Why Vera Miles Didn’t Become Alfred Hitchcock’s Next Grace Kelly

Lauren Novak April 14, 2:52 pm

PSYCHO, Vera Miles, 1960 — Everett Collection

Vera Miles, the actress best known for her role as Lila Crane in Psycho, is now the subject of a new book titled Vera Miles: The Hitchcock Blonde Who Got Away by Christopher McKittrick. While McKittrick wasn’t able to get in touch with the 95-year-old actress who is now retired and hasn’t given interviews since the ’90s, he did speak to those who knew her and worked with her over the years. In the book, he details why Miles was set up to be the next Grace Kelly by the press and the director — and why it didn’t happen that way.

In the biography, McKittrick’s first priority was putting old rumors to rest, including that director Alfred Hitchcock and Miles had bad blood after he replaced her with Kim Novak in Vertigo. He explained to Fox News, “Their relationship certainly wasn’t the same after Vertigo. 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.”

THE WRONG MAN, Vera Miles, in an organza blouse by Edith Head, 1956

Everett Collection

After the book was released, Miles spoke out and refuted the allegations, saying that the Vertigo recasting was simply due to timing issues created by her pregnancy — she once said, “Kim Novak got the movie, but I got a son.”.She added to The Spokesman-Review, “It is true … He wanted to make me into a superstar, but I just wasn’t interested. 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.”

Everett Collection

At the end of the day, Miles wanted to focus more on her family than her acting career. McKittrick hopes that Miles is happy and that she will enjoy the book, seeing that there is still appreciation for her and her work.

“She’s a very significant actress in the history of American film and television,” he added. “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.”