There are lives “of cinema”, or of “novel”, as it used to be said, that go beyond fictional plots of the screen or literature. And one of them is that of an American actress, Tippi Hedren, who turned ninety-one this recent January 19. It turns out that in the 1970s he decided to live in a reserve surrounded by lions and tigers, With whom he sympathized so much that he prepared food for them, caressed them and received from those fierce licks and signs of corresponding affection? His love for them translated them into a movie, The great roar that took eleven years! to conclude. Even today, after having also collected sixty cats, he still dares to keep thirteen lions in the place where he lives, Shambhala, in the USA. But no longer in the same house, but in a nearby reserve. Let it be known that this extravagant lady is the mother of Melanie Griffith, therefore the ex-mother-in-law of Antonio Banderas, protagonist, among others, of two jewels of cinema, Birds Y Marnie la ladrona, who directed Alfred Hitchcock.
Nothing to foreshadow for Nathalie (Tippi) Hedren that when she was young she chose her profession as an actress. Born in the state of Minnesota, she was a model and occasionally appeared in an advertising “spot”, advertising a brand of diet drink. The famous Alfred Hitchcock, after contemplating the image of that blonde beauty, did some tests and did not hesitate to hire her in 1963 for his film Birds. He chose sophisticated females for his films and Tippi gave that physical impression. That caused an enormous illusion to this young daughter of a Swedish father and Norwegian mother, whom they called privately Tippi, which means “darling”, in your parent’s native language. But the good omens that she thought was going to bring her that unexpected contract, for which she debuted on the screen, turned into suffering, to the point that at the end of the shoot he had to resort to the help of a psychiatrist. What happened?
The central story of Birds it happened in an almost uninhabited place where a married couple lived, played by Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren. A flock of birds would come to frighten them when they attacked the couple, surrounding their home. Tippi believed, when signing the contract, that these scenes were going to be shot with mechanical birds, using all sorts of tricks, common in the cinema. Hitchcock resorted to them, certainly, but also to real animals, crows, seagulls, dangerous pigeons even. The celebrated British filmmaker would lock his fledgling star in a room (“set” of the film) for a few days and let dozens of those real birds into it, hovering dangerously around Tippi, plunging her into an atrocious nightmare, reflected in her face, in his gestures and defense movements. Hitchcock was smiling happily, having obtained from the fledgling actress the verism that she needed in such sequences. He did not allow any double of his protagonist to intervene in them. A martyrdom for this one, who had days that ended up bloody, in the middle of a pile of excrement from those limañas. To the point that on a certain day, for repeating some sequences, he suffered a withdrawal stroke. We will not make the hell lived by the Hedren very extensive, who ended Birds absolutely traumatized. The question is: what reasons motivated Hitchcock, apart from his obsession with achieving the greatest sense of danger reflected in his two actors, preferably Tippi, to take her out in such an agonizing way? The explanation is that he had fallen in love with her, tried to force her, and not getting what he wanted, he did not hesitate to make the shoot as hard as possible. His behavior was not new. He was a downright macho who seemed to take pleasure in the pain of others, of those women who did not accept to copulate with him.
Alfred Hitchcock, whose cinematographic talent no one has doubted, the greatest creator of “suspense” plots on the screen, turned out to be an obsessive and sick character who tried to seduce as many actresses as he could, a matter that at that time, between the 1950s, 60s and 70s never became known to all the fans who watched his magnificent films. Nor did movie magazines echo it. Why? The studios protected their stars and the chroniclers did not want to bother them, in exchange for the exclusives they gave them. He was preferentially attracted to blondes, which is why he chose Tippi Hedren. She previously created difficulties for Janet Leigh, who refused to appear nude in Psychosis, and the director had to compromise with a double. He made life miserable for Grace Kelly (The rear window Y Catch a thief); also to Kim Novak (Vertigo). All of them at his command in those wonderful, unforgettable films from the 50’s. But it is that the thing came from ancient times, when already in 1935 he directed Madelaine Carroll in 39 steps, and ten years later to Ingrid Bergman in Remember. He harassed all of them, although we are not aware that he slept with any of them. Obese, with a prominent belly and a bloated face, a flabby figure, he was not exactly an Adonis to conquer the mentioned beauties, who from the initial admiration as a director would end up abhorring him. But he, very cute, initially made them contracts for several films. Thus he acted with Tippi Hedren, which designated him as “fat pig.”
