Orson Welles

Orson Welles 1915-85, American actor, director, and producer, b. Kenosha, Wis. From childhood he evinced a precocious talent and lofty sense of self-assurance in theatrical matters. He began acting in the theater during the early 1930s, and in 1937 directed several Federal Theatre productions and organized the Mercury Theatre company in New York. In 1938 a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells 's The War of the Worlds, done in the style of a news broadcast, panicked the listening public and brought Welles national attention. He departed for Hollywood the following year. For RKO he cowrote, produced, directed, and starred in his first film, Citizen Kane (1941), considered by many to be the greatest film ever made. Welles brought technical brilliance, a precise sense of casting, and a complex narrative structure to bear on a teasingly ambiguous portrait of an American tycoon. He won an Academy Award for the screenplay, but never enjoyed such acclaim again.

After Citizen Kane Welles clashed constantly with studio chiefs and was never again able to exert such absolute artistic control or achieve such creative success. His other films include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), Othello (1952), Touch of Evil (1958; restored and reworked according to Welles's instructions, 1998), The Trial (1963), and Chimes at Midnight (1966). Welles's booming voice and air of authority made him a popular film actor and occasional off-screen narrator, appearing in films such as Jane Eyre (1943), The Third Man (1949), Catch-22 (1970), and Someone to Love (1987). Beginning in the 1970s, he also became a popular figure on television, in commercials and as a frequent guest and occasional host on talk shows.

Bibliography: See O. Welles et al., This Is Orson Welles (rev. ed., 1998); biographies by F. Brady (1989), C. Higham (1985), B. Leaming (1985), S. Callow (2 vol., 1996-), J. McBride (rev. ed. 1996), and D. Thomson (1996); studies of his films by C. Higham (1970), P. Cowie (1972), H. James (1991), A. Bazin (1992), and P. Conrad (2003); H. J. Mankiewicz and P. Kael, The Citizen Kane Book (1971); R. L. Carringer, The Making of Citizen Kane (1985); C. Heylin, Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios (2005); The Battle over Citizen Kane (documentary film, 1995).

Welles, (George) Orson (1915–85) US actor and director. His first publicly shown film, Citizen Kane (1940), was a great critical success and won an Oscar for its screenplay. As an actor, he starred in the classic The Third Man (1949), and acted in and directed Touch of Evil (1958). Disenchanted with Hollywood, Welles went into self-imposed exile from the USA, directing European productions, including The Trial (1963), Chimes at Midnight (1966), and The Immortal Story (1968).

Welles, [George] Orson (1915–85), actor, director, and producer. Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the exceptionally talented jack‐of‐all‐trades began performing while still a child. After some acting stints in Europe, he called attention to his abilities in 1933 when he performed opposite Katharine Cornell as Mercutio, Marchbanks, and Octavius Moulton‐Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934). For the Federal Theatre Project he staged highly admired productions of many plays, including an all‐black Macbeth (1936), and Dr. Faustus (1937), taking the lead in the latter. In 1937 Welles founded the Mercury Theatre with John Houseman, directing most of the company's productions, among them an acclaimed modern‐dress Julius Caesar (1937), in which he appeared as Brutus. Subsequently, along with many members of the Mercury company, he moved to Hollywood, where he created such memorable films as Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. He also precipitated panic in many quarters with his 1938 radio broadcast War of the Worlds. Thereafter, however, his work on Broadway was intermittent. The best was his and Houseman's production of Native Son (1941), which Welles directed. In 1946 he adapted, directed, and played Dick Fix in a musicalization of Around the World in Eighty Days, and in 1956 he directed and starred in King Lear. Few artists of such brilliance and diversity have appeared on the American theatre scene, but he became an example of one who either burnt himself out early or wasted his talents on futile efforts. Biography: Orson Welles, The Road to Xanadu, Simon Callow, 1995.