Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born in London on August 13, 1899. His father, William Hitchcock, a grocer, and his mother, Emma Whelan Hitchcock, brought him up. As a young boy he loved to travel, and by the time he was eight he had ridden every bus line in London and explored all of its docks and shipping terminals. His parents were devoted Catholics and made sure their son had a proper upbringing. He attended St. Ignatius College, a Jesuit preparatory school in London, where he started on a course that would prepare him to become an electrical engineer. He eventually was forced to give up his courses at the University of London to help support his family by working as a technical clerk in a cable-manufacturing company. Not to be deterred, he rose from the lowly job to the advertising department.
             But Alfred had a love for movies. He set out for a job in the filmmaking industry. In 1920, his first break came. With help from an actor, he was able to get a job as a title designer and before long he became head of the titling section of a newly organized American firm. By 1923, he was a scenario writer for Gainsborough Pictures in Islington, England, and that same year he saw his first credit as art director for a film called Woman to Woman. This came after he had tried his hand at directing a comedy about London low-life called Number Thirteen in 1922. The star of the picture, Clare Greet, put up some of the money for the project. However, it wasn't enough to sustain it and the film was never completed. He later became co-director on the film Always Tell Your Wife after the film's original director became ill and could not complete shooting. He then acted as designer, script collaborator, and assistant director for two different films, The White Shadow (1923) and The Passionate Adventure (1924). A year later Hitchcock got his first break. He was asked to direct The Pleasure Garden, which would be his first c...