Patricia Hitchcock, daughter of Alma and Alfred Hitchcock, has passed away at the age of 93. Pat appeared in three Hitchcock films: Stage Fright (1950), Strangers on a Train (1951), and Psycho (1960).

Her biggest role of the three surely is as Barbara “Babs” Morton, the daughter of Senator Morton (Leo G. Carroll) and sister of Anne Morton (Ruth Roman). Skeptical of her sister’s boyfriend Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and his entanglements with a queer hanger-on named Bruno Antony (Robert Walker), Babs is key to exposing the moral core at the center of Hitchcock’s classic noir thriller. Bruno thinks he’s entered an arrangement with Guy: he will kill Guy’s estranged wife Miriam (Kasey Rogers) so that Guy can marry Anne. In exchange, Guy will kill Bruno’s father. Yet Guy refuses these terms, even though he benefits from Bruno following through with his side of the bargain. When news of Miriam’s murder reaches the Morton household, Babs says what is on everybody’s mind: “Well you two, nothing stands in your way. You can be married right away. Think of it—you’re free!” To which Senator Morton says, “One doesn’t always have to say what one thinks!” Babs’s response to this is priceless: “Father, I’m not a politician!”

Her next largest role in a Hitchcock film was as Caroline, the co-worker of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). The two work as secretaries for real estate agent George Lowery (Vaughn Taylor). Though her role is small, she shines in one of the film’s more comic moments, one which underscores the film’s often neglected portrayal of female defiance of toxic masculinity: Marion comes to work with a headache, and she asks Caroline for some aspirin. Caroline doesn’t have any aspirin, she has something stronger: “Mom gave them to me the night of my wedding. Teddy was furious when he found out I’d taken tranquilizers.” We can assume, here, that this bit of prescription drug deception—passed on from mother to daughter, a shared secret between women—is a small act of rebellion. Like her mother before her, Caroline divorced her head from her body on the night of her wedding as a way of coping with the stress that comes from bedding down with a man who believes he is entitled to sex. The fury of Teddy was a price Caroline was willing to pay.

In addition to a small part in The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956), Patricia also appeared on television in ten episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (though none of these episodes was directed by Hitchcock himself).

But she is perhaps best remembered as representing the Hitchcock Estate, and overseeing the legacy of her father, who died in 1980. Patricia Hitchcock is an important reminder of the strong (and neglected) women behind Alfred Hitchcock. Pat’s mother Alma Reville was not only Hitchcock’s wife, but his collaborator, editor, screenwriter, and most trusted (and, when necessary, harshest) critic. She was also, for a short period in the 1920s, his boss! As film scholar Tania Modleski notes: “Reville was given credit for continuity and for various significant roles on many of the films Hitchcock made in the ’20s and ’30s, and she continued, without being credited, to work closely with him on his films throughout their lives. She had, we know, a sharp eye for continuity flaws: in the case of Psycho, for example, one was so minor it went undetected by Hitchcock and his crew—the shot in which Marion Crane lies dead on the bathroom floor. Reville alone noticed a small eye movement made by Crane.” For a fuller appreciation of Alma Reville’s contribution to Hitchcock’s career, see Patricia Hitchcock’s loving book devoted to her mother, which she co-wrote with Laurent Bouzereau, Alma Hitchcock: The Woman Behind the Man (Berkley Books, New York: 2003).

Patricia Hitchcock died on August 9 in her home in Thousand Oaks, California. She is survived by her three daughters, six grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.