Hitchcock Chronology: 1959

Overview

Images from the Hitchcock Gallery (click to view larger versions or search for all relevant images)...

27th - Kathleen O'Connell, daughter of Joseph E. O'Connell, Jr. and Patricia Hitchcock, and granddaughter of Alfred and Alma Hitchcock, is born.
28th - Writer Maxwell Anderson, who wrote The Wrong Man and worked on an initial draught of the Vertigo screenplay, dies of a stroke aged 70.

25th-26th - Hitchcock directs the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Banquo's Chair".^[2]

A second unit crew refilms some of the North by Northwest exterior shots before capturing the film's finale — the suggestive footage of a train entering a tunnel.^[3]
Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman, Henry Bumstead and Samuel Taylor travel to London to scout locations for No Bail for the Judge.^[4]

2nd - The first episode of the six-part Tactic series is broadcast by NBC with the intention to help dispel some taboos around cancer. It features a 12-minute segment with Hitchcock.
3rd - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Banquo's Chair", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
Hitchcock, Herbert Coleman, Henry Bumstead and Samuel Taylor return to Los Angeles from London in late May. Despite the careful pre-production work, No Bail for the Judge is soon abandoned, partly due to Audrey Hepburn's concern about the rape scene.^[5]

12th - The Hitchcocks arrive in New York.^[6]
14th - Producer and writer Walter C Mycroft, who worked with Hitchcock on Champagne and Murder!, dies.
18th - Actress Ethel Barrymore, who starred in The Paradine Case, dies aged 68.

1st - Eva Marie Saint and Leo G. Carroll join Hitchcock in Chicago to attend the première of North by Northwest at the United Artists theater.

6th - Actor Edmund Gwenn, who appeared in The Skin Game, Waltzes from Vienna, Foreign Correspondent and The Trouble with Harry, dies aged 81.
13th - Costume designer Adrian, who worked with Hitchcock on Shadow of a Doubt and Rope, dies of a heart attack aged 56.
27th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Arthur", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.

1st - The Hitchcocks depart from Los Angeles on an European publicity tour for North by Northwest, calling at London and Paris.^[8]^[9]
4th - The Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Crystal Trench", directed by Hitchcock, premiers on US TV.
19th - Hitchcock appears as a special guest on the popular BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs.
23rd - The Motion Picture Daily reports that Hitchcock has left New York, bound for London.^[10]

Actress Janet Leigh meets Hitchcock for the first time at his home on Bellagio Road where he outlines his plans for Psycho. She later wrote, "He outlined his modus operandi. The angles and shots of each scene were predetermined, carefully charted before the picture began. There could be no deviations. His camera was absolute. Within the boundary of the lens circumference, the player was given freedom, as long as the performance didn't interfere with the already designed move [...] This was the way the man worked. And since I had profound respect for his results, I would earnestly comply."^[11]
11th - Principal photography begins on Psycho, starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, John Gavin, Vera Miles and Martin Balsam.^[12]