Joan Harrison (1) (1907–1994)

Joan Harrison was born in Guildford, Surrey, England, where her father was the publisher of two local newspapers. After attending a boarding school in Kent, she enrolled at Oxford University, graduating with honors in philosophy, politics, and economics. As an undergraduate, she reviewed films for the student newspaper. She later studied at the Sorbonne. In 1933, she was hired as a secretary by director Alfred Hitchcock. She soon graduated to reading books and scripts, writing synopses, and contributing to scripts. In 1939, she accompanied Hitchcock to Hollywood, where she worked as his assistant and as a writer on films. She received her first screen credit on Hitchcock's film Jamaica Inn (1939), based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. She became the first female screenwriter to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay when the category was introduced in 1940, and was the first screenwriter to receive two Academy Award nominations in the same year in separate categories, for co-writing the screenplay for Foreign Correspondent (original) and Rebecca (adapted), both directed by Hitchcock. In 1941, Harrison struck out on her own and got a job as a scriptwriter by MGM. In 1943, she became a pioneering female producer when she was hired by Universal, where her first film was Phantom Lady (1944). Also in 1944, she produced and shared the screenwriting credit for Dark Waters. In the 1940s and 1950s, she produced the mystery thrillers The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry; Nocturne; They Won't Believe Me; Ride the Pink Horse; Once More, My Darling; Circle of Danger, and more. From 1955 to 1962, she produced the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Norman Lloyd. She and Lloyd also produced the 1968 TV anthology series Journey Into the Unknown. In 1958, she married mystery writer Eric Ambler. A biography of Joan Harrison called Phantom Lady by Christina Lane was published in 2020