Orson Welles

Claiming the exposure of gullibility in America, Orson Welles is notorious for his 1938 radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. A performer, director, and producer in film and theater, Welles adapted the story to sound like a real-life newscast and induced widespread panic as he read it on air as an intended prank for Halloween. Besides his talents in film and theater, Welles was also an accomplished magician and had other artful talents including music and painting.

Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Richard Welles, a wealthy inventor, and Beatrice Ives, a concert pianist. Welles’s mother died when he was a young child and he traveled the world with his father until his death in 1930, when started to Welles pursue a Broadway career. After some assistance through introductions by Thornton Wilder, Welles’s stage debut was as Tybalt in a 1934 production of Romeo and Juliet. Welles spent the remainder of the 1930s active in radio and theater productions, both as a performer and director. His 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds delivered him into fame on a national level and helped pave his way into Hollywood.

His first feature film, and one for which he is fondly remembered, was Citizen Kane. Disputes over the film’s showings arose and only a limited number of theatres ran the movie, however, it received nine Academy Award Nominations and won Best Screenplay. Shortly after, Welles was offered his own radio show, The Orson Welles Show, but it was moderately unsuccessful. Still, Welles’s career in Hollywood was well underway.

He directed and starred in a number of subsequent films including MacBeth in 1948 and The Stranger. Welles had a role in the 1956 film Moby Dick, which starred Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, and also wrote a play and filmed his own version of the epic tale. Welles also starred in a spoof of the original film adaptation of Ian Flemming’s Casino Royale in 1967. In this version, Peter Sellers played 007, the role that now belongs to Daniel Craig after the 2006 feature film release of the same title.

Welles split his time and career between America and Europe. Traveling, living, and working in both until his final return to the States in the early 1970s. One of Welles’s later and most memorable roles was as Long John Silver in Treasure Island in 1972. Welles was also considered for the voice of Darth Vader in George Lucas’s Star Wars saga, but the role was awarded to James Earl Jones.

At the time of Welles’s death he had garnered many awards including three lifetime achievement awards from the American Film Institute. Welles died of a heart attack on October 10, 1985. He had three children, one with each of three wives: Paolo Mori (1955 to 1985), Rita Hayworth (1943 to 1948), and Virginia Nicholson (1938 to 1940).

YUDDY