Tippi Hedren has so much more to show for her life than just two Alfred Hitchcock films.

Yes, starring in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964) definitely were highlights. After all, those movies are her lasting claim to showbiz fame.

But Hedren's Hitchcock years are only three chapters of a 17-chapter autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir (William Morrow, $28.99).

She also made USO visits to meet U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. She participated in Food for the Hungry humanitarian missions to aid survivors of the Indo-Pakistani War and to rescue Vietnamese boat people. As an animal-rights activist, she saved the lives of hundreds of lions and other exotic animals.

Beyond that, she's a proud mother to actress Melanie Griffith and grandmother to actress Dakota Johnson.

Yet Hedren knows that when her book tour brings her to Dallas on Dec. 2, the majority of questions from fans are likely to focus on the Hitchcock era. [UPDATE: On Tuesday, Hedren canceled her Dallas appearance because of a family emergency.]

She's happy to cover any chapter from her life. But if you want to see Hedren, 86, really light up, ask about her years as the den mother to the big cats on her 40-acre animal preserve near Acton, Calif.

Hedren talked about her book by phone from her home on the grounds of the preserve, which is known as Shambala.

In this 1963 photo, director Alfred Hitchcock and actress Tippi Hedren arrive at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France, for the presentation of their film The Birds at the Festival Palace. ((AP Photo / Jean Jacques Levy))

In the book, you discuss your complicated working relationship with Hitchcock. He discovered you, mentored you and made you the leading lady in two movies. But there also were incidents that can only be characterized as sexual harassment. Then he sabotaged your career after you spurned his advances. How do you feel about the legendary director today?

He was a genius filmmaker, and I'll always feel grateful that he selected me, a model who had never acted a day in her life, to star in his films. It was an exciting time and I'm proud of those films. It would have been a perfect time for me, if not for all of the unpleasant situations that he created.

Of course, what I experienced is not unique. I have heard many stories from women during this book tour. I think there could be many novels written — Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and so on — about the things that women have had to endure in the workplace.

Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren in Marnie. ((DMN file / Universal Pictures))

One specific question about The Birds: Near the end of the film, after the string of bird attacks, your character is trapped with a family in a house. In the night, she hears noises upstairs and goes up to the bedroom, where birds are waiting to attack. Why the blue blazes does she go up there?

When we were about to film that scene, I wanted to know the very same thing. I went to Hitch and asked, "We're barricaded in the house. Knowing what's going on outside, why would she go up there all by herself?" Hitch looked at me and said, "Because I'm the director and I tell you to."

So that's the only explanation I can give for her actions: I did it because my director told me.

Tippi Hedren in The Birds ((DMN file) )

A lot of your book is about your work as an animal activist. In fact, proceeds from sales of the book go to the Roar Foundation and will help keep Shambala up and running. What message do you hope readers take away from those chapters?

Tippi: A Memoir, by Tippi Hedren ( )

I hope people will look at animals as thinking, feeling beings and acknowledge that they should get every amount of respect that they deserve, both out in the wild and in private ownership.

Once we see them as thinking, feeling beings, with as much right as we have to be on this planet, it is clear that to hunt them and to murder them for a head on the wall or a rug on the floor is unconscionable.f

And what do you hope your readers will come away thinking about you?

Oh, I hope they're all very envious. Because I think I've had such a full, varied life. I look back and I say, "Aren't I the lucky one to be able to have done all these things?" It's just been an amazing life.

David Martindale is an Arlington freelance writer.