Alfred Hitchcock's first cameo was an accident, and it started a trend that became a trademark of his films. It has him appearing in a newsroom early in his fourth film, "The
: A Story of London Fog" (1927). Two years later the fog is replaced by extortion that captures our famous director reading a book on a train in the 1929 film "
".
Hitchcock resorts to using one of his popular props, cigarettes, while watching Robert
take "The 39 Steps" in 1935, which he swaps for a camera in "The Young and the
" in 1937. He's at Victoria Station when "The Lady
" in 1938 and slips past George
during the filming of his first American film "Rebecca" in 1940.
He forgoes his traditional bowler hat for a sharp brimmed one as he strolls past Joel
in "Foreign Correspondent" (1940) and, in his only comedy film, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941), his cameo is directed by none other than Carole
. He's playing cards on a train in 1943's "
of a Doubt", creates an ingenious cameo on "
" (1944), which is set on the ocean and has a drink at a party hosted by the Claude
character in "Notorious" (1946).
Alfred, supposedly, manages to string out two cameos in his first colour film, 1948's "
", finds himself on the stairs of a government building in Australia in "Under
" (1944) and he makes a cheeky appearance staring at Jane
in "Stage Fright" (1950). For our end credit, we see him hauling another of his favourite props, a musical instrument, onboard, to join "Strangers on a
" (1951).