09/01/2025
Tippi Hedren photographed with one of the pet tigers that lived with her in her home in California, 1982.
In 1982, actress Tippi Hedren was photographed in her California home with an unlikely companion, a massive tiger wandering casually through her kitchen. Best known for starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Hedren became equally famous for her unusual devotion to big cats.
Her fascination began in the 1970s when she and her then-husband Noel Marshall decided to make a film about lions. Instead of using trained animals, they brought dozens of lions and tigers into their home to live alongside them. The project became the 1981 cult film Roar, a production so chaotic and dangerous that more than 70 people were injured during filming, including Hedren herself and her daughter, Melanie Griffith.
Although the photos of Hedren casually cooking with a tiger at her side became iconic, they also highlighted the risks of keeping such powerful animals in domestic settings. Hedren later dedicated her life to animal welfare, founding the Shambala Preserve in California, a sanctuary for big cats rescued from private ownership and circuses.
