List of cameo appearances by Alfred Hitchcock

File:HitchcockCameoToCatchAThief.png

To Catch a Thief (1955) features Hitchcock on a bus alongside Cary Grant.

English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films (his second film, The Mountain Eagle, is lost). For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph (as seen in the film Lifeboat, which otherwise provided no other opportunity for him to appear).

This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's signatures and fans would make sport of trying to spot his cameos. As a recurring theme, he would carry a musical instrument — especially memorable was the double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train. In his earliest appearances he filled in as obscure extras, in a crowd or walking through a scene in a long camera shot. His later appearances became more prominent, such as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise as she passes him in Stage Fright, and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot.

His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films.

Hitchcock's longest cameo appearances are in his British films Blackmail and Young and Innocent. He appears in all 30 features from Rebecca (his first American film) onward; before his move to Hollywood, he only occasionally performed cameos.

Cameo appearances in Hitchcock films

This is a list of Hitchcock's cameo appearances in films that he directed.

Title	Year	H:M[:S]	Description
The Birds	1963	0:02	Leaving the pet shop with two of his own Sealyham terriers, Geoffrey and Stanley, as Tippi Hedren enters.
Blackmail	1929	0:10:25	Being bothered by a small boy as he reads a book on the London Underground. This cameo is 19 seconds long.
Dial M for Murder	1954	0:13:13	On the left side in the class-reunion photo.
Easy Virtue	1928	0:21:15	Walking past a tennis court carrying a walking stick.
Family Plot	1976	0:40	In silhouette through the door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths.
Foreign Correspondent	1940	0:12:44	After Joel McCrea leaves his hotel, wearing a coat and hat and reading a newspaper.
Frenzy	1972	0:03	In the center of a crowd, wearing a bowler hat; he is the only one not applauding the speaker; and a minute later, right after the victim washes ashore, standing next to a gray-haired man with a gray beard.
I Confess	1953	0:01:33	Crossing the top of a flight of steps.
The Lady Vanishes	1938	1:32:31	In Victoria Station, wearing a black coat and smoking a cigarette.
Lifeboat	1944	0:25	In the "before" and "after" pictures in the newspaper ad for "Reduco Obesity Slayer".
The Lodger	1927	0:03	At a desk in the newsroom.
The Man Who Knew Too Much	1956	0:26:19	As the McKenna's watch the acrobats in market place, Hitchcock appears at the left.
The Man Who Knew Too Much	1934	0:33:25	Walking across a road in a dark trench coat as a bus passes.(Speculative).
Marnie	1964	0:05	Entering from the left of the hotel corridor after Tippi Hedren passes by.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith	1941	0:42:57	Passing Robert Montgomery in front of his building.
Murder!	1930	1:02:50	Walking past the house where the murder was committed, with a female companion.
North by Northwest	1959	0:02:09	Missing a bus, just after his credit passes off screen during the title sequence.
Notorious	1946	1:04:44	At the big party in Claude Rains's mansion, drinking champagne and then quickly departing.
Number 17	1932	0:51:25	On the bus, middle of passengers, in a dark coat and hat, facing away, he bounces up & down; approx. four seconds.
The Paradine Case	1947	0:38	Leaving the train at Cumberland Station, carrying a cello case.
Psycho	1960	0:06:35	Through Janet Leigh's car window as she returns to her office, wearing a cowboy hat.
Rear Window	1954	0:26:10	Winding the clock in the songwriter's apartment (Some argue that Hitchcock breaks the fourth wall in this cameo, possibly turning to look at the audience in a "What are you looking at?" sort of manner, but is actually turning to speak (lips move) to Ross Bagdasarian, who clearly turns his head in response).
Rebecca	1940	2:06	Walking near the phone booth just after George Sanders makes a call.
Rope	1948	0:55	His trademark silhouette can be seen on a red neon sign advertising "Reduco" in the view from the apartment window.
Sabotage	1936	0:09:00	Right after the lights go back on and before the lady shuts the kiosk window, wearing coat & hat, he walks from center screen to the (viewer's) left, leaning back & looking upwards.
Saboteur	1942	1:04	Standing in front of "Cut Rate Drugs" as the saboteur's car stops.
Shadow of a Doubt	1943	0:17	On the train to Santa Rosa, playing cards, back to the camera.
Spellbound	1945	0:43:15	Coming out of an elevator at the Empire Hotel, carrying a violin case and smoking a cigarette.
Stage Fright	1950	0:39:49	Turning to look back at Jane Wyman in her disguise as Marlene Dietrich's maid.
Strangers on a Train	1951	0:10:34	Boarding a train with a double bass as Farley Granger gets off in his hometown.
Suspicion	1941	0:46:54	Mailing a letter at the village postbox (long shot).
		0:04	Walking a horse across the screen at the hunt meet.
The 39 Steps	1935	0:06:56	The man tossing a white cigarette box while the bus pulls up for Robert Donat and Lucie Mannheim to leave the theatre.
To Catch a Thief	1955	0:09:40	Sitting to the left of Cary Grant on the bus.
Topaz	1969	0:32:27	Being pushed in a wheelchair in the airport. Hitchcock gets up from the chair, shakes hands with a man, and walks off to the right.
Torn Curtain	1966	0:08	Sitting in the Hotel d'Angleterre lobby with a baby on his knee. He shifts the child from one knee to the other.
The Trouble with Harry	1955	0:22:14	Seen outside of the window—the man walking past the parked limousine of an old man who is looking at paintings.
Under Capricorn	1949	0:03	In the town square during a parade, wearing a blue coat and brown hat.
		0:13	One of three men on the steps of Government House.
Vertigo	1958	0:11:40	In a grey suit walking in the street with a trumpet case.
The Wrong Man	1956	0:00:18	Seen in silhouette narrating the film's prologue. Donald Spoto's biography says that Hitchcock chose to make an explicit appearance in this film (rather than a cameo) to emphasize that, unlike his other movies, The Wrong Man was a true story about an actual person.
Young and Innocent	1937	0:16	Outside the courthouse, holding a camera.

Other cameo appearances

• Alfred Hitchcock regularly made cameo appearances in his films. However, only once did he appear in an installment of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show (aside from his personal introductions and closings). The one cameo was in the 1958 episode of the third season titled "Dip in the Pool". At 5:15 minutes into the episode, Hitchcock appears on the cover of a magazine being read by Mr. Renshaw (Philip Bourneuf).
• Hitchcock's image shows up in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad, as an homage to Hitchcock's cameo appearances.
• Director Richard Franklin incorporates a Hitchcock cameo into Psycho II (1983), even though Hitchcock had been dead for three years. When Mary Samuels and Norman Bates pay an early nighttime visit to Mother's bedroom, Hitchcock's famous silhouette can be seen in shadow on the far right wall just after they enter the room and before they turn on the lights.
• In Gus Van Sant's 1998 shot-for-shot remake of Psycho, Van Sant can be seen standing next to a Hitchcock lookalike at the same point in the film as in the original.

External links

• Cameo picture gallery from Filmsite.com
• A list of the cameos at Empire magazines website
• Clips of the cameos at Roger Ebert's blog