For this reason Tippi was forced to shoot a second film, Marnie la ladrona, bound by contract for no less than five years. In that intriguing story she starred in alongside a patient husband played by Sean Connery, the bullying episodes were reproduced. If it had happened now, Hitchcock would have ended up giving his bones in jail, subjected to a trial as happened, for example, a couple of years ago to producer Weinstein, the one in the case that unleashed the “Me Too” thing. But then, no legislation considered this lustful behavior a crime. The actress believed that after that second filming he would set her free, but no: he was paying her the rest of the contract, for three years, without taking part in any production, and in turn instigating not to be hired when it was extinguished. Tippi Hedren’s future in cinema was black. All these difficulties she would tell in her book Tippi: A memoir, recounting in detail the humiliations he suffered from that character. It was useless that he turned to Alfred’s wife, Alma. This good woman recognized her husband’s sexual inclinations with respect to the actresses he chose, but she could not influence him to change his abject inclinations. Overcame to unsuspected limits Tippi Hedren: “That man ruined my career, but not my life,” he would affirm. Because not only did it hurt her a lot, but also Melanie, the only daughter the actress had ever had, a girl even when “Hitch” gave her a doll in the likeness of her mother, inside a small coffin. Then the little girl did not understand the meaning of that rare object. When I was older, remembering it, I would repeat this: “He was a son of a bitch…!“
In need of work, after those years inactive, she resumed her profession, not without difficulties. Thus, in 1967 he intervened in The Countess of Hong Kong, believing that Charlie Chaplin was going to entrust him with a starring role, when it turned out to be a “cameo”, which in film slang represents a brief appearance, then as the ex-wife of Marlon Brando, who besieged the character of Sophia Loren. Neither sentimentally life had provided Tippi Hedren much stability, since her first marriage in 1952 with Peter Griffith, although it lasted until 1961, only meant the joy of having been the mother of Melanie, who is known to be a sought-after actress, also with ups and downs loving, forming a couple with our Antonio Banderas, whom he loved very much, being equally reciprocated. Tippi also showed her affection towards her son-in-law and enjoyed some holidays in Malaga. Between 1964 and 1982 she was married to the film producer Noel Marshall, that of “The Exorcist”, who accompanied her on two shoots that took her to African lands. It was in those latitudes that he committed to helping as many captive animals as he knew, creating the Roar Foundation. On their return to the United States, already in the 70’s, it was when the couple settled in Shambala and there with young lions and tigers they began their adventure in an animal reserve. A few years of absolute dedication to these beasts, which as they grew up seemed to feel grateful towards Tippi and her husband, since they behaved as if they were domesticated. Later came the moment when they would have to get rid of those that had not already died, aged.
Little by little they forgot about her and she barely intervened in filming that was worth highlighting. She remarried in 1985 to a businessman of Hispanic origin, Luís Barrenechea, a marriage that lasted a decade. Her fourth and last husband, between 2002 and 2008, was a veterinarian, Martín Dinnes.
I was only once with Tippi Hedren. It must have been in the 70s, when Alfonso Eduardo directed the Ecological Film Festival of Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife), where his already mentioned film was screened The great roar that it was an economic disaster for her and her also mentioned husband, the latter. They invested seventy million dollars and only raised two. Well, in this contest I had a seat in the cinema where that film was being screened, three seats separate from the actress. He looked at her from time to time as the images of Tippi stroking her lions and tigers. I was getting sick all over my body, while the beautiful protagonist smiled so close to where I sat. I thought for a moment that those beasts were going to jump from the screen as if it were a visual effect imagined by Woody Allen, and they would engulf all the spectators. Y Tippi HedrenAmid the dread of the room, he continued impassive, but smiling. A woman out of the ordinary.
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