Tippy Hedren is an American actress who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Birds (1963). However, her activities are not limited to filming in films and TV shows. Hedren is also known today as the founder of the Shambhala Wildlife Sanctuary near Los Angeles.
early years
Natalie Kay Hedren (this is the real name of the actress) was born on January 19, 1930 in New Alm, Minnesota. The nickname "Tippy" in childhood was given to her by her father - Bernard Karl Hedren.
As a teenager, Tippy participated in fashion shows in clothing stores. And having reached eighteen years old, the girl moved to New York and was able to become a professional model here. In 1950, she first appeared in a movie - she was given a small role in the comedy "Little Girl".
In 1952, Tippy Hedren married actor Peter Griffith. Five years later, in 1957, she gave birth to a daughter from him - Melanie Griffith, who in the future also became a famous actress. The marriage between Peter and Tippi lasted until 1961.
Cooperation and relationship with Hitchcock
In the same 1961, the famous director Alfred Hitchcock accidentally saw Tippy Hedren in a commercial. Very soon, the horror master signed a contract with the model for several years and invited her to the lead role in his next film "Birds". And even the actual lack of acting experience at Hedren Hitchcock was not embarrassed.
The role of the hottie Melanie Daniels eventually earned Tippy a lot of rave reviews from film critics and a Golden Globe Award for Best Aspiring Actress.
Then Hedren starred in another Hitchcock film - the 1964 psychological thriller "Marnie". Here she played a psychopathic fraud (her name is Marnie in the story), who cleverly steals from commercial firms, but at the same time is afraid of intimacy with men.
Hitchcock wanted to shoot Tippy Hedren in his other films, but she decided not to cooperate with him anymore. The fact is that there was a very difficult relationship between them. The great master of horrors was attracted to her, and she did not reciprocate. She later said that Hitchcock's fascination with her was like a kind of obsession: he often made greasy jokes at her and sometimes obsessively offered to drink champagne with him after the shooting day.
Ultimately, Hitchcock, taking advantage of the fact that Tippy had signed a contract with him and at the time of its action had no right to appear in other directors, actually deprived her of her work in Hollywood.
In 1967, when Tippy again had the opportunity to act in films, she was offered the major role of Charlie Chaplin in his film The Countess from Hong Kong. But this role has become rather an exception. In the late sixties and seventies, Hedren barely appeared on the big screens.
Film "Roar"
In 1970, Tippy and her second husband Noel Marshall (they got married in 1964) decided on a crazy act - they took a real lion into their house for a while. And then they repeatedly found themselves dangerously close to wild felines - this was necessary for the filming of the ambitious semi-documentary "Roar" (its director and screenwriter was Marshall himself).
The film was shot for over ten years and only came out on big screens in 1981. His budget was estimated at seventeen million dollars, but at the same time he was able to collect only two at the box office.
It is reliably known that during the filming of this film, the lions inflicted certain injuries on Tippy and her daughter Melanie. Surprisingly, even after that, Hedren continued to treat wild animals well.
The life and career of an actress in the eighties
In 1982, Noel Marshall and Tippy Hedren divorced. But for a long time the actress did not remain alone: already in 1985 she got married for the third time - businessman Luis Barreneci became her new love.
After breaking up with Marshall, Tippy began to appear quite often on TV (in TV series). For example, she had small roles in such multi-part projects as "Hotel", "Murder, She Wrote", "Midnight Heat", "Daring and Beautiful."
Tippi Hedren spent the money she received for the shooting on her Shambhala nature reserve, which was founded in the early seventies. This sanctuary is located 30 kilometers from Los Angeles and is intended for representatives of the feline family (lions, tigers, leopards, and so on).
Tippy Hedren from the early nineties to the present day
In the nineties, the actress continued her bright acting career. Among the interesting roles of this period - roles in the films "Through the Eyes of a Killer" (1992) "Birds 2: End of the Earth" (1994), "Citizen Ruth" (1996), "I woke up early on the day of my death" (1998), darkness "(1999).
In addition, this period was marked by serious changes in Hedren's personal life: in 1995 she divorced Luis Barreneci. And only seven years later, in 2002, Tippy got married again - this time with the veterinarian Martin Dinnes. Martin and Tippy lived together until 2008. At the moment, the actress is not married to anyone.
In 2016, Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison. In this book, Tippy described her past in detail.
It is worth mentioning another important event in the life of the wonderful actress: in 2018, at the age of 88, Hedren became the face of Gucci watches and jewelry.
