| Patricia Hitchcock | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 7, 1928 London, England |
| Occupation | Actress, producer |
| Years active | 1950-present |
| Spouse | Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr. (1952–present) |
| Children | Mary Stone (born 1953) Tere Carrubba (born 1954) Katie Fiala (born 1959) |
Patricia "Pat" Hitchcock O'Connell (born July 7, 1928) is a British-born American actress and producer.
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Born in London as the only child of film director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1939,[1] as her father would quickly make his mark in Hollywood.
As a child, Hitchcock knew she wanted to be an actress. 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).[2] She also acted in 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. In early 1949, her parents arrived in London to make Stage Fright, Hitchcock's first English-made feature film since migrating to Hollywood. Pat did not know she would have a walk-on in the movie until her parents arrived. Because she bore a resemblance to the star, Jane Wyman, her father asked if she would mind also doubling for Wyman in the scenes that required "danger driving."
She had small roles in three of her father's movies: Stage Fright (1950) in which she played a jolly acting student named Chubby Bannister, one of Wyman's school chums; Strangers on a Train (1951), playing Barbara Morton, future sister-in-law of Guy Haines (Farley Granger), and Psycho (1960), playing Janet Leigh's plain-Jane office-mate, Caroline, who generously offers to share tranquilizers that her mother gave her for her wedding night.
Pat Hitchcock also worked for Jean Negulesco on The Mudlark (1950), which starred Irene Dunne and Alec Guinness, playing a palace maid, and she had a bit-part in DeMille's The Ten Commandments.
As well as appearing in ten episodes of her father's half-hour television program, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Hitchcock worked on a few others, including Playhouse 90, which was live, directed by John Frankenheimer. Acting for her father, however, remained the high point of her acting career, which she interrupted to raise her children. (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 motion pictures.
She married Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr., January 17, 1952, at Our Lady Chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. They decided to have their wedding there because Pat had many friends on the East Coast and Joe had relatives in Boston. They have three daughters, Mary Alma Stone (born April 17, 1953), Teresa "Tere" Carrubba (born July 2, 1954), and Kathleen "Katie" Fiala (born February 27, 1959), and currently live in Solvang, California.
She supplied family photos and wrote the foreword of the book Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal, which was published in 2002. In 2003, she published Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man, co-written with Laurent Bouzereau.
Mrs. O'Connell is an annual major sponsor of the Menlo Charity Horse Show.
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Stage Fright | Chubby Banister | |
| 1950 | The Mudlark | Bit Part | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Strangers on a Train | Barbara Morton | |
| 1956 | The Ten Commandments | Court Lady | Uncredited |
| 1960 | Psycho | Caroline | |
| 1978 | Skateboard | Mrs. Harris | Credited as Pat Hitchcock |