Biography
Educated at the Sorbonne and Oxford, Joan Harrison was 21 when she secured a job as secretary to British film director
Alfred Hitchcock. Harrison rapidly became one of the director's most trusted associates -- if not the most trusted. She collaborated on the screenplays of Hitchcock's
Jamaica Inn (1939),
Rebecca (1940),
Foreign Correspondent (1941),
Suspicion (1941) and
Saboteur (1942), and also functioned as associate producer. In 1944, Harrison became a full producer at Universal Pictures; true to her Hitchcock heritage, she was responsible for such thrillers as
Phantom Lady (1944) and Uncle Harry (1945). She also nurtured the directorial ambitions of actor
Robert Montgomery, producing Montgomery's
Ride the Pink Horse (1947), Once More My Darling (1949) and
Eye Witness (1950). In 1954, Harrison went into partnership with actress
Ella Raines to produce the popular syndicated television series Janet Dean, Registered Nurse. She returned to the Hitchcock fold in 1955, producing her mentor's long-running (1955-65) TV anthology series. Joan Harrison's last major project was the British-produced occult series
Journey to the Unknown (1968). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide