Nathalie 'Tippi' Hedren (born January 19, 1930)There is some dispute over Hedren's year of birth, sometimes given as 1928, 1930, 1931, or 1935. Nathalie Hedren was recorded as a newborn in the 1930 Federal Census. Hedren also celebrated her 75th birthday in January 2005 is an American actress with a career spanning six decades. She is best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at Shambala Preserve, an 80-acre wildlife habitat which she founded in 1983.
Enjoying a successful modeling career in the 1950s and 1960s, she was discovered by Hitchcock, who was watching The Today Show when he saw Hedren in a diet drink commercial and was taken by her distinctive walk and attractive toss of her head. Hitchcock was looking for an actress who possessed something of the sophistication, self-assurance and cool-blonde sex appeal of Grace Kelly, with whom he had made three films.
Hedren, expensively groomed and mentored by Hitchcock, appeared in his films The Birds and Marnie. At the time of the films' releases, she was criticized for being too passive in The Birds and too expressive in Marnie. It took several years before she received respect for her work in both films from American film critics. Hedren is the mother of actress Melanie Griffith, and they share credits on six films, notably Pacific Heights (1990).
Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota to a Swedish father and a German-Norwegian mother. Her father ran a small general store in the small town of Lafayette, Minnesota. It was her father who gave her the moniker "Tippi" even though her birth name is Nathalie Kay Hedren. "My father thought Nathalie was a little bit much for a brand new baby," Hedren explained at a 2004 screening of The Birds. Tippi comes from the Swedish nickname "Tupsa" or "sweetheart."
As a teenager, Hedren took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was still a high school student. When she reached her 18th birthday, she bought a ticket to New York and began a professional modeling career. Within a year she made her film debut (minus dialogue) as a Petty Girl model in The Petty Girl (1950) musical comedy, although in interviews she refers to The Birds (1963) as her first film. While in New York, she met and married her first husband, Peter Griffith, in 1952.Vroman, Lavender.