Actors Who Never Recovered From Their Most Distressing Roles

Tippi Hedren in The Birds

In the final scene of Hitchcock's The Birds, Tippi Hedren is attacked by droves of birds. There's a reason that Hedren's performance is so convincing: it's because she wasn't acting. Without warning, Hitchcock launched dozens of birds at Hedren to record her authentic reaction. Hedren later said that Hitchcock put her in a "mental prison." He had promised Hedren that the birds would be mechanical; instead, Hedren was pelted with actual birds, who pecked and battered her day after day.