English film director and producer Alfred Hitchcock finals words before his death were "One never knows the ending. One has to die to know exactly what happens after death, although Catholics have their hopes." Hitchcock died aged 80 in his Bel Air home of renal failure on 29 April 1980. While biographer Spoto wrote that Hitchcock "rejected suggestions that he allow a priest ... to come for a visit, or celebrate a quiet, informal ritual at the house for his comfort," Jesuit priest Father Mark Henninger wrote that he and fellow priest Tom Sullivan celebrated Mass at the filmmaker's home; Father Sullivan heard Hitchcock's confession.
Near the end of his life, Hitchcock had worked on the script for a projected spy thriller, The Short Night, collaborating with James Costigan, Ernest Lehman and David Freeman. Despite some preliminary work, the screenplay was never filmed. This was caused primarily by Hitchcock's seriously declining health and his concerns for his wife, Alma, who had suffered a stroke. The screenplay was eventually published in Freeman's 1999 book The Last Days of Alfred Hitchcock.