Tippi Hedren followed in
Grace Kelly's footsteps
as an
actress who
portrayed ice cold blondes with
inner
vunerabilities. She became famous when cast
in
Alfred Hitchcock's
The Birds and
Marnie. In fact Hitchcock was obsessed with
Kelly and tried to mold Hedren in her image. Apparently
the situation became very uncomfortable for Hedren
(so she says on A&E's Biography of Hitchcock).
"Tippi" was born Nathalie Hedren on 19 January 1935
in New Ulm, Minnesota. Tippi started a career as a
fashion model in New York. There she met and married
Peter Griffith, giving birth to their daughter
Melanie Griffith in 1957. Alfred Hitchcock saw
her on a commercial on TV and sought her out to
star in The Birds.
Since her first films with Hitchcock, Hedren has been in
several dozen movies and TV shows, none of which are
memorable to me however. I vaguely remember the movie
Pacific Heights in which Hedren appeared with her
real-life daughter Melanie Griffith.
Hedren is very involved in charity, focusing on food for
the hungry and disaster relief. She also became
enamored with big cats during the filming of
Satan's Harvest which was filmed in Africa amidst some
tame lions. Since then she developed
a wildlife sanctuary called
The Roar Foundation's Shambala Preserve in California
(see www.shambala.org).
Thanks to imdb.com for details.