Welles, Orson (1915-1985), was an actor and motion-picture director. While only in his early 20’s, Welles was regarded as an important director of stage plays and radio series, in which he also performed. In 1938, his famous Halloween radio production of H. G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds frightened many listeners by convincing them that Martians had actually invaded New Jersey. On the strength of this sensation, RKO studios hired Welles to write, direct, and act in his own films in Hollywood.
Welles’s first feature film, Citizen Kane (1941), told the story of a powerful newspaperman, based on the life of publisher William Randolph Hearst. Polls of international film critics rank the film as one of the most important films in motion-picture history. Citizen Kane is regarded, especially for its camera and sound techniques, as perhaps the most influential film ever made in the United States. Welles shared an Academy Award with Herman J. Mankiewicz for best original screenplay for Citizen Kane.
Welles’s next film, The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), is only partly his work. While he was abroad, RKO studios reedited the film and changed the ending. Thereafter, he wrote and directed only a few films in Hollywood, including The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Touch of Evil (1958).
Welles acted in more than 60 films, often to finance his independent filmmaking projects in Europe. In 1949, Welles starred in the classic motion picture The Third Man, by the British director Carol Reed. While in Europe, Welles also directed and acted in two films based on plays by William Shakespeare—Othello (1952) and Falstaff (also called Chimes at Midnight, 1966). Welles was criticized for his flamboyance, but his artistic independence inspired many filmmakers. George Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was married to the American actress Rita Hayworth from 1943 to 1948. In 1975, Welles received an honorary Oscar “for superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures.” He died on Oct. 10, 1985.
