Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in East London on 13th August 1899, the third and youngest child of Catholic parents; his father ran a flourishing fruit and vegetable business. He left school at 14, on his father's death, and worked as a clerk for an engineering firm, meanwhile taking evening classes in draughtsmanship. At 18, already overweight, he failed his Army medical. At 20, he entered the film industry, working for a London-based American company as a designer of the title-cards which were an integral part of silent film narrative. When a new English company, Gainsborough, took over the studio in early 1923, he branched out quickly into script-writing, set design, and finally direction. His first film, The Pleasure …
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Citation: Barr, Charles. "Alfred Hitchcock". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 February 2004 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5124, accessed 24 November 2024.]
