Pat Hitchcock, the only child of Alfred Hitchcock, dies at 93

Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter and only child, Pat Hitchcock, has sadly passed away at the age of 93. The actress, who also appeared in some of her father’s films such as Strangers on a Train and Psycho, passed away Monday at her home in Thousand Oaks. Her daughter and Amblin executive, Katie Fiala, confirmed the news.

Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville were married for 54 years with Pat being born on July 7, 1928. Show business was built into this family as Alfred Hitchcock is widely considered one of the best directors of all time and his wife was a movie editor and screenwriter. Pat would follow in their footsteps by getting into the business as a child with aspirations of becoming an actress. She began working on stage in the early 1940s and would go on to earn leading roles in Broadway productions of Solitaire and Violet.

Beginning in 1950, Hitchcock began appearing in projects directed by her famous father. She began with the role of student Chubby Bannister in the British film noir Stage Fright and because she happened to resemble star Jane Wyman, Alfred Hitchcock asked Pat to double for the actress in certain scenes in the movie. After Stage Fright, Pat went on to play Barbara Morton in Strangers on a Train in 1951 which is considered her most prominent movie role. Another small but memorable role came in 1960 when she was featured as Caroline, a friend of Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane in Psycho.

Pat also served as the family representative on the staff of “Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.” Hitchcock also wrote the forward for the book “Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco” by Jeff Kraft and Aaron Leventhal, which was published in 2002. The following year, Pat published “Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man” to pay tribute to her late mother.

Alfred Hitchcock died in 1980 of kidney failure at the age of 80 and Pat would lose her mother two years late at the age of 82. Pat Hitchcock’s husband Joseph O’Connell Jr. died of a heart attack in 1994 and she is survived by her daughters, Mary, Tere, and Katie. Our thoughts are with her daughters during this difficult time and may Pat Hitchcock rest in peace.