Alfred Hitchcock is the undoubted master of suspense, and virtually invented the thriller genre. He began his film career in 1919, illustrating title cards for silent films at Paramount's Famous Players-Lasky studio in London. His first directed film was The Pleasure Garden in 1925. From there Hitchcock went on to make such films as The 39 Steps in 1935, an espionage thriller involving spies and murder set in London, Vertigo in 1958, a mystery about a man with a near …showed first 75 words of 828 total…

…showed last 75 words of 828 total…Rebecca, none of his films won an Academy Award for Best Picture. As a producer, Alfred received one Best Picture nomination for Suspicion. He was nominated Best Director for five of his films: Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Rear Window, and Psycho. The only Academy Award that he ever received was the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1968. Hitchcock would be knighted in January 1980 by Queen Elizabeth II just four months before his death in Los Angeles.