Biography for
Orson Welles More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

6 May 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

Date of Death

10 October 1985, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)

Birth Name

George Orson Welles

Height

6' 1½" (1.87 m)

Mini 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 seven) 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 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 United States 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 filmmaker has climbed steadily ever since.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan < stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Spouse

Paola Mori	(8 May 1955 - 10 October 1985) (his death) 1 child
Rita Hayworth	(7 September 1943 - 1 December 1948) (divorced) 1 child
Virginia Nicholson	(14 November 1934 - 1 February 1940) (divorced) 1 child

Trade Mark

One of the most recognizable deep voices in all of film, radio or television.

Frequently cast Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane and Oja Kodar

Films that he wrote/directed often revolve around the rise and fall of main characters (Kane, Quinlan, Arkardin) who, in classic Shakespearean style, are unmade by their own vices.

Known for his use of low camera angles, tracking shots, deep focus and elaborate crane shots in his films.

More than often than not sported a beard

Trivia

Once ate 18 hot dogs in one sitting at Pink's, a Los Angeles hot dog stand.

On radio, Orson Welles provided the voice for Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow.

H.G. Wells was driving through San Antonio, Texas and stopped to ask the way. The person he happened to ask was none other than Orson Welles who had recently broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on the radio. They got on well and spent the day together.

'American Broadcasting Company (ABC) [us]' wanted him to play Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island" (1977), but Aaron Spelling insisted on Ricardo Montalban.

Died the same day as Yul Brynner.

Ashes are buried inside an old well covered by flowers, within the rural property of the now-deceased, then-retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez, Ronda, Malaga, Spain.

One of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first screen appearance. The other five actors are: Paul Muni, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.

Father with Virginia Nicholson of Christopher Welles (b. 1937). Father with Rita Hayworth of Rebecca Welles (b. (December 17, 1944). Father with Paola Mori of Beatrice Welles, whom Welles made the sole heir of his estate.

On 30 October 1938, he directed "The Mercury Theatre On the Air" in a dramatization of "The War of the Worlds", based on H.G. Wells' novel. Setting the events in then-contemporary locations (The "landing spot" for the Martian invasion, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, was chosen at random with a New Jersey road map) and dramatizing it in the style of a musical program interrupted by news bulletins, complete with eye-witness accounts, it caused a nationwide panic, with many listeners fully convinced that the Earth was being invaded by Mars. The next day, Welles publicly apologized. While many lawsuits were filed against both Welles and the CBS radio network, all were dismissed. The incident is mentioned in textbook accounts of mass hysteria and the delusions of crowds.

Despite his reputation as an actor and master filmmaker, he maintained his memberships in the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians (neither of which are unions, but fraternal organizations), and regularly practiced sleight-of-hand magic in case his career came to an abrupt end. Welles occasionally performed at the annual conventions of each organization, and was considered by fellow magicians to be extremely accomplished.

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), 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, dubbed the voice of the actor who portrays Orson Welles in Ed Wood (1994).

He was born on the same day that Babe Ruth hit his very first home run.

He tried to make a film version of Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra' book "Don Quixote". He started working on it in 1955 and continued to film through the 1970s with Francisco Reiguera and Akim Tamiroff starring. An incomplete version was released in Spain in 1992.

Made a Hollywood satire, The Other Side of the Wind (1972), starring John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich. Though it was completed, the post-production process was not and the film also ran into legal problems.

He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

Frank Sinatra was the godfather of he and Rita Hayworth's daughter, Rebecca Welles.

Host/narrator of the BBC/Mutual Radio's "The Black Museum" (1952).

Portrayed the title character on the syndicated radio show "The Lives of Harry Lime" (also known as "The Third Man") (1951-1952). It was based on his character from the film The Third Man (1949).

Has the distinction of appearing in both the American Film Institute and British Film Institute's #1 movie. For AFI it was Citizen Kane (1941). For BFI it was The Third Man (1949). Welles shares this distinction with Joseph Cotten, who also starred in both movies.

He was the studio's first choice to play the voiceover role of "OMM" in THX 1138 (1971). However, director George Lucas insisted on casting the relatively unknown stage actor James Wheaton instead.

Provided voice for some songs of heavy metal band Manowar: Dark Avenger and Defender

He became obese in his 40s, weighing over 350 pounds towards the end of his life.

