Patricia Alma Hitchcock O'Connell (7 July 1928 – 9 August 2021) was a British-American actress and producer. She was the only child of English director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, and had small roles in several of her father's films, with her most substantial appearance being in Strangers on a Train (1951).
Early life
Hitchcock was born on 7 July 1928 in London, the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1939.
As a child, Hitchcock knew she wanted to be an actress, and made her first onscreen appearance as an uncredited extra alongside her mother in Sabotage (1936). In the early 1940s, she began acting on the stage and doing summer stock. Her father helped her gain a role in the Broadway production of Solitaire (1942). She also played the title role in the Broadway play Violet (1944).
After graduating from Marymount High School in Los Angeles in 1947, she attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and also appeared on the London stage. (Hitchcock has a small joke with her first appearance on his show – after saying good night and exiting the screen, he sticks his head back into the picture and remarks: "I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn't you?")
She also served as executive producer of the documentary The Man on Lincoln's Nose (2000), which is about Robert F. Boyle and his contribution to films.
She edited one volume of Random House's series of short-fiction anthologies attributed to her father, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: My Favorites in Suspense (1959) and is acknowledged, under her married name, much in the way Robert Arthur Jr. or Harold Q. Masur were acknowledged as the "open secret" editors in other Random House volumes in the series (and in the subsequent Dell Books paperback reprints). For several years, she was the family representative on the staff of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. She supplied family photos and wrote the foreword of the book Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco (2002) by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal. A biography of her mother, Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man, was co-written with Laurent Bouzereau, and published in 2003. The couple had three daughters, Mary Alma Stone, Teresa "Terry" Carrubba, and Kathleen "Katie" Fiala. O'Connell died in 1994. Her daughter Teresa made the following statement: "She was always really good at protecting the legacy of my grandparents and making sure they were always remembered. ... It's sort of an end of an era now that they're all gone."
Filmography
Film
{| class="wikitable"
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes
|-
| 1936
|Sabotage
| Extra
| Uncredited
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1950
|Stage Fright
| Casey Banister
|
|-
|The Mudlark
| Servant (bit part)
| Uncredited
|-
| 1951
|Strangers on a Train
| Barbara Morton
|
|-
| 1956
|The Ten Commandments
| Court Lady
| Uncredited
|-
| 1960
|Psycho
| Caroline
| Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| 1978
|Skateboard
| Mrs. Harris
| Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | TV series
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role
! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes
|-
|1949
|The Case of Thomas Pyke
|Lady
|TV movie, Patricia Hitchcock's debut
|-
|1952
|Suspense
|Esther Stone
|Season 5 Episode 7: "A Time of Innocence" (2 December 1952) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
|1953
|Life with Father
|Nora
|Season 1, premiere episode (22 November 1953) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
|1954
|My Little Margie
|Woman in car
|Season 3 Episode 31: "The New Freddie" (31 March 1954) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| 1955
| rowspan="10" |Alfred Hitchcock Presents
| Diana Winthrop
| Season 1 Episode 5: "Into Thin Air" aka "The Vanishing Lady" (30 October 1955) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1956
| Margaret
| Season 1 Episode 17: "The Older Sister" (22 January 1956) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| Ellie Marsh
| Season 1 Episode 33: "The Belfry" (13 May 1956) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1957
| Polly Stephens
| Season 2 Episode 25: "I Killed the Count", Part 1 (17 March 1957) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| Saleslady
| Season 3 Episode 1: "The Glass Eye" (6 October 1957) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| Nancy Mason
| Season 3 Episode 5: "Silent Witness" (3 November 1957) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| 1958
| Aileen
| Season 3 Episode 34: "The Crocodile Case" (25 May 1958) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| 1959
| Pat
| Season 4 Episode 19: "The Morning of the Bride" (15 February 1959) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1960
| Dorothy
| Season 5 Episode 27: "The Cuckoo Clock" (17 April 1960) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
| Rose
| Season 5 Episode 35: "The Schartz-Metterklume Method" (12 June 1960) Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|-
|1975
|Ladies of the Corridor
|Irma
|TV movie
|-
|1976
|Six Characters in Search of an Author
|The Character Lady
|TV movie, Credited as Pat Hitchcock
|}
References
External links
- Pat Hitchcock at Find a Grave