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 nine) 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, 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; 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.


The Kremlin Letter (1970): $50,000
Compulsion (1959): $100,000
The Roots of Heaven (1958): settlement of debts worth $15,000
The Long, Hot Summer (1958): $150,000
Man in the Shadow (1957/I) (1958): $60,000
Moby Dick (1956): £ 6,000
The Third Man (1949): $100,000
Black Magic (1949): $100,000
Macbeth (1948): $100,000 (for acting, adapting and directing)
The Stranger (1946): $50,000
Jane Eyre (1943): $100,000

Dated Eartha Kitt. He called her "the most exciting woman in the world." On radio, Orson Welles provided the voice for Lamont Cranston, aka The Shadow. 'American Broadcasting Company (ABC) [us]' wanted him to play Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island" (1978), but Aaron Spelling insisted on Ricardo Montalban. 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. Father with Virginia Nicholson of Christopher Welles (b. 1937). Father with Rita Hayworth of Rebecca Welles (b. (27 March 1938). Father with Paola Mori of Beatrice Welles, whom Welles made the sole heir of his estate. 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. 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. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1988. Host/narrator of the BBC/Mutual Radio's "The Black Museum" (1952). 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. Provided voice for some songs of heavy metal band Manowar: Dark Avenger and Defender 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"). Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890- 1945". Pages 1168-1185. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987. Was the subject of author Mary Pacios' book about the Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles in 1947, which has been called the most gruesome, if not most famous murder in the city's history. Pacios supposed that Welles was the unknown murderer who slaughtered struggling actress Elizabeth Short. However, the book was considered pure nonsense and debunked by many historians. 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." 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. 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. Was named #16 on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends list of the American Film Institute. 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". Ranked #9 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Greatest directors ever!" [2005] 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 a passionate painter Longtime companion of Oja Kodar. They lived together until his death. 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. 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 Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941) is ranked #12 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. 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. 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. He was of Scottish, Irish and German heritage. Marlene Dietrich said about him: "You should cross yourself when you say his name!". He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for motion pictures at 1600 Vine Street and for radio at 6652 Hollywood Boulevard. 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.