User:Cowlibob/sandbox7

English film director Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving major films (his second film, The Mountain Eagle, is lost). For the films in which he appeared, he would be seen for a brief moment boarding a bus, crossing in front of a building, standing in an apartment across the courtyard, or even appearing in a newspaper photograph (as seen in the film Lifeboat, which otherwise provided no other opportunity for him to appear).

This playful gesture became one of Hitchcock's signatures; and fans would make sport of trying to spot his cameos. As a recurring theme, he would carry a musical instrument — especially memorable was the double bass case that he wrestles onto the train at the beginning of Strangers on a Train. In his earliest appearances, he filled in as obscure extras in crowds or walking through scenes in long camera shots. His later appearances became more prominent, such as when he turns to see Jane Wyman's disguise as she passes him in Stage Fright, and in stark silhouette in his final film Family Plot.

His appearances became so popular that he began to make them earlier in his films so as not to distract the audience from the plot. Hitchcock confirms this in extended interviews with François Truffaut, and indeed the majority of his appearances occur within the first half-hour of his films.

Hitchcock's longest cameo appearances are in his British films Blackmail and Young and Innocent. He appears in all 30 features from Rebecca (his first American film) onward; before his move to Hollywood, he only occasionally performed cameos.

Other cameo appearances

 * Hitchcock regularly made cameo appearances in his films. However,  only once did he appear in an installment of his Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show (aside from his personal introductions and closings).  The one cameo was in the 1958 episode of the third season titled "Dip in the Pool".  At 5:15 minutes into the episode, Hitchcock appears on the cover of a magazine being read by Mr. Renshaw (Philip Bourneuf).
 * Hitchcock's image shows up in Alain Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad, as an homage to Hitchcock's cameo appearances.
 * Director Richard Franklin incorporates a Hitchcock cameo into Psycho II (1983), even though Hitchcock had been dead for three years. When Mary Samuels and Norman Bates pay an early nighttime visit to Mother's bedroom, Hitchcock's famous silhouette can be seen in shadow on the far right wall just after they enter the room and before they turn on the lights.
 * In Gus Van Sant's 1998 shot-for-shot remake of Psycho, Van Sant can be seen standing next to a Hitchcock look-alike at the same point in the film as in the original.
 * As pointed out by Nick @ Nite Rewind, Alfred's shadow appears in an episode of The Odd Couple.
 * Hitchcock also made cameo appearances in The Simpsons episodes: Treehouse of Horror XX and Treehouse of Horror XXIV.