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Orson Welles
Age: 70 (passed away Oct. 10th, 1985)
Height: 6' 1 1/2"
Birth Place: Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Born: May. 6th, 1915
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Orson Welles' Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
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:
- 'Merv Griffin' (qv) claims in his new DVD collection, "Merv Griffin: Interesting People" that Welles died two hours after giving Merv an interview in which he had said to ask him anything, "for this interview there are no subjects about which I won't speak." In the past, Welles refused to speak about the past.
- 'H.G. Wells' (qv) was driving through San Antonio, Texas and stopped to ask the way. The person he happened to ask was none other than 'Orson Welles' (qv) who had recently broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on the radio. They got on well and spent the day together.
- Was the subject of author Mary Pacios' book about the "Black Dahlia" murder in Los Angeles in 1947 (called the most gruesome in the city's history). Pacios claimed Welles was the unknown murderer who slaughtered struggling actress 'Elizabeth Short (I)' (qv); however, the book was considered pure nonsense and debunked by many historians.
- His father was an alcoholic.
- Once ate 18 hot dogs in one sitting at Pink's, a Los Angeles hot dog stand.
- 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.
- Ashes are buried inside an old well covered by flowers, within the rural property of retired bullfighter 'Antonio Ordóñez (I)' (qv), Ronda, Malaga, Spain.
- Longtime companion of 'Oja Kodar' (qv). They lived together until his death.
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