Orson Welles

Born: 1915-05-06 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA

Died: 1985-10-10

Known For: Directing

Biography

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur." After directing a number of high-profile theatrical productions in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock, Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety. Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces. In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.

Filmography

2028

Charmed Lives: A Family Romance as Self (archive footage)

2026

Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas as Self / The Director / Sir John Falstaff (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Making Of as Self (archival)
War of the Worlds as narrator

2025

Titanic: Secrets of the Shipwreck as Self (archive footage)
Human Nature in Eleven Parts as Narrator "The Scorpion and the Frog" (archive footage)
WeirdWorld as Troy2000 (Archive footage)
The Scorpion and the Frog as Narrator (archive footage)

2024

Jim Henson Idea Man as Self (archive footage)
The Battle of Grovers Mill as Radio Host (voice) (archival footage)
Aliens Uncovered: Close Encounters as Self
Othelo The Great as Self (archive footage)

2023

Looking Back Before You Leap as General Zaroff (voice)
It's Pretty, but is it Art? as Self (voiceover)
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight as Falstaff

2022

Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues as Self (archive footage)
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend as Self (archive footage)
American: An Odyssey to 1947 as Self (archive footage)
The Welles Raft as Himself (Archive Footage)

2021

The Real Charlie Chaplin as Self (archive footage)
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Morceaux de Cannes as Self (archive footage)
Parkinson at 50 as Self (archive footage)
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard as Self (archive footage)
Tall Tales: The Ireland of Orson Welles as Self
My Guest is Orson Welles

2020

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind as Self (archive footage)
Hopper/Welles as Self

2019

LIFE BEYOND as Self (voice)
Halston ... (Theme Song Performance)
Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil" as (archive footage)
Cerné par le diable ... (Thanks)

2018

The Other Side of the Wind as Journalist (uncredited)
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead as Self (archive footage)
The Eyes of Orson Welles as Self - Filmmaker / Various Roles (archive footage)
Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit as Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
The Brother Side of the Wake ... (Thanks)
Silent Times ... (Thanks)

2017

The Magic History of Cinema

2016

Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran's Ultimate Party as Self (archive footage) (voice)
Passage to Mars ... (Theme Song Performance)
Embers & Dust as Professor Richard Pierson / Self (voice) (archive sound)