Joseph Cotten's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) It Takes a Thief (1968) Mr. Jack Hollywood and the Stars Narrator The 20th Century-Fox Hour Joseph Cotten The Great Adventure Captain Mee…

Main Movie Roles 1991 - Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook 1980 - Heaven's Gate 1978 - Caravans 1977 - Airport '77 1975 - Il giustiziere sfida la città 1973 - Soylent Green 1971 - The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1970 - Tora! Tora! Tora! 1969 - The Grasshopper 1968 - Petulia 1964 - Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte 1961 - The Last Sunset 1958 - Touch of Evil 1958 - From the Earth to the Moon 1957 - The Halliday Brand 1956 - The Killer Is Loose 1953 - A Blueprint for Murder 1953 - Niagara 1952 - The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice 1952 - The Steel Trap 1949 - The Third Man 1949 - Beyond the Forest 1949 - Under Capricorn 1947 - The Farmer's Daughter 1946 - Duel in the Sun 1944 - Gaslight 1944 - Since You Went Away 1943 - Journey Into Fear 1943 - Shadow of a Doubt 1942 - The Magnificent Ambersons 1941 - Citizen Kane

BIOGRAPHY:

Before Joseph Cotten became a movie actor, he worked in advertising, as a theatre critic and began acting on stage. He got his chance at the movies due his friendship with Orson Welles, which began with their time at the Federal Theatre in 1936 and lasted until Welles death. He is probably best remembered from roles of Jed Leland in Citizen Kane (1941), Holly Martens in The Third Man (1949) or the coolly evil Uncle Charlie in Alfred Hitchcock (I) 's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He later played various minor parts and after 1967, had various appearances in TV productions.


TRIVIA:

• Had a step-daughter from first marriage.
• Before his celebrated appearance as Charles Foster Kane's best friend, Jed Leland, in _Citizen Kane (1941)_ (qv), he appears as one of the reporters in the March of Time parody sequence early in the film. He is seated in the back of the projection room, in the last row at the far left, and is only clearly visible in one shot, but his voice along with that of 'Everett Sloane' (qv)'s (who plays Bernstein) can often be heard in the darkness on the soundtrack.
• Like 'Orson Welles' (qv), he has appeared in the top films of both the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; for AFI it was _Citizen Kane (1941)_ (qv) as Jedediah Leland and for BFI, its _The Third Man (1949)_ (qv) as Holly Martins.
• Retired from acting in the early 1980s after a stroke and a laryngectomy.
• Was cast as C.K. Dexter Haven in the original 1939 Broadway production of 'Phillip Barry' (qv)'s play Philadelphia StoryZ with 'Katharine Hepburn' (qv). When Hepburn, who owned the rights, sold the story to MGM, 'Cary Grant' (qv) was cast in the part.
• Served as best man at 'Orson Welles' (qv)'s wedding to 'Rita Hayworth' (qv).
• Despite their mercurial relationship, he and 'Orson Welles' (qv) remained friends until Welles' death.