Tippi Hedren Honored From Coast to Coast

Movie legend and icon, Tippi Hedren, receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon on Thursday, April 7th, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, in the same ballroom where the first Academy Awards were held.

Hedren is an American actress and former fashion model with a career spanning more than six decades. Though perhaps primarily known for her roles in two Alfred Hitchcock films, The Birds and Marnie, she has appeared in over 40 films and numerous television movies and series. Tippi continues to work frequently in motion pictures, theatre, episodic and cable television, and her contributions to world cinema have been honored with Life Achievement awards in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia and in Spain by The Fundacion Municipal De Cine. Tippi was honored as "Woman of Vision" by Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C., and received the Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University. In addition, Tippi was recently honored as "Best Actress in a Comedy Short" in the film "Mulligans!" at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival, and won "best Actress" for the short film "Tea With Grandma" from the New York International Independent Film Festival. In 2009 and 2010, audiences and critics alike responded positively to her roles on 4400 as Lily Moor Tyler, on Fashion House as Doris Thompson or on CSI as Karen Rosenthal and in 2003, she was honored by the Hollywood Chamber with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, the role that many best be associated with Ms Hedren is that of Den Mother to almost 100 exotic felines and her extensive efforts in animal rescue at the Shambala Preserve (Shambala.org), an 80-acre wildlife habitat which she founded. She joins a stellar list of past Chamber honorees, which have included: Steve Allen, Ralph Edwards, Art Linkletter, Debbie Reynolds, Rhonda Fleming, Melissa Gilbert, Tab Hunter, Bob Barker, Esther Williams, Cloris Leachman, and Tony Curtis.

What's next for the famous Hitchcock Blond? In addition to her latest Bill being presented to Congress ("Federal Ban on the Breeding of Big Cats Act"), to amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit breeding of exotic big cat species, Tippi is also currently scheduled to receive "The Women Together Award" at the United Nations in New York on June 6th, 2011. The award was created at the First International Microcredit Forum held in Madrid and hosted by honorary President of Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain. The award promotes the adoption of ethical, philosophical, moral, scientific and cultural values aimed at opening new horizons for the future of human race. It recognizes activities of a personal or an institutional nature that constitute a relevant contribution to universal culture. In addition, Tippi will be presented with the "Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award" from the Boat People SOS organization in DC on July 2nd. Her efforts for Vietnamese-American community stems from a nucleolus of only 20 women, whom she arranged to receive training as manicurists in 1975. These women wanted to work rather than become a burden on the government, so Tippi set about making it happen. Now, there are currently over 100,000 manicuring shops in the US. The number of Vietnamese-American's that have been given jobs since has created an empire that has allowed women to support families and send their children school.

Photo Credit: Bill Dow