Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Tippi Hedren
Tippi Hedren Facts
| Sign | Capricorn |
| Born |
Jan 19, 1930 New Ulm, MN |
| Age | 96 |
| Total Facts | 27 |
Alfred Hitchcock saw her in a 1962 commercial aired during the "Today" (1952) show and cast her in The Birds (1963). In the commercial for a diet drink, she is seen walking down a street and a man whistles at her slim, attractive figure, and she turns her head with an acknowledging smile. In the opening scene of The Birds (1963), the same thing happens as she walks toward the bird shop. This was an inside joke by Hitchcock.
Bridget Fonda, who played her daughter in the straight-to-cable film Break Up (1998), gushed to her about how she had watched Marnie (1964) "a million times.".
30 January 2003, Received Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
At the end of shooting Mister Kingstreet's War (1973), she discovered that the big cats used in the production had no place to go and would likely languish in small cages. This prompted her to obtain a parcel of land on her own to establish a home with a natural setting for retired big cats. She named it Shambala and it exists to this day.
Attended Suzanne Pleshette's funeral in 2008. They starred together in The Birds (1963).
British neo-progressive band Landmarq have a song titled "Tippi Hedren" on their 1992 album "Solitary Witness".
Director Alfred Hitchcock unsuccessfully pursued a relationship with her during the filming of Marnie (1964).
Found it touching when Sean Connery, her leading man from Marnie (1964), said on television that she was underrated while almost everyone in Hollywood was overrated.
Friend of Linda Blair, Rod Taylor and Diane McBain.
Grandmother of Alexander Bauer, Dakota Johnson, and Stella Banderas.
Has a sister named Patty Davis.
Her first television commercial was for a cigarette brand in the early 1950s. She learned to smoke for the commercial, because she felt viewers would know if she was faking it. Her smoking habit lasted for 15 years until her daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, then 10 years old, came to her after a school health lecture and begged her to stop.
Her performance as Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963) is ranked #86 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Her store owner father, Bernard, was Swedish and her school teacher mother, Dorathea, was German-Norwegian.
In most of her films (and in all of her films before 1982 except Tiger by the Tail (1968), her character's name starts with an M: Melanie Daniels in The Birds (1963), Marnie in Marnie (1964), Martha Mears in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Marla Oaks in Satan's Harvest (1970), Maggie Kingstreet in Mister Kingstreet's War (1973), Margaret Tenhausen in The Harrad Experiment (1973), Madelaine in Roar (1981), Marcia Stevens in Inevitable Grace (1994), Maylinda Austed in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998), Martha in The Darklings (1999) (TV), Michelle Labner in Searching for Haizmann (2003), Mary in Dark Wolf (2003) (V),
Is a vegetarian.
Lobbying for passage of Shambala Wild Animal Protection Act.
Mother of Melanie Griffith.
Mother-in-law of Antonio Banderas. Former mother-in-law of Don Johnson and Steven Bauer.
Of all her films, Marnie (1964) continues to be her favorite film, because of the complex title character. This is even more telling, considering all the problems that reportedly took place during the filming, which spelled the end of her professional relationship with the film's director Alfred Hitchcock, as well as the mixed critical reception and the indifferent box office results upon the film's release.
One of her favorite sweet treats is Marnie's red velvet cake, which she named after her character from the film of the same name Marnie (1964). She graciously provided the recipe for this three-layer cake to a website called high-societea.com, which specializes in articles on tea and accompanying treats.
Operates an exotic animal sanctuary which prompted her testimony in February 2005 in Riverside Superior Court. Hedren made a complaint regarding animal cruelty by a tiger rescuer and was told by U.S. Department of Agriculture that there were not enough inspectors to respond to her complaint. She eventually made room for a lion rather than have it go to the rescuer. She stated she felt like she was walking through a trash dump.
Participated in panel at University of Illinois on "Hitchcock, Women and Terror, " October 2001.
Presides over The Roar Foundation, an animal preserve outside of Los Angeles.
Requested director Alfred Hitchcock to give her the fur coat that she wore in The Birds (1963), and he graciously gave it to her but charged it to the production company. Eventually, she stopped wearing fur after she became an animal rights activist.
She met with Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville for the final time in London, England, in 1966, while she was filming Charles Chaplin's last film, A Countess from Hong Kong (1967). They took her to tea at Claridge's. The atmosphere was tense because she knew Hitchcock was upset that she had been cast in what was expected to be a big film, and he was unable to hide his bitterness.
She named one of her housecats after Sean Connery, her co-star in Marnie (1964).