Orson Welles
Directing
- Born:
- 1915-05-06
- Died:
- 1985-10-10
- Place of birth:
- Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Biography
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur." After directing a number of high-profile theatrical productions in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock, Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety. Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces. In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.
Known For
Filmography
Charmed Lives: A Family Romance
War of the Worlds
The Making Of
Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas
WeirdWorld
Titanic: Secrets of the Shipwreck
Human Nature in Eleven Parts
The Scorpion and the Frog
Othelo The Great
The Battle of Grovers Mill
Aliens Uncovered: Close Encounters
Jim Henson Idea Man
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
It's Pretty, but is it Art?
Looking Back Before You Leap
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend
American: An Odyssey to 1947
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
The Welles Raft
My Guest is Orson Welles
The Real Charlie Chaplin
Tall Tales: The Ireland of Orson Welles
Parkinson at 50
Morceaux de Cannes
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
Hopper/Welles
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
LIFE BEYOND
Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil"
The Other Side of the Wind
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
The Eyes of Orson Welles
Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit
The Magic History of Cinema
Embers & Dust
Decadence and Downfall: The Shah of Iran's Ultimate Party
This Is Orson Welles
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance
Too Much Johnson
Jodorowsky's Dune
Talking Pictures
Magic Mirror Maze
The Shadow Knows
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
Jucy
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
Orson Welles: The Paris Interview
Hollywood sul Tevere
Lucifer et moi
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
The Deep
Lost in "The Thinking"
Orson Welles Talks With Roger Hill
Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
The Other Side of Welles
The Well
Orson Welles Uncut
Parkinson
The Hitch Hiker
The UFO Conspiracy
The Dominici Affair by Orson Welles
Filming 'The Trial'
Heart of the Festival
Lost in La Mancha
The Movie Movie (An Excerpt)
A Huey P. Newton Story
The Paranormal Peter Sellers
NASA: A Space Odyssey Vol. 3
Orson Welles in the Land of Don Quixote
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
Moby Dick
One Man Band
According to Occam's Razor
Hi-Fi
The Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts
It's All Brazil
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Celebração - 100 Anos do Cinema Nacional
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
Orson Welles: The One-Man Band
The First 100 Years: A Celebration of American Movies
La Classe américaine
It's All True
Rosabella - La storia italiana di Orson Welles
Working with Orson Welles
Don Quixote
The Complete 'Citizen Kane'
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
With Orson Welles: Stories from a Life in Film
Welles' Language
Rita Hayworth: Dancing Into the Dream
American Experience
On the tracks of a filmmaker
Someone to Love
Unseen Lollo
It's Not All True
The Transformers: The Movie
The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years
Scene of the Crime
Moonlighting
The Dreamers
Orson Welles' Magic Show
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Michael Landon
Almonds and Raisins
The Road to Bresson
The Last Sailors: The Final Days of Working Sail
In Our Hands
The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh
Where Is Parsifal?
The Witching
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
The Psychic Connection
King Penguin: Stranded Beyond the Falklands
Orson Welles at the Cinémathèque Française
Hot Money
Slapstick of Another Kind
Wagner e Venezia
Natalie - A Tribute to a Very Special Lady
The Orson Welles Story
Baryshnikov in Hollywood
Genocide
Night of 100 Stars
Doug Henning's World of Magic
Butterfly
Let Poland Be Poland
Magic with the Stars
The Quest for Fire Adventure
A Gift of