Alfred Hitchcock vs El Greco
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alfred Hitchcock | El Greco | |
| Field | Film | Art |
| Sub-field | Screenwriter | Painting |
| Born | 1899 | 1541 |
| Died | 1980 | 1614 |
| Country of birth | United Kingdom | Spain |
| Star sign | Leo | Libra |
Who they are
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899, in Leytonstone, a quiet district of east London, to a greengrocer and his wife. He was a shy, overweight child who found that stories — their architecture, their capacity to generate unease — interested him more than almost anything else. His father once sent him to the local police station with a note, and the duty officer locked him in a cell for five minutes as a lesson in what happens to naughty boys. Hitchcock later described this as the defining trauma of his life, the…
Full biography of Alfred Hitchcock →
El Greco
Domenikos Theotokopoulos — called El Greco, simply "the Greek," by the Spanish who could not pronounce his name — was born in Crete around 1541. He arrived in the world as a Byzantine icon painter, trained in the flat gold-ground tradition of Eastern Christianity, and ended his life as one of the most radical Western painters who ever lived, a figure so far ahead of his time that the twentieth century had to rediscover him to understand what he had been doing.
What they share
- Both are documented on this site with a verified biography.
Where they part
- Different fields: Film for Alfred Hitchcock, Art for El Greco.
- Born in different countries: United Kingdom and Spain.
- 358 years separate their births (1899 and 1541).
- Their lifetimes never overlapped.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alfred Hitchcock or El Greco?
- El Greco. Alfred Hitchcock was born in 1899, El Greco in 1541.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alfred Hitchcock is filed under Film (Screenwriter). El Greco is filed under Art (Painting).
- Were they contemporaries?
- No - their lifetimes do not overlap.