Was possibly not as tall as is often reported. According to Simon Callow's "Orson Welles: The Road To Xanadu," medical records exist from a Welles physical in 1941. His weight is listed as 218, and his height at 72" - 6 feet even. Biographers Charles Higham and Frank Brady describe Welles as being 6' 2", though they never provide a source. Biographer Barbara Leaming often comments on his height, but never gives an exact measurement. An early Current Biography article on Welles describes him as being "tall and chubby," while a later one gives the obviously incorrect 6' 3-1/2" height. If you average all the figures and based on his size compared to other actors, he probably in fact stood a little over 6 feet tall (6' 1" to 6' 2").

Was voted the Second Greatest Film Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 1168-1185. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

His 1937 Broadway stage production of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar", in which the setting was changed to a modern Fascist Rome to reflect the Mussolini era, but in which Shakespeare's language was completely retained, became, and still remains, the longest-running Broadway production of the play. Welles played Brutus. This production was never filmed, but years later, Welles' former working partner John Houseman produced a traditional film version of the play for MGM, starring James Mason as Brutus, Marlon Brando as Marc Antony and John Gielgud as Cassius.

Was suggested as a possible suspect by author Mary Pacios, in Elizabeth Short's ("The Black Dahlia") mutilation murder in Los Angeles in 1947. Among other reasons, Pacios suggested Welles as a suspect because Welles' artwork for the surreal bizarre fun-house set in The Lady From Shanghai was similar in many ways to the mutilation and bisection of Elizabeth Short. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia, ordered the footage cut before release because of its disturbing resemblance to the murder.

When he signed on to direct Touch of Evil (1958), instead of reading the book on which it was based, a pulp novel named "Badge of Evil," he completely changed an early draft of the script.

Told Peter Bogdanovich that, as a practicing magician, he became adept at the old carny trick of fortune-telling, but he became so good at it that it scared him. He was worried that he'd come to believe he actually DID have the power to tell the future, like the self-deluded fortune tellers known as a "shut eye."

Wanted to make films of two literary masterpices, Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and Joseph Heller's "Catch-22", but had to be satisfied in having supporting roles in the films made of the two books by John Huston and Mike Nichols.

Wrote his novel "Mr. Arkadian" during an extended stay with Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. Welles was appearing at Olivier's St. James Theater in London at the time.

Laurence Olivier had wanted to cast him as Buckingham in his film of Shakespeare's "Richard III" but gave the role to Ralph Richardson, his oldest friend, because Richardson wanted it. In his autobiography, Olivier says he wishes he had disappointed Richardson and cast Welles instead, as he would have brought an extra element to the screen, an intelligence that would have gone well with the plot element of conspiracy.

Lobbied to get the part of Don Vito Corrleone in The Godfather (1972). Francis Ford Coppola, a fan of his, had to turn him down because he already had Marlon Brando in mind for the role and felt Welles wouldn't be right for it.

He made The Lady from Shanghai (1947) towards the end of his marriage to Rita Hayworth. 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.

Was named #16 on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends list of the American Film Institute.

Was the narrator for many of the trailers for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

Before deciding on adapting the life of William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane (1941), he intended his first film to be an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Coincidentally, he was Francis Ford Coppola's first choice for the role of Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), itself an adaptation of "Heart of Darkness".

His average dinner famously consisted of two steaks cooked rare, and a pint of scotch - explaining his obesity as he got older, and his subsequent death.

Ranked #9 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005]

His father was an alcoholic.

Considered black and white to be "the actor's best friend", feeling that it focused more on the actor's expressions and feelings than on hair, eye or wardrobe color.

Was very good friends with Peter Bogdanovich, in whose house he lived for several years during Bogdanovich's affair with Cybill Shepherd. Welles even gave Bogdanovich written instructions to finish his last film, The Other Side of the Wind (1972), before his death.

Was a passionate painter

Most of his movie projects never got finished or released due to financial problems and disputes with studio executives. Some of his unfinished productions are: The Deep (1970) (Laurence Harvey's death made a finished movie impossible), The Merchant of Venice (1969) (TV) and Don Quixote (1992).

Longtime companion of Oja Kodar. They lived together until his death.

Has been played by Vincent D'Onofrio twice: Ed Wood (1994) and Five Minutes, Mr. Welles (2005).

In the 1930s, he worked at various radio stations in New York City, at different times of the day. He found it difficult to be on time for his live shows because he had to use taxicabs and the heavy New York City traffic meant that he was often late. He soon found a loophole in the law that said you didn't have to be sick to hire an ambulance, so he did just that and had the drivers blast their sirens as he traveled from one station to the next, and that way he was on time.

