Orson Welles' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Magnum, P.I. Robin Maste… National Geographic Specials Narrator (6) Ford Star Jubilee Oscar Jaffe The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (UK) Orson Welles

Main Movie Roles 2008 - Prodigal Sons 2002 - Lost in La Mancha 1992 - Don Quijote de Orson Welles 1991 - Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse 1986 - Transformers: The Movie 1982 - Butterfly 1981 - The Man Who Saw Tomorrow 1981 - History of the World: Part I 1979 - The Muppet Movie 1972 - Treasure Island 1972 - Necromancy 1970 - Start the Revolution Without Me 1970 - Catch-22 1970 - The Kremlin Letter 1969 - 12 + 1 1968 - House of Cards 1966 - A Man for All Seasons 1963 - The V.I.P.s 1961 - King of Kings 1959 - Compulsion 1958 - The Vikings 1958 - Touch of Evil 1958 - The Long, Hot Summer 1956 - Moby Dick 1955 - Three Cases of Murder 1955 - Mr. Arkadin 1955 - Napoléon 1952 - The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice 1950 - The Black Rose 1949 - The Third Man 1949 - Prince of Foxes 1948 - Macbeth 1947 - The Lady from Shanghai 1946 - The Stranger 1946 - Tomorrow is Forever 1946 - Duel in the Sun 1944 - Follow the Boys 1943 - Journey Into Fear 1942 - The Magnificent Ambersons 1941 - Citizen Kane 1934 - The Hearts of Age

BIOGRAPHY:

His father was a well-to-do inventor, his mother a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died (he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. When his father died (he was fifteen) he became the ward of Chicago's Dr. Maurice Bernstein. In 1931 he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois; he turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain (where he fought in the bullring). Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katherine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman (I) and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938 they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his next films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948. In 1956 he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the U.S. but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a film maker has climbed steadily ever since.


TRIVIA:

• Longtime companion of 'Oja Kodar' (qv). They lived together until his death.
• Made a Hollywood satire, _The Other Side of the Wind (1972)_ (qv), starring 'John Huston (I)' (qv) and 'Peter Bogdanovich' (qv). Though it was completed, the post-production process was not and the film also ran into legal problems.
• Was voted the 2nd Greatest Film Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• He was awarded 2 Stars on the HOllywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 1600 Vine Street and for Radio at 6652 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
• CBS wanted him to host _"The Twilight Zone" (1959)_ (qv) but the producers felt that he requested too much money. He was ultimately ruled out in favor of the show's creator, 'Rod Serling' (qv).
• Wrote his novel "Mr. Arkadian" during an extended stay with 'Laurence Olivier' (qv) and his wife 'Vivien Leigh' (qv). Welles was appearing at Olivier's St. James Theater in London at the time.
• A bootleg tape of a short-tempered (and foul-mouthed) Orson Welles arguing with a recording engineer during a voice-over session has been widely distributed. It was used as the basis for an episode of the cartoon show _"Pinky and the Brain" (1995)_ (qv), with The Brain reading cleaned-up verions of Orson's rantings (the episode's title, "Yes, Always", is taken from one of Orson's complaints). Ironically, the actor who plays The Brain, 'Maurice LaMarche' (qv), dubbed the voice of the actor who portrays Orson Welles in _Ed Wood (1994)_ (qv).
• He made _The Lady from Shanghai (1947)_ (qv) towards the end of his marriage to 'Rita Hayworth' (qv). They were constantly fighting at the time and (some say as a comeuppance to Hayworth) he made her cut off most of her long, luxurious red hair and dye it bright platinum blonde.