Quite a few people have already blogged about this, but toy manufacturer Mattel are releasing a Barbie doll of Tippi Hedren‘s character from “The Birds” in time for Halloween…
More details are available on the Entertainment Earth web site.
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Hedren has been turned into a doll. Hitchcock had makeup artist Robert Dawn create a lifelike doll of the actress, which was presented to her young daughter (Melanie Griffith). Unfortunately, Hitchcock didn’t quite get the reaction he was expecting — the following is an extract from a 1999 interview with Hitchcock’s leading ladies…
GREG GARRETT: Miss Hedren, there’s a story about the little coffin that was supposedly sent to you by Hitch. Did it contain a little doll with a noose around the neck? What did that mean? Was that a joke?
TIPPI HEDREN: This is the first time I’ve heard about the noose around the neck. I was called in to do — have a mask made of my face. And I really didn’t think anything of it, because at the make-up facility at Universal there are faces of every actor up on the wall. So I thought, well, gee, I’m just going to join all that. That’s fine, that’s wonderful. It’s a rather painful experience to go through this, with the plaster on your face and the straws up your nose and that sort of thing. However, I weathered it through.
The outcome of that was a doll that was made for my daughter [Melanie Griffith] for a Christmas present. And the difference in this little doll was that most of the time when a doll is made of a celebrity or whatever, it’s sort of a caricature of that person. This was an absolute replica of my face. Bob Dawn, who was absolutely brilliant in his field of prostheses and that sort of thing, had taken that mask and taken it down to this tiny little face, and it was absolutely perfect. The doll was then dressed in the green outfit that I wore in The Birds for six months.
Unfortunately, they put the doll in a pine box. And then it was presented to my daughter for Christmas. And my little girl, Melanie, looked at it and just blanched white, and we had to put the doll away.
Now this was not — and I truly believe this — this was not an intentional thing for Hitch to hurt my daughter. She was hurt by it. But this was not intentional on his part. I mean, he did a lot of really weird things, but this was not intentional, and there was no noose, believe me. No noose.
GARRETT: Was it a joke?
HEDREN: No, it really wasn’t a joke, either. It was supposed to be a very, very, kind of wonderful, thoughtful gift. And one that had taken great thought, great effort, great expense, I’m sure. So it wasn’t — I can’t say that he was trying to hurt anybody. It was just unfortunate.