With his terse acceptance of that award—after receiving a standing ovation, he simply said “Thank you” and walked off the stage— Hitchcock made evident his understandable resentment of the Academy’s persistent refusal to recognize him as a director. In 1979, Hitchcock was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of his native England.

Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville, whom he married in 1926, was a film editor who served as a writer and adviser on many of his movies and was generally perceived to be his most trusted professional confidante. At the time of his death on April 29, 1980, the 80-year-old Hitchcock had been suffering from arthritis and kidney failure for about a year. While his final film, Family Plot, was released in 1976, he reportedly continued working almost right up until the time of his death. He was survived by his wife (who died in 1982) and their daughter Patricia, an actress who appeared in Psycho, Stage Fright, and Strangers on a Train.

Since his death, Alfred Hitchcock has been generally recognized as one of the greatest directors in the history of film. His much-repeated maxim about the value of suspense over shock influenced an entire genre of movies, as did his uniquely dark sensibility and relentlessly precise directorial style.