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Orson Welles

Orson Welles

Age
70 (passed away Oct. 10th, 1985)
Birthday
May. 6th, 1915
Born in
Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Height
6' 1 1/2"

Orson Welles' Main TV Roles

Show Character(s)
Magnum, P.I. TV Show
Magnum, P.I.
National Geographic Specials TV Show
National Geographic Specials
Ford Star Jubilee TV Show
Ford Star Jubilee
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (UK) TV Show
The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine (UK)
 

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

Guest TV Roles

Show Name
Characters Played
Ep Count
King Lear
1
Himself
1
Himself
1
[Complete List]



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.


Related sites for this celeb
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