Profiled in in J.A. Aberdeen's Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. Palos Verdes Estates, CA: Cobblestone Entertainment.

Merv Griffin claimed in his 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.

His performance as Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949) is ranked #93 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

His performance as Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941) is ranked #12 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Hated working on The Transformers: The Movie (1986), where he voiced Unicron. When asked about the film, he not only couldn't remember the name of his character, but he described the film as being "I play a big toy who attacks a bunch of smaller toys.".

John Ford, whom Welles admired as the greatest American director and who, in turn, admired Welles as a director and actor, wanted to cast him as Mayor Frank Skeffington in his movie adaption of Edwin O'Connor's novel The Last Hurrah (1958). Welles was unable to accept the role due to scheduling conflicts, and Spencer Tracy was cast instead.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 861-864. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

CBS wanted him to host "Twilight Zone" (1959) but the producers felt that he requested too much money. He was ultimately ruled out in favor of the show's creator, Rod Serling.

Was George Lucas' first choice as the voice for Darth Vader, but he thought the voice would be too recognizable.

He was of Scottish, Irish and German heritage.

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Marlene Dietrich said about him: "You should cross yourself when you say his name!".

Was close friends with Bud Cort .

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.

He died only two hours after being interviewed on "The Merv Griffin Show" (1962) on October 10, 1985.

When execs at RKO couldn't decide on greenlight-ing Citizen Kane (1941), Orson asked for film equipment and a small crew released so he could spend the mid-way time doing test shots. Not wanting their New-York-import to grow cold with the RKO deal, they granted the request ... Orson proceeded to shoot actual scenes of the movie. By the time execs realized what he had done, Orson had many key scenes complete. They green-lit Citizen Kane (1941) ... Already having financed the picture, unknowingly.

He was a friend with Josip 'Broz' Tito, a partisan leader and a president of a former country of Yugoslavia.

Last completed work as director was "The Orson Welles Show" a never broadcast television show.

Directed 2 actors to Oscar nominations: Himself (Best Actor, Citizen Kane (1941)), and Agnes Moorehead (Best Supporting Actress, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)).

He and John Huston were good friends from the 1940s to Welles' death in 1985. Both men coincidentally made their spectacular debut as directors in 1941 (Welles with Citizen Kane (1941) and Huston with The Maltese Falcon (1941)). Both would eventually be directed by the other: Welles' had a cameo in Huston's adaptation of Moby Dick (1956) and Huston played the lead in Welles' unfinished The Other Side of the Wind (1972).

He remained good friends with Joseph Cotten until the end of his life, despite a working relationship that was often considered demanding of the older Cotten.

George, his given name, was in honor of his father's friend, humorist George Ade.

From a brief affair with actress, Geraldine Fitzgerald, he fathered a son, director, Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Since she was married at the time, she gave him her husband's name.

Welles' Oscar statuette sold for $861,542, when it was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia on December 20, 2011.

Film critics lobbied for him to record an audio commentary for Citizen Kane (1941), but he refused, stating that he was tired of talking about it.

Orson Welles was so impressed with Dorothea "Garbo" Durham that he walked on stage, where she was performing at the Rhumboogie, and put $500 dollars in her hand. Dorothea Durham, who went by stage name La Garbo, was a popular dancer in the 1930s and 1940s on the West Coast, who danced at the Cotton Club, Rhumboogie, and in Duke Ellington's "Jump for Joy". She also appeared in films as a dancer in such movies as Cabin in the Sky (1940).

Personal Quotes

Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit.

[commenting on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh's ear for music.

I'm not very fond of movies. I don't go to them much.

I started at the top and worked down.

I'm not bitter about Hollywood's treatment of me, but over its treatment of D.W. Griffith, Josef von Sternberg, Erich von Stroheim, Buster Keaton and a hundred others.

Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre.

[on Hollywood in the 1980s) We live in a snake pit here . . . I hate it but I just don't allow myself to face the fact that I hold it in contempt because it keeps on turning out to be the only place to go.

I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.

If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girl friends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys.

I hate it when people pray on the screen. It's not because I hate praying, but whenever I see an actor fold his hands and look up in the spotlight, I'm lost. There's only one other thing in the movies I hate as much, and that's sex. You just can't get in bed or pray to God and convince me on the screen.

[on Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie.

[at RKO Pictures working on "Heart of Darkness", a film he later abandoned] This is the biggest electric train set a boy ever had!

