Joan Harrison (screenwriter)


Joan Harrison was an English screenwriter and producer. She was nominated for two Academy Awards for co-writing the screenplay for the films Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca, both directed by Alfred Hitchcock with whom she had a long professional relationship.

Biography

Born in Guildford, Surrey, Harrison studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford and reviewed films for the student newspaper. She also studied at the Sorbonne. In 1933, she became Alfred Hitchcock's secretary. Eventually she began reading books and scripts for him and became one of Hitchcock's most trusted associates. Harrison appears in a scene in Hitchcock's original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, eating dinner with Peter Lorre's character. She was among the screenwriters for Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier.
When Hitchcock moved to Hollywood in March 1939 to begin his contract with David O. Selznick to direct films, Harrison went with him as an assistant and writer. She continued contributing to the screenplays for Hitchcock's films Rebecca, also adapted from a du Maurier novel, Foreign Correspondent, Suspicion, and Saboteur. She was also credited as one of the screenwriters for Dark Waters.
Harrison was an uncredited screenwriter for Ride the Pink Horse and Your Witness. She became a film producer with Phantom Lady, and produced such films as The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, Nocturne, Ride the Pink Horse, and They Won't Believe Me. At the time, she was one of only three female producers in Hollywood, the others being Virginia Van Upp and Harriet Parsons.
Harrison worked in television with Hitchcock together with Norman Lloyd when she produced his TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She and Lloyd were later producers on the Hammer TV anthology Journey to the Unknown, which ran for a single season in 1968.

Personal life

Harrison married author Eric Ambler in 1958 and remained married to him until her death in 1994.

Filmography