Film actress, born in New Ulm, Michigan, USA. She was discovered by Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Later films include Roar (1981), which she also produced, Deadly Spygames (1989), and Citizen Ruth (1996), and she has appeared in several television movies, including Birds 2: The Land's End (1994). In 1972 she founded and is president of the Roar Foundation, an animal preserve near Los Angeles. She is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith.
Enjoying a successful modeling career in the 1950s and 1960s, she was discovered by Hitchcock, who was watching The Today Show when he saw Hedren in a diet drink commercial and was taken by her distinctive walk and attractive toss of her head. Hedren, expensively groomed and mentored by Hitchcock, appeared in his films The Birds and Marnie. At the time of the films' releases, she was criticized for being too passive in The Birds and too expressive in Marnie. It took several years before she received respect for her work in both films from American film critics. Hedren is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith, and they share credits on six films, notably Pacific Heights (1990).
Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota to a Swedish father and a German-Norwegian mother. "My father thought Nathalie was a little bit much for a brand new baby," Hedren explained at a 2004 screening of The Birds.
As a teenager, Hedren took part in department store fashion shows. Within a year she made her film debut (minus dialogue) as a Petty Girl model in The Petty Girl (1950) musical comedy, although in interviews she refers to The Birds (1963) as her first film.
Films
At a packed house in Lancaster, California's Antelope Valley Independent Film Festival Cinema Series screening of The Birds on September 28, 2004, Hedren recalled how she was mysteriously selected for a lead role: "I said, 'Well, who is this person? It was Alfred Hitchcock, who soon announced his choice of Hedren for The Birds.
Hitchcock put Hedren through a then-costly $25,000 screen test, doing scenes from previous Hitchcock classics as Rebecca, Notorious and To Catch A Thief with actor Martin Balsam. Hitchcock's plan to mold Hedren's public image went so far as to carefully control her style of dressing and grooming. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to Hedren's name. Later, Hedren indicated that she didn't want to be known as the next Grace Kelly but rather as the first Tippi Hedren.
Hedren made her debut in The Birds with a wealth of publicity.
Hedren said of her mentor, "He is subtle as a psychiatrist and never gives displaced encouragement." With the release of the film, she got a very tepid reception, the only exceptions being critic Bob Thomas ("Miss Hedren makes an impressive debut,") and Time magazine ("pleasant and ladylike, as Grace Kelly was.") Years after the film's release, she remembered the location work at Bodega Bay as dangerous and taxing, commenting, "For a first film, it was a lot of work."
For the harrowing final attack scene in a second-floor bedroom, filmed on a closed set at Universal-International Studios, Hedren had been assured by Hitchcock that mechanical birds would be used. Cary Grant visited the set and told Hedren, "I think you're the bravest lady I've ever met." Premiere magazine chose Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels in The Birds as one of "The 100 Greatest Characters of All Time."
Marnie (1964), a psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, was Hedren's second Hitchcock assignment, co-starring with Sean Connery. She recalls Marnie as the favorite of her two films for Hitchcock because of the complex, challenging central character, an attractive, secretive, emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises in order to rob her employers.
Although Hitchcock continued to have Hedren in mind for several other films after Marnie, the actress had become increasingly uncomfortable with his possessive manner and she flatly declined any further work with him.
Influence
Hedren's influence on actors and films has surfaced in recent years: A stylish Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. In interviews Naomi Watts has stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren and Kim Novak in Hitchcock films. Michael O'Donoghue, one of the writers of the original Saturday Night Live, praised its star Jane Curtin when he said she had "an icy Tippi Hedren quality" about her..
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, a grueling, five-year project starring dozens of African lions. During the production of Roar, both Hedren and her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, were attacked by lions, and Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped.
Roar directly led to the 1983 establishment of the non-profit Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley 40 miles northeaast of Los Angeles. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. When questioned about the many birds at Shambala, Hedren responded, "I love birds.
Hedren took in and cared for Togare, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he couldn't keep a fully grown lion as a house pet.
Listen to
Animals Aloud: Tippi Hedren takes Deirdre Kennedy on a tour of ShambalaMarriages
Tippi Hedren has been married four times:
Peter Griffith (1952 - 1961) Noel Marshall (1964 - 1982) Luis Barrenecha (1985 - 1995) Martin Dinnes (2002 - present)
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