George Orson Welles (1915-1985) was an Academy Award winning director, actor, writer and producer. He was also an accomplished magician. He worked extensively in film, theatre and radio. Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin to affluent parents. However, he suffered many hardships as a child. His parents moved to Chicago and separated. His father became an alcoholic and his mother died of jaundice when he was just nine years old. His father died when he was fifteen. He attended the Todd School for Boys where a teacher, Roger Hill, encouraged and indulged his creative tendencies. Welles performed his first theatrical productions at Todd. When his father died, he travled Europe on a small inheritance. Whilst in Ireland, he auditioned for the Gate Theatre in Dublin where he made is debut in 1931 to great acclaim. With a letter of introduction from Thornton Wilder, he made his way to the New York stage. This eventually led to a working relationship with John Houseman and work with the Federal Theatre Project which was a part of Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. After several productions, the two actors would eventually resign from the Federal Theatre Project to start their own company, the Mercury Theatre. The Mercury Theatre would employ such actors as Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins and many other actors who would continue to work with Welles throughout his life. One of their most famous productions was H.G. Welles War of the Worlds. It's news bulletin style of performance caused widespread panic among listeners some of whom believed that the planet was indeed being attacked by martians. Orson Welles eventually found himself at RKO Pictures where he was given complete artistic control over his projects by president George Schaefer. This was unheard of at the time. Welles searched for the right project and, along with screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, conceived the idea for a film project tenatively titled American. With a change of title, this would not only become his first feature film as director, but it would also become his most famous and honored role-Citizen Kane. Loosely based on the life of William Randolf Hearst, Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane a news mogul whose life has many turns and loops. Hearst was so outraged at the movie that he had his media outlets boycott the film. There was so much pressure on Hollywood to supress the film that at one point, the major studio heads of the day offered to pay RKO Pictures the cost of the film in exchange for all negatives and existing prints with the express desire to destroy them all. RKO declined and Citizen Kane was given a limited release. Hearst, in his fury, bullied many movie theatres and threatened to ban movie advertisements in his publications if they showed Citizen Kane. After its release, the film received critical acclaim and went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards and won for Best Screenplay. After Citizen Kane, things became more difficult for Welles. Even though Citizen Kane was a darling with critics, the controversy it caused, along with being a financial flop for RKO, made for strained relations between Welles and the studio who insisted on taking control of his next project The Magnificent Ambersons. Over the years, studios became unwilling to take on Welles as a director but they would hire him as an actor and he worked for many years up until his death. Eventually, Welles would return to directing and would finance many of his films himself. Many of these would go unfinished. Orson Welles received many accolades for his work throughout his life. He was either nominated or awarded not only an Oscar but also such awards at the Palm d'Orr, a BAFTA, the Golden Lion, a Grammy, and many lifetime achievement awards. On October 10, 1985, Orson Welles finished an interview on The Merv Griffin Show and died two hours later in his home in Hollywood, CA. His ashes were buried in Spain at the home of retired bullfighter and long time friend Antonio Ordonez.
Selected Filmography as Director:
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Lady from Shanghai
Macbeth
Mr. Arkadin
Touch of Evil
F is for Fake
Selected Filmography as Actor:
Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
Jane Eyre
Macbeth
Touch of Evil
The Third Man
Mr. Arkadin
Moby Dick
The Long Hot Summer
Catch-22
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