The Palm Beach International Film Festival is excited to welcome screen legends Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor and John Forsythe to The Breakers on Saturday, April 19th for a tribute evening honoring the late Sir Alfred Hitchcock. "Tribute to the Master of Suspense . . . Sir Alfred Hitchcock" will also welcome Patricia Hitchcock, daughter of the late filmmaker, who will be accepting an award on behalf of her father. The elegant evening will feature cocktails, dinner, and a retrospective presentation on the life and work of Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

More more than half a century, Sir Alfred Hitchcock created film history with his movies and television productions. Born in London in 1899, Hitchcock's career began in the age of the silent film. As a novice in the film industry, Hitchcock worked as title card designer, art director, screenwriter and even production manager. After a few small jobs as director, it was the 1926 film The Lodger that established Hitchcock as a major motion picture director with a dazzling visual style.

Working continuously for the next two years, Hitchcock's themes ranged from romance to comedy to melodrama. But it was the surprisingly bold and successful Blackmail, England's first feature film with synchronized sound that earmarked its director as a promising and lasting talent. The thirties continued to see Hitchcock documenting an array of motifs in his films including satire, parody, a whodunit, a musical and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Remade by Hitchcock in 1956, this original version was a testament to his creative prestige in filmaking. The 39 Steps won Hitchcock the 1938 New York Film Critic's Award for best direction.

After a 1937 visit to America at the invitation of producer David O. Selznick, Hitchock left England in March of 1939 to begin his illustrious career in Hollywood. His first American film Rebecca, produced by Selznick, was voted the Best Picture of 1940 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and garnered Hitchcock his first nomination as Best Director.

Hitchcock's success in America continued with Notorious, To Catch A Thief (with the quintessential Hitchcockian heroine Grace Kelly), North by Northwest and Vertigo (re-released in 1996). For ten years (1955-1965) Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour brought the Master of Suspense into American living rooms. Hitchcock's deadpan but frequently outrageous lead-ins to his television programs made him an instantly recognizable star. It was also during this time that he endorsed "The Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine" and published several anthologies of his favorite short stories.

In the 1960s, Hitchcock created the Gothic tour de force Psycho, starring Janet Leigh as the victim of a pathological voyeur. Two years in the making, The Birds, starring Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor, provided Hitchcock with challenging technical effects. Tippi Hedren also starred in Marnie, considered to be one of Hitchcock's most personal and poignant comments on his own personality. Hitchcock called on John Forsythe, the lead in his black comedy The Trouble With Harry, to star in Topaz, a story of Cold War espionage.

Before his death in 1980, Alfred Hitchcock was nominated by the Motion Picture Academy Arts and Sciences as Best Director five times. In 1968 the Academy honored him with the prestigious Irving Thalberg Award and in 1972 he was selected by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1979, Alfred Hitchcock was presented with the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. Knighthood was bestowed upon him in January 1980 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. He died four months later.