Orson Welles

George Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer and producer. He is remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film. Welles had three marriages, including one with Rita Hayworth, and three children. He wrote and directed more than 50 films, including Citizen Kane and The Lady From Shanghai.

About Orson Welles in brief

Summary Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American actor, director, writer and producer. He is remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film. Welles is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots and long takes. In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all Time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics. In 2018 he was included in the list of the 50 greatest Hollywood actors of alltime by The Daily Telegraph. Wells had three marriages, including one with Rita Hayworth, and three children. He was a lifelong magician noted for presenting troop variety shows in the war years. He performed extensively across theatre, radio and film, and was known for his baritone voice. His final film, The Other Side of the Wind, was released in 2018. The Gordon Quartet, a predecessor to the Berkshire Stringet, had made its first appearance at Beatrice’s funeral in 1921, which he played at. After his mother’s death, Welles ceased pursuing music with the children of Alya Khan, who later described the 12-year-old Welles as what he later called the Prince of the Finger Lakes Region of New York. He died in Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 1973. He had three children with RitaHayworth, who died of hepatitis in 1924. He also had a son with Beatrice Ives Welles, and a daughter with Lydia Coonley Ward, who was later to become one of America’s most successful actresses.

He has been described as “the ultimate auteur” and has been called “the most influential director of the 20th century” He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. His last film was Citizen Kane, which is consistently ranked as the greatest movie ever made, and which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. In 1938, his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air gave Welles the platform to find international fame as the director and narrator of a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds, which caused widespread panic because many listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was in fact occurring. In 1937, he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941, including Caesar, a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He starred in The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil, The Trial, Chimes at Midnight and F for Fake. He was married three times, and had a daughter and two sons. He and his wife, Beatrice, were married for more than 40 years, until his death in 1978. He wrote and directed more than 50 films, including Citizen Kane and The Lady From Shanghai.