List of Hitchcock cameo appearances

Thirty-seven of director Alfred Hitchcock's 52 surviving major films — his second film "The Mountain Eagle" is lost — contain a cameo appearance by Hitchcock himself. The director 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 (required for 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 appears in all 30 features from "Rebecca" (his first American film) onward; before his move to Hollywood, he only occasionally performed cameos.

Here is a list of Hitchcock's appearances, listed alphabetically by title:

ee also

* List of directors who appear in their own films

External links

* [http://www.filmsite.org/hitchcockcameos.html Cameo picture gallery]