ORSON WELLES
Information from IMDb
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)
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 casts 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.
His beard
Cigar
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 "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 film-maker, 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 "The 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 has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for motion pictures at 1600 Vine Street and for radio at 6652 Hollywood Boulevard.
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 1930's and 1940's 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.
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 U.S. 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 film maker has climbed steadily ever since.
IMDb Mini Biography By: Ed Stephan
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
Pay the Devil (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
Filmography
Actor
1987 Someone to Love...Danny's Friend
1986 The Transformers: The Movie...Unicron (voice)
1984 Where Is Parsifal?...Klingsor
1984 Gurikku no bouken...Pippo (voice)
1981-1983 Magnum, P.I. (TV series)
– The Big Blow (1983) … Robin Masters (voice) (uncredited)
– J. 'Digger' Doyle (1981) … Robin Masters (voice)
1983 Hot Money...Sheriff Paisley
1982 Slapstick (Of Another Kind)...Father of the Aliens (voice) (uncredited)
1982 Butterfly...Judge Rauch
1982 Wagner and Venice (TV short)...Richard Wagner (voice)
1981 History of the World: Part I...Narrator (voice)
1981 Tales of the Klondike (TV mini-series)...Narrator (voice)
1981 The Man Who Saw Tomorrow...Narrated by/Narrator
1980 Shogun (TV movie)...Narrator (voice)
1980 Shogun (TV mini-series)...Narrator (original version)
1980 Tajna Nikole Tesle...J.P. Morgan
1980 The Greenstone (short)...Narrator (voice)
1979 The Double McGuffin...Narrator (voice)
1979 The Muppet Movie...Lew Lord
1979 The New Media Bible: Book of Genesis...Narrator
1978 A Woman Called Moses (TV movie)...Narrator (voice)
1978 Il grande attacco...Narrator (voice)
1977 It Happened One Christmas (TV movie)...Henry F. Potter
1977 Hot Tomorrows...Parklawn Mortuary (voice)
1977 Rime of the Ancient Mariner (short)...Narrator (voice)
1977 Some Call It Greed...Narrator (voice)
1976 Voyage of the Damned...José Estedes
1975 Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (TV short)...Narrator/Nag/Chuchundra (voice)
1974 And Then There Were None...U. N. Owen (voice)
1973 Great Mysteries (TV series)– Captain Rogers (1973)
1972 The Man Who Came to Dinner (TV movie)...Sheridan Whiteside
1972 Treasure Island...Long John Silver
1972 Necromancy...Mr. Cato
1972 Get to Know Your Rabbit...Mr. Delasandro
1971 La décade prodigieuse...Théo Van Horn - un multimillionnaire qui vit en despote dans sa maison
1971 Night Gallery (TV series)– The Phantom Farmhouse/Silent Snow, Secret Snow (1971) … Narrator (segment "Silent Snow, Secret Snow") (voice)
1971 A Safe Place...The Magician
1971 Freedom River (short)...Narrator (voice)
1971 London (short)...Winston Churchill / George Bernard Shaw / Various
1971 Malpertuis...Cassavius
1970 Is It Always Right to Be Right? (short)...Narrator (voice)
1970/I Waterloo...Louis XVIII
1970 The Name of the Game (TV series)– The Enemy Before Us (1970) … Narrator
1970 Catch-22...Brig. Gen. Dreedle
1970 Start the Revolution Without Me...The Narrator
1970 The Kremlin Letter...Bresnavitch
1970 The Golden Honeymoon (short)
1970 The Deep...Russ Brewer
1970 Upon This Rock (TV movie)...Michelangelo (voice)
1969 Twelve Plus One...Maurice Markau
1969 Bitka na Neretvi...Chetnik Senator
1969 The Southern Star...Plankett
1969 Kampf um Rom II - Der Verrat...Justinian
1969 Tepepa...Colonel Cascorro
1969 To Build a Fire...Narrator (voice)
1969 The Merchant of Venice (TV movie)...Shylock
1968 The Fight for Rome...Emperor Justinian
1968 House of Cards...Leschenhaut
1968 Oedipus the King...Tiresias