For thirty years people have been asking me how I reconcile X with Y! The truthful answer is that I don't. Everything about me is a contradiction and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

I think I'm . . . I made essentially a mistake staying in movies, because I . . . but it . . . it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like saying, "I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I love her." I would have been more successful if I'd left movies immediately. Stayed in the theater, gone into politics, written-- anything. I've wasted the greater part of my life looking for money, and trying to get along . . . trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paint box which is an . . . a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with a movie. It's about 2% movie making and 98% hustling. It's no way to spend a life.

I think it is always a tremendously good formula in any art form to admit the limitations of the form.

I don't pray because I don't want to bore God.

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.

I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theater, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai.

The word "genius" was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to me that I wasn't until middle age.

I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.

I'm not rich. Never have been. When you see me in a bad movie as an actor (I hope not as a director), it is because a good movie has not been offered to me. I often make bad films in order to live.

Everybody denies that I am genius - but nobody ever called me one.

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.

Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation.

I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money.

Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.

Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except you never know when luxury is going to stand up.

I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.

If spiritually you're part of the cat family, you can't bear to be laughed at. You have to pretend when you fall down that you really wanted to be down there to see what's under the sofa. The rest of us don't at all mind being laughed at.

[on his favorite directors] I prefer the old masters; by which I mean: John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.

[on James Cagney] No one was more unreal and stylized, yet there is no moment when he was not true.

[on René Clair] A real master: he invented his own Paris, which is better than recording it.

[on Federico Fellini] His films are a small-town boy's dream of a big city. His sophistication works because it is the creation of someone who doesn't have it. But he shows dangerous signs of being a superlative artist with little to say.

[on Edward G. Robinson] An immensely effective actor.

The optimists are incapable of understanding what it means to adore the impossible.

A movie studio is the best toy a boy ever had.

[on Stanley Kubrick] Among the young generation, Kubrick strikes me as a giant.

[to Dick Cavett] I'm always sorry to hear that anybody I admire has been an actor . . . When did you go straight?

I don't think history can possibly be true. Possibly! I'll tell you why. We all know people who get things written about, and we know that they're lies written. I told a story to Buck Henry, last year in Weymouth, and he told the story that he thought I told him to a newspaper that I read the other day, and it bears not the *slightest* resemblance to what I said! Now, that's an intelligent man, a year later, meaning me well, and that's the gospel according to Buck Henry, and it's totally apocryphal. Imagine what nonsense everything else is!

[About Nostradamus' ability to predict the future] One might as well make predictions based on random passages from the phone book.

[After his first tour of RKO Studios] This is the biggest toy-train set any boy ever had.

[on Jean-Luc Godard] His gifts as a director are enormous. I just can't take him very seriously as a thinker - and that's where we seem to differ, because he does. His message is what he cares about these days, and, like most movie messages, it could be written on the head of a pin.

The only good artists are feminine. I don't believe an artist exists whose dominant characteristic is not feminine. It's nothing to do with homosexuality, but intellectually an artist must be a man with feminine aptitudes.

I know that in theory the word is secondary in cinema, but the secret of my work is that everything is based on the word. I always begin with the dialogue. And I do not understand how one dares to write action before dialogue. I must begin with what the characters say. I must know what they say before seeing them do what they do.

A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a director an army.

I liked the cinema better before I began to do it. Now I can't stop myself from hearing the clappers at the beginning of each shot. All the magic is destroyed.

I think it's very harmful to see movies for movie makers because you either imitate them or worry about not imitating them and you should do movies innocently and i lost my innocence. Every time i see a picture i lose something i don't gain. I never understand what directors mean when they compliment me and say they've learned from my pictures because i don't believe in learning from other people's pictures. You should learn from your own interior vision and discover innocently as though there had never been D. W. Griffith or Eisenstein or Ford or Renoir or anybody.

Salary

Jane Eyre (1943)	$100,000
The Stranger (1946)	$50,000
Macbeth (1948)	$100,000 (for acting, adapting and directing)
Black Magic (1949)	$100,000
The Third Man (1949)	$100,000
Moby Dick (1956)	£6,000
"I Love Lucy" (1951)	$15,000
Man in the Shadow (1957/I)	$60,000
The Long, Hot Summer (1958)	$150,000
The Roots of Heaven (1958)	settlement of debts worth $15,000
Compulsion (1959)	$100,000
The Kremlin Letter (1970)	$50,000