Joan Harrison, 83; Producer, Writer for Alfred Hitchcock

Joan Harrison, a major writer and producer for Alfred Hitchcock and once the only woman feature film producer in Hollywood, has died at the age of 83.

Miss Harrison died Aug. 14 in London, her colleague and friend Norman Lloyd said Tuesday in Los Angeles. A native of England, Miss Harrison had lived in London for the past 20 years with her husband, novelist Eric Ambler.

After her editorial writer father discouraged her interest in journalism because there was too much drinking, smoking and swearing, she turned to film. Answering a want ad, she was hired by Alfred Hitchcock as his secretary in London in 1933.

Learning the business at his elbow, she worked on several of his British productions, including “Jamaica Inn,” starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara.

Hitchcock brought her to Hollywood in 1939, where she concentrated on writing intriguing screenplays for the famous director’s suspense classics.

Her first writing credit was on Hitchcock’s first American production, “Rebecca,” starring Sir Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, which won the Academy Award for best picture in 1940.

Next out of her typewriter came “Foreign Correspondent,” starring Joel McCrea, in 1940; “Suspicion” in 1941, starring Cary Grant and Miss Fontaine, and “Saboteur” in 1942, starring Robert Cummings and her friend Lloyd.

When Miss Harrison left the Hitchcock camp, her scripts were bought but never produced. In frustration, she moved into production at Universal, becoming one of the first women producing feature films and the only one in the Hollywood of the late 1940s.

Times entertainment writer Lee Shippey mused on her unique position: “Maybe she is to be a maker of history--the one to demonstrate that women can do extremely well as producers.”

Miss Harrison had learned all facets of the film business working in small English studios, tutored by the master. She had no doubt that she could produce.

“Mr. Hitchcock is a wonderful teacher and treated me like an associate producer,” she told The Times when she switched from writer to producer. “I think very few women make good directors but producing is different. Directors must at times be able to shout in a way women can’t or shouldn’t. But no production which does not satisfy the feminine point of view is a success.”

Miss Harrison’s first film as producer was “Phantom Lady” for Universal Studios, starring Franchot Tone, in 1944. She followed that with “Uncle Harry” in 1945, “Nocturne” in 1946, “Ride the Pink Horse” in 1947, “Once More My Darling” in 1949 and “Circle of Danger” in 1951.

When Hitchcock decided to go into the new medium of television, he called Miss Harrison. She produced his legendary “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (later retitled “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour”) from its inception in 1955 until the last show in 1966. The popular series has been repeatedly syndicated over the years, and enjoyed a one-season revival in 1985.

Miss Harrison married Ambler in San Francisco in 1958. Hitchcock signed the marriage certificate as a witness.