Thriller Director

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980)

Hitchcock was a British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in the United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood. In 1956 he became an American citizen while retaining his British citizenship.
Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades. He remains one of the most popular and most recognized filmmakers, and his works are still popular today. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker of all time, in 2007 Hitchcock was ranked #1 by film critics in The Telegraph's list of 21 greatest British directors.

Film Career
Hitchcock left St Ignatius to study at the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation in Poplar, London. After graduating, he became a draftsman and advertising designer with a cable company.
During this period, Hitchcock became intrigued by photography and started working in film production in London, working as a title-card designer for the London branch of what would become Paramount Pictures. In 1920, he received a full-time position at Islington Studios with its American owner, Famous Players-Lasky and their British successor, Gainsborough Pictures, designing the titles for silent movies. His rise from title designer to film director took five years, and by the end of the 1930s, Hitchcock had become one of the most famous filmmakers in England.
Hitchcock's first few films faced a string of bad luck. His first directing project came in 1922 with the aptly-titled Number 13. However, the production was cancelled due to financial problems and the few scenes that were finished at that point were apparently lost. In 1925, Michael Balcon of Gainsborough Pictures gave Hitchcock another opportunity for a directing credit with The Pleasure Garden made at UFA Studios in Germany. Unfortunately, The film was a commercial flop. Next, Hitchcock directed a drama called The Mountain Eagle (released under the title Fear o' God in the United States). This film was also eventually lost. In 1926, Hitchcock's luck changed with his first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. The film, released in January 1927, was a major commercial and critical success in the United Kingdom. As with many of his earlier works, this film was influenced by Expressionist techniques Hitchcock had witnessed first-hand in Germany. Some commentators regard this piece as the first truly "Hitchcockian".
Following the success of The Lodger, Hitchcock hired a publicist to help enhance his growing reputation.
In 1929, Hitchcock began work on his tenth film Blackmail. While the film was still in production, the studio, British International Pictures (BIP), decided to make it one of the UK's first sound pictures. With the climax of the film taking place on the dome of the British Museum, Blackmail began the Hitchcock tradition of using famous landmarks as a backdrop for suspense sequences.
The 39 Steps (1935), is often considered one of the best films from his early period. This film was also one of the first to introduce the concept of the "MacGuffin", a plot device around which a whole story seems to revolve, but ultimately has nothing to do with the true meaning or ending of the story.
At the end of the 1930s, David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in March 1939, when the Hitchcocks moved to the United States.
Hitchcock's films during the 1940s were diverse, ranging from the romantic comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) to the courtroom drama The Paradine Case (1947), to the dark and disturbing film noir Shadow of a Doubt (1943).
North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) are all recognised as being among Hitchcock’s very best films. After completing Psycho, Hitchcock moved to Universal, where he made the remainder of his films.
Psycho is considered by some to be Hitchcock's most famous film. Produced on a highly constrained budget of $800,000, it was shot in black-and-white on a spare set. The unprecedented violence of the shower scene, the early demise of the heroine, the innocent lives extinguished by a disturbed murderer were all hallmarks of Hitchcock, copied in many subsequent horror films.
Family Plot (1976) was Hitchcock's last film.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock