Which actor appeared in the most Alfred Hitchcock films?
Aside from being a massive draw for audiences, director Alfred Hitchcock was able to attract some of cinema’s biggest stars to appear in his films during four decades in Hollywood. It goes without saying that more than a few reputable actors made their name performing in Hitchcock movies.
Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly became household names after appearing in all-time classics like Notorious and Rear Window. And seasoned stars James Stewart and Cary Grant reinvented their careers as Hitchcockian male-gazers in the myriad visual mazes the great filmmaker designed for his audiences.
However, none of these generational movie stars can compete with one veteran of stage and screen. She was starring in Hitchcock’s films before Jimmy Stewart had enrolled in college, and the likes of Kelly, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins had even been born.
Hitchcock’s early years as a director straddled the silent film era and the first British talkies. Indeed, he made some of the most iconic early British movies, like The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. It was through these initial pictures that Hitchcock sharpened his craft with camera positioning and perspective, lighting and editing. It honed in on the element of surprise that would become his trademark.
Along the way, one classically trained Shakespearean actor accompanied him through seven of his productions, starting with the 1922 silent movie Number 13, and ending with Jamaica Inn in 1939. If it weren’t for her death at the age of 67, she probably would have starred in even more Hitchcock features.
So, who was she?
Clare Greet, from Leicestershire, made a name for herself at her husband Ben Greet’s theatre company in London before moving onto the big screen in 1931. According to her obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald, she acted in the premiere run of George Bernard Shaw’s play Arms and the Man on London’s West End at 23 years old.
Her other five Hitchcock movies were silent films The Ring and The Manxman, 1930’s Murder!, which was one of the very first British pictures to feature sound, the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Sabotage. Her roles in the latter two films went uncredited.
Of course, not even Greet appeared in anything like as many Hitchcock films as one other person, who was far from an accomplished actor. That person was Hitchcock himself, who cameoed in no fewer than 37 of his own movies. Talk about hogging the limelight.
