'Psycho' actress Vera Miles put family before fame, stepped away from stardom on her terms: author

Vera Miles was poised to be the next Grace Kelly – the glamorous Hitchcock blonde who went on to marry a prince. It never happened, and she preferred it that way.

The "Psycho" actress, now 95 and retired in California, is the subject of a new book by Christopher McKittrick, "Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away." The book is the first full-length biography of the star’s life and career.

McKittrick attempted to reach out to Miles, who hadn’t given interviews since the 1990s. He spoke to those who worked with her and knew her from over the years. Fox News Digital reached out to Miles for comment.

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McKittrick told Fox News Digital he wanted to debunk decades-old rumors surrounding director Alfred Hitchcock, the "Master of Suspense," and his muse.

"A lot of rumors about her that have been generally accepted as public knowledge aren’t true," he explained. "People just kept repeating what they saw and heard over and over again. That was the biggest surprise to me – how much I thought I knew about her. But when I started doing the research, I realized how much I didn’t know about her."

The biggest rumor McKittrick wanted to address was that bad blood existed between Miles and Hitchcock, who died in 1980 at age 80.

"Their relationship certainly wasn’t the same after ‘Vertigo,’" McKittrick explained, referring to Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller. "But there were a lot of rumors that came out of a book called ‘Alfred Hitchcock: The Dark Side of Genius’ by Donald Spoto in 1983 that she was not interviewed for. He cast a sinister light on their relationship … and she spoke out about that book, saying that nothing could have been further from the truth."

"She had been told by Pat Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter, that she shouldn't speak with Donald Spoto for this book," McKittrick shared. "And she was happy she didn’t, because she felt that she was miscast, that their relationship was miscast. She did say, ‘Alfred Hitchcock and I [were] not a perfect relationship. I was never going to be Grace Kelly, and I was never going to replace her. I’m my own person.’"

Tippi Hedren, who starred in "The Birds" and "Marnie," claimed in her 2016 memoir that she had been sexually assaulted by the director during the making of both films. She also described the alleged inhumane conditions she endured while filming that movie.

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Fortunately for Miles, she had a different experience with the filmmaker.

In 1983, when asked about Hitchcock’s alleged indiscretions, Miles described herself to The Spokesman-Review as "a very straightforward woman."

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"Anybody who knows me knows I would never put up with that sort of thing," she told the outlet. "There was always a great deal of respect between Hitchcock and me. Spoto says he rehearsed me for nine hours a day on ‘The Wrong Man,’ which is nonsense. . . . As for playing casting couch to get the role, I’d have told him to go to hell. Neither of us had time for that kind of thing."

"It is true… He wanted to make me into a superstar, but I just wasn’t interested," Miles continued. "It was soon after he’d lost Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier. . . . He may have wanted to create another Grace Kelly out of me. He assigned me the job of entering society on the jet-set level. I have nothing against society, but it just wasn’t me. I was a working mother, busy raising my children and my private life has never been discussable."

McKittrick said that gossip first started while Hitchcock was gearing up to make "Vertigo." At the time, Miles was poised to star opposite James Stewart. But just before production, Miles learned that she was pregnant with her third child. She was replaced by Kim Novak.

"There’s a lot of speculation and confusion about that period, because there’s a lot of timelines that shift and say, ‘She pulled out of the movie and Hitchcock was furious [with] her and never worked with her again,’" said McKittrick. 

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"That part’s not true. He did work with her again. There are aspects of that period [that explain] why the film was delayed. It was not just because she was pregnant. Certainly, Alfred Hitchcock was going through his health issues. . . . Jimmy Stewart, who, of course, played the lead role in the film, wanted the film to be delayed. More specifically, his wife asked for the film to be delayed so he could take a vacation."

"What I love about it the most is probably [Vera’s] outlook on it," McKittrick shared. "Even though she didn’t get to play the role in the film, she felt Kim Novak did a wonderful performance. She said, ‘Kim Novak got the movie, but I got a son.'"

The book noted that while there may have been "disputes" between Hitchcock and Miles, it was far from a "feud." In 1964, Miles gave her side of the story to the Los Angeles Times.

"I set out in life to make some roots," she told the outlet, as quoted by the book. "I never questioned whether it was wise to have four children or not. When I was under contract to Alfred Hitchcock, I had my third, and he was overwhelmed. 

"He said, ‘Don’t you know it’s bad taste to have more than two children?’ I don’t think glamour is a matter of age or how many children you have. It’s a state of mind. I resent the connotation that children limit a woman’s life. They don’t. They make a girl a woman. I don’t care what the number is. Each successive experience is more broadening."

"He told me it was bad taste to have more than two children. I took his advice into consideration and had four," she added.

According to McKittrick, Miles valued family more than fame. He described how she would later take on more television roles, versus films, so she could be close to her children.

"Vera Miles’ choices impacted her career, and I found it pretty inspiring," said McKittrick. "We hear a lot today about ‘work-life balance.’ That’s the buzzword, especially after the pandemic. And here was Vera Miles, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, establishing a work-life balance in a way that we [didn’t] normally think of at the time. She made many films and appeared in over 200 television programs. But . . . it was so important for her to stay grounded and be with her family."

"There were many opportunities that came her way, like ‘Vertigo,’" McKittrick shared. "She passed on them because she was already doing work that was closer to home, or it would’ve taken her too far away from her family. She was committed to being a mother, no matter the professional cost."

Miles’ last credited role was in 1995’s "Separate Lives" opposite Linda Hamilton, Jim Belushi and Elisabeth Moss. 

"We know that, thankfully, she’s still with us," said McKittrick. "And I sincerely hope she’s spending time out in California with her family and friends and being very happy. One thing that I hope is that this book will help stimulate a little bit more appreciation for her work.

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"She’s a very significant actress in the history of American film and television," McKittrick reflected. "She worked with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the mid-20th century. . . . Even when she faced challenges living life on her terms, she persevered."