1968 The Immortal Story (TV movie)...Mr. Charles Clay
1967 I'll Never Forget What's'isname...Jonathan Lute
1967 The Sailor from Gibraltar...Louis de Mozambique
1967 Casino Royale...Le Chiffre
1966 A Man for All Seasons...Cardinal Wolsey
1966 Is Paris Burning?...Consul Raoul Nordling
1965 Falstaff - Chimes at Midnight...Falstaff
1965 Marco the Magnificent
Akerman, Marco's Tutor
1965 La isla del tesoro (short)...Long John Silver
1965 Treasure Island (short)...Long John Silver
1964 The Finest Hours (documentary)...Narrator (voice)
1963 The V.I.P.s...Max Buda
1963 Ro.Go.Pa.G...The 'Director' (segment "La ricotta")
1962 The Trial...Albert Hastler (The Advocate)
1961 King of Kings...Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1961 I tartari...Burundai
1961 La Fayette...Benjamin Franklin
1960 Austerlitz...Robert Fulton
1960 An Arabian Night (TV movie)...Storyteller
1960 Crack in the Mirror...Hagolin/Lamerciere
1960 David and Goliath...King Saul
1959 Ferry to Hong Kong...Captain Hart
1959 Compulsion...Jonathan Wilk
1959 High Journey (short)...Narrator (voice)
1958 The Roots of Heaven...Cy Sedgewick
1958 The Fountain of Youth (TV short)...Host/narrator
1958 South Seas Adventure...Supplemental Narrator (voice)
1958 The Vikings...Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1958 Touch of Evil...Police Captain Hank Quinlan
1958 The Long, Hot Summer...Will Varner
1957/I Pay the Devil...Virgil Renchler
1956 Moby Dick...Father Mapple
1956 Ford Star Jubilee (TV series)– Twentieth Century (1956) … Oscar Jaffe
1955 Confidential Report...Gregory Arkadin
1955 Napoléon...Sir Hudson Lowe
1955 Three Cases of Murder...Lord Mountdrago ("Lord Mountdrago" segment)
1955 Moby Dick Rehearsed (TV movie)...An Actor Manager / Father Mapple / Ahab
1954 Trouble in the Glen...Sanin Cejador y Mengues
1954 Si Versailles m'était conté...Benjamin Franklin
1953 King Lear (TV movie)...King Lear
1953 Omnibus (TV series)– King Lear (1953) … King Lear
1953 L'uomo, la bestia e la virtù...Captain Perella, the Beast
1953 Return to Glennascaul (short)...Narrator
1952 Trent's Last Case...Sigsbee Manderson
1952 Othello...Othello
1950 The Black Rose...Bayan
1949 Prince of Foxes...Cesare Borgia
1949 The Third Man...Harry Lime
1949 Black Magic...Joseph Balsamo aka Count Cagliostro
1948 Macbeth...Macbeth
1947 The Lady from Shanghai...Michael O'Hara
1946 Duel in the Sun...Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
1946 The Stranger...Professor Charles Rankin
1946 Tomorrow Is Forever...John Andrew MacDonald/Erik Kessler
1943 Jane Eyre...Edward Rochester
1943 Journey Into Fear...Colonel Haki
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons...Narrator (voice)
1941 Citizen Kane...Kane
1940 Swiss Family Robinson...Opening Off-Screen Narrator (uncredited)
1938 Too Much Johnson (short)...Keystone Kop
1934 The Hearts of Age (short)...Death
Writer
2008 F for favor (short) (writer)
2007 The Hitchhiker (radio script - uncredited)
2002 The Magnificent Ambersons (TV movie) (1942 screenplay)
2000 Moby Dick (short) (play)
1999 The Big Brass Ring (earlier screenplay)
1998 The Way to Santiago (short) (writer)
1997 The Hearts of Age (short) (concept)
1997 The Big Brass Ring (short)
1992 Don Quixote
1985 Orson Welles' Magic Show (TV short)
1984 The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (short)
1982 Orson Welles' The Dreamers (documentary short) (written by)
1978 Filming 'Othello' (documentary) (writer)
1976 NBC: The First Fifty Years - A Closer Look (TV documentary)
1973 F for Fake (documentary) (writer)
1972 Treasure Island (screenplay / as O.W. Jeeves)
1972 The Other Side of the Wind
1971 London (short)
1970 The Golden Honeymoon (short)
1970 The Deep
1969 The Merchant of Venice (TV movie)
1968 The Immortal Story (TV movie)
1968 Vienna (short) (writer)
1966 The Bible: In the Beginning... (uncredited)
1965 Falstaff - Chimes at Midnight
1965 La isla del tesoro (short)
1965 Treasure Island (short)
1962 The Trial (screenplay)
1958 The Fountain of Youth (TV short)
