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Orson Welles
Orson Welles
| Orson Welles | |||||||||||||||
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 Orson Welles in 1937 photograph by Carl Van Vechten. | |||||||||||||||
| Born | George Orson Welles May 6, 1915 Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | October 10, 1985 (aged 70) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1934-1985 | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Virginia Nicholson (1934-1940) Rita Hayworth (1943-1948) Paola Mori (1955-1985) | ||||||||||||||
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George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American director, writer, actor and producer for film, stage, radio and television. Welles first gained wide notoriety for his October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Adapted to sound like a contemporary news broadcast, it caused a number of listeners to panic. In the mid-1930s, his New York theatre adaptations of an all-black voodoo Macbeth and a contemporary allegorical Julius Caesar became legendary. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years. During this period he became a serious political activist and commentator through journalism, radio and public appearances closely associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1941, he co-wrote, directed, produced and starred in Citizen Kane, often chosen in polls of film critics as the greatest film ever made. The rest of his career was often obstructed by lack of funds, incompetent studio interference and other unfortunate occurrences, both during exile in Europe and brief returns to Hollywood. Despite these difficulties Othello won the 1952 Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the Cannes Film Festival and Touch of Evil won the top prize at the Brussels World Fair, while Welles himself considered The Trial and Chimes at Midnight to be the best of his efforts.
Although Welles remained on the margins of the major studios as a director/producer, his larger-than-life personality made him a bankable actor. In his later years he struggled against a Hollywood system that refused to finance his independent film projects, making a living largely through acting, commercials, and voice-over work. Welles received a 1975 American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement award, the third person to do so after John Ford and James Cagney. Critical appreciation for Welles has increased since his death. He is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important dramatic artists of the 20th century, in 2002 being voted in a BFI Top Ten Directors poll by the British Film Institute as the greatest film director of all time.
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Orson Welles
George Orson Welles ( May 6 , 1915 – October 10 , 1985 ) was an iconic Academy Award -winning American director , writer , actor and producer for film , stage , radio and ...
Orson Welles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery / drama film . Released by RKO Pictures , it was the first feature film directed by Orson Welles . The story traces the life and career of Charles ...
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