,
CardinalA cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually a bishop, of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and making themselves available...
William O'Connell. The couple married at
St. Patrick's CathedralSaint Patrick's Cathedral is adecorated Neo-Gothic-style Catholic cathedral church in the United States. It is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and a parish church, located on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in midtown Manhattan,...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
in 1952.
Alma Reville died of natural causes at the age of 82, two years after Hitchcock's death. She had suffered from
breast cancerBreast cancer is a cancer that starts in the breast, usually in the inner lining of the milk ducts or lobules. There are different types of breast cancer, with different stages , aggressiveness, and genetic makeup. With best treatment, 10-year disease-free survival varies from 98% to 10%...
some years before her death, but made a full recovery from the illness.
Further reading
- Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man by Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell and Laurent Bouzereau (Berkley, 2003)