---
name: "Tippi Hedren"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tippi-hedren"
fi1m_id: "tippi-hedren"
imdb_id: "nm0001335"
tmdb_id: 6929
wikidata_id: "Q142546"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "19 January 1930"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 77
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-26T15:25:16.959859+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Tippi Hedren

## Identity

Tippi Hedren

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/tippi-hedren
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** tippi-hedren
- **IMDb ID:** nm0001335
- **TMDB ID:** 6929
- **Wikidata ID:** Q142546
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippi_Hedren, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q142546, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001335/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6929

Actor. Born 19 January 1930 in New Ulm, Minnesota, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 19 January 1930, New Ulm, Minnesota, USA
- **Active:** 1963–1964
- **Also known as:** Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren, Nathalie Kay Hedren, تیپی هدرن
- **Frequently works with:** [Alfred Hitchcock](https://film.one/person/alfred-hitchcock.md)
- **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 77, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tippi_Hedren, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q142546, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001335/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6929

## Streaming the US now

- **Peacock:** [*The Birds*](https://film.one/film/the-birds.md) (86)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Tippi Hedren

> Tippi Hedren is at her best when something is being taken from her. She starts *The Birds* as a surface and ends it as a person, and the two films she made with Hitchcock are nearly the whole of what there is to judge.

The suit is pale green, and Edith Head gave her only the one. Melanie Daniels wears it to Bodega Bay, and for the first half hour of *The Birds* (1963) it is immaculate, and so is she: the hair set, the cigarette held just so. Hedren had been a fashion model, and Hitchcock, who found her in a television commercial, used that. Melanie is all poise and no interior in those early scenes, and we suspect Hitchcock wanted it that way, because a surface that perfect is there to be broken.

The breaking is where she is good. Hitchcock trained her in movement and posture and allowed her almost no improvisation, and you can see the drilling in the way she handles a cigarette or a martini glass, every gesture placed. But the moment in *The Birds* that stays with us has no gesture in it. A mother in the town diner tells Melanie she is the cause of all this, and Hedren, who has had an answer for everyone, has none, and the camera stays on her while nobody speaks up. We found it harder to watch than any beak, because the composure simply stops and what is left is a frightened woman a long way from home.

She made one more film with Hitchcock, *Marnie* (1964), playing a thief whose facade the story slowly unpicks, and then no more. Notices at the time found the character hard to warm to; later writers have been kinder, and it is now often counted among the strongest performances in his films. We have not reviewed it and will not judge it here, beyond noting that it asked her for the same thing *The Birds* did, a front with something behind it, and that she has described her own approach plainly: "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings." After that the parts thinned out. A supporting role in Chaplin's last film, *A Countess from Hong Kong* (1967), alongside Brando and Loren; then a long gap while she produced and starred in *Roar* (1981), a wildlife adventure directed by Noel Marshall with her daughter Melanie Griffith in the cast; then smaller roles, *Pacific Heights* (1990), *I Heart Huckabees* (2004), television, on into the 2000s.

What works is the gap between the drilled exterior and whatever is going on behind it, and it works because Hitchcock, Robert Burks and Edith Head arranged the frame so the exterior carried all the information until it failed. What does not work is the exterior on its own. The early Melanie is thin, and the first reviews that called her too fashionable to take seriously were not wrong about those scenes; they were wrong about what came next, because she gets better as the film takes more from her. Watch *The Birds* for its second hour, when the suit is torn and the woman inside it is finally visible. Then find *Marnie*, because the career is those two pictures and a long afterwards.

## Biography

Tippi Hedren is an American actress. Born Nathalie Kay Hedren on 19 January 1930 in New Ulm, Minnesota, she began her career as a fashion model before making her feature film debut as Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock's *The Birds* (1963). She next starred as the title character in Hitchcock's *Marnie* (1964).

Hedren founded the Roar Foundation in 1983 to support the Shambala Preserve, an animal sanctuary for big cats in California. She is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith.

*Sources: britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, themoviedb.org.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *Marnie* (1964), Fi1m 68, as Marnie Edgar — [page](https://film.one/film/marnie.md)
- *The Birds* (1963), Fi1m 86, as Melanie Daniels — [page](https://film.one/film/the-birds.md)