1958 Touch of Evil (screenplay)
1958 Viva Italia (TV documentary)
1956 Orson Welles and People (TV movie)
1955 Around the World with Orson Welles (TV series documentary)
– Madrid Bullfight (1955) (script)
– The Queen's Pensioners (1955) (writer)
– St. Germain des Prés (1955) (writer)
– The Third Man in Vienna (1955) (writer)
– La Pelote Basque (1955) (writer)
all 7 episodes »
1955 Orson Welles' Sketch Book (TV series)
– Bullfighting (1955) (uncredited)
– The War of the Worlds (1955) (uncredited)
– Houdini/John Barrymore/Voodoo Story/The People I Missed (1955) (uncredited)
– The Police (1955) (uncredited)
– Critics (1955) (uncredited)
all 6 episodes »
1955 Confidential Report (screenplay / story)
1955 Moby Dick Rehearsed (TV movie)
1952 Othello (uncredited)
1950 The Miracle of St. Anne (short)
1949 The Third Man (uncredited)
1948 Macbeth (adaptation - uncredited)
1947 The Lady from Shanghai (screenplay)
1947 Monsieur Verdoux (based on an idea by)
1946 The Stranger (uncredited)
1943 Journey Into Fear (screenplay)
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons (script writer)
1941 Citizen Kane (original screenplay)
1938 Too Much Johnson (short) (writer)
1934 The Hearts of Age (short)
Director
2000 Moby Dick (short)
1993 It's All True (documentary)
1992 Don Quixote
1985 Orson Welles' Magic Show (TV short)
1984 The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh (short)
1982 Orson Welles' The Dreamers (documentary short)
1981 Filming 'The Trial' (documentary)
1979 The Orson Welles Show (TV movie) (as G.O. Spelvin)
1978 Filming 'Othello' (documentary)
1973 F for Fake (documentary)
1972 The Other Side of the Wind
1971 London (short)
1970 The Golden Honeymoon (short)
1970 The Deep
1969 The Southern Star (opening scenes - uncredited)
1969 The Merchant of Venice (TV movie)
1968 The Immortal Story (TV movie)
1968 Vienna (short)
1965 Falstaff - Chimes at Midnight
1965 Treasure Island (short)
1964 Nella terra di Don Chisciotte (TV series documentary)
1962 The Trial
1962 No Exit (uncredited)
1960 David and Goliath (his own scenes - uncredited)
1958 The Fountain of Youth (TV short)
1958 Touch of Evil
1958 Viva Italia (TV documentary)
1956 Orson Welles and People (TV movie)
1955 Around the World with Orson Welles (TV series documentary)
– Madrid Bullfight (1955)
– The Queen's Pensioners (1955)
– St. Germain des Prés (1955)
– The Third Man in Vienna (1955)
– La Pelote Basque (1955)
all 7 episodes »
1955 Orson Welles' Sketch Book (TV series)
– Bullfighting (1955) (uncredited)
– The War of the Worlds (1955) (uncredited)
– Houdini/John Barrymore/Voodoo Story/The People I Missed (1955) (uncredited)
– The Police (1955) (uncredited)
– Critics (1955) (uncredited)
all 6 episodes »
1955 Confidential Report
1955 Three Cases of Murder (segment "Lord Mountdrago", - uncredited)
1955 Moby Dick Rehearsed (TV movie)
1952 Othello
1950 The Miracle of St. Anne (short)
1949 Black Magic (uncredited)
1948 Macbeth
1947 The Lady from Shanghai (uncredited)
1946 The Stranger
1943 Journey Into Fear (uncredited)
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons
1941 Citizen Kane
1938 Too Much Johnson (short)
1934 The Hearts of Age (short)
Producer
1985 Orson Welles' Magic Show (TV short) (producer)
1982 Orson Welles' The Dreamers (documentary short) (producer)
1981 Filming 'The Trial' (documentary) (producer)
1970 The Deep (producer)
1970 The Golden Honeymoon (short) (producer)
1968 Vienna (short) (producer)
1964 Nella terra di Don Chisciotte (TV series documentary) (producer)
1958 The Fountain of Youth (TV short) (producer)
1956 Orson Welles and People (TV movie) (producer)
1955 Confidential Report (producer)
1952 Othello (producer - uncredited)
1948 Macbeth (producer - uncredited)
1947 The Lady from Shanghai (producer)
1943 Jane Eyre (associate producer - uncredited)
1943 Journey Into Fear (producer - uncredited)
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons (producer - uncredited)
1941 Citizen Kane (production)
1938 Too Much Johnson (short) (producer)