## Complete filmography (75)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Blob* (2024), as Melanie Daniels (voice)
- *Morceaux de Cannes* (2021), Actor
- *The Ghost and the Whale* (2014), as Tippi
- *Return to Babylon* (2013), as Mrs. Peabody
- *Jayne Mansfield's Car* (2013), as Naomi Caldwell
- *Free Samples* (2013), as Betty
- *Raising Hope* (2010), series, as Nana
- *Cougar Town* (2009), series, as Tippi Hedren
- *Nora Roberts' Tribute* (2009), as Mrs. Hennessey
- *Batman: The Brave and the Bold* (2008), series, as Queen Hippolyta (voice)
- *The Boneyard Collection* (2008), as Aunt Gloria (segment "Her Morbid Desires")
- *Dead Write* (2007), as Minnie
- *Fashion House* (2006), series, Actor
- *The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams* (2005), as Mrs. Adams
- *Diamond Zero* (2005), as Eleanor Kelly
- *I ♥ Huckabees* (2004), as Mary Jane Hutchinson
- *The 4400* (2004), series, as Lily Moore Tyler
- *Raising Genius* (2004), as Babe
- *Dark Wolf* (2003), as Mary
- *Searching for Haizmann* (2003), as Dr. Michelle Labner
- *Julie & Jack* (2003), as Julie McNeal
- *111 Gramercy Park* (2003), as Mrs. Granville
- *The Nightmare Room* (2001), series, as The Witch
- *Tea with Grandma* (2001), as Rae
- *CSI: Crime Scene Investigation* (2000), series, as Karen Rosenthal
- *Bull* (2000), series, Actor
- *Replacing Dad* (1999), as Dixie
- *The Darklings* (1999), as Martha Jackson
- *Providence* (1999), series, as Constance Hemming
- *The Storytellers* (1999), as Lillian Glosner
- *I Woke Up Early the Day I Died* (1998), as Maylinda Austed
- *Break Up* (1998), as Mom
- *Exposé* (1998), Actor
- *The New Batman Adventures* (1997), series, as Donna Day (voice)
- *The Guardian* (1997), Actor
- *Citizen Ruth* (1996), as Jessica Weiss
- *E! True Hollywood Story* (1996), series, Actor
- *Arli$$* (1996), series, as Tippi Hedren
- *Mind Rage* (1996), as Dr. Wilma Randolph
- *Secret Lives* (1995), series, Actor
- *Inevitable Grace* (1994), as Dr. Marcia Stevens
- *Treacherous Beauties* (1994), as Lettie Hollister
- *Chicago Hope* (1994), series, as Alfreda Perkins / Margaret Edgar
- *The Birds II: Land's End* (1994), as Helen
- *Teresa's Tattoo* (1994), as Evelyn Hill
- *Perry Mason: The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal* (1993), as Beverly Courtney
- *Through the Eyes of a Killer* (1992), as Mrs. Bellano
- *Shadow of a Doubt* (1991), as Teresa Mathewson
- *Pacific Heights* (1990), as Florence Peters
- *In the Cold of the Night* (1990), as Clara
- *Dream On* (1990), series, as Judith's Mother
- *Return to Green Acres* (1990), as Arleen
- *Deadly Spygames* (1989), as Chastity
- *Birds Past* (1989), Thanks
- *In the Heat of the Night* (1988), series, Actor
- *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), series, as Catherine Noble
- *Tales from the Darkside* (1984), series, as Ruth Anderson
- *Cada ver es...* (1983), as (Archive footage)
- *Hotel* (1982), series, Actor
- *Foxfire Light* (1982), as Elizabeth Morgan
- *Roar* (1981), as Madeleine · Producer
- *Hart to Hart* (1979), series, Actor
- *The Bionic Woman* (1976), series, Actor
- *The Harrad Experiment* (1973), as Margaret Tenhausen
- *Mr. Kingstreet's War* (1973), as Mrs. Kingstreet
- *Satan's Harvest* (1970), as Marla Oaks
- *Tiger by the Tail* (1970), as Rita Armstrong
- *The Courtship of Eddie's Father* (1969), series, as Cissy Drummond-Randolph
- *A Countess from Hong Kong* (1967), as Martha Mears
- *Run for Your Life* (1965), series, as Jessica Braden
- *Marnie* (1964), as Marnie Edgar — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/marnie.md)
- *Kraft Suspense Theatre* (1963), series, as Lee Anne Wickheimer
- *The Birds* (1963), as Melanie Daniels — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/the-birds.md)
- *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Mrs. Mathewson
- *The Petty Girl* (1950), as Ice Box Petty Girl (uncredited)

## Gallery

- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-947de13ad577.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Hollywood Press Syndicate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Tippi_Hedren_in_1964.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![October 28, 1998 Washington D.C. (2018)](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-5de728c2ac19.jpg) October 28, 1998 Washington D.C. (2018) — John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel  Maryland, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/A_beautiful_Tippi_Hendren_need_red_eye_fix_%2846383818711%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Photo taken at 61st Academy Awards 3/29/89 - Governor's Ball - Permission granted to copy, publish or post but please credit "photo by Alan Light" if you can (1989)](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-422859e33df2.jpg) Photo taken at 61st Academy Awards 3/29/89 - Governor's Ball - Permission granted to copy, publish or post but please credit "photo by Alan Light" if you can (1989) — Alan Light, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Melanie_Griffith_%28210257728%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's "Marnie" trailer. (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-5e9607e37daa.png) Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's "Marnie" trailer. (2012) — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_Marnie_Trailer_-_Tippi_Hedren_%281%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-cbd55f91efde.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-37afe68462d9.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-89bc331a939d.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB
- ![Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's "Marnie" trailer. (1964)](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-d2c7bf70e20f.png) Tippi Hedren in Hitchcock's "Marnie" trailer. (1964) — Trailer screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Alfred_Hitchcock%27s_Marnie_Trailer_-_Tippi_Hedren_%283%29.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Tippi Hedren in 2009](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-7c6e4248f027.jpg) Tippi Hedren in 2009 — Bryan Horowitz, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Tippi_Hedren_%283509198755%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-f80f5c6fb03b.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-c29eb2671311.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB
- ![Tippi Hedren](https://film.one/media/person/3909037/gallery-bfc11b679240.jpg) Tippi Hedren — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Golden Globes — 1 won

- 1964: New Star of the Year – Actress (won)

### Other awards — 1 won

- Genesis Award 2010: Genesis Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/tippi-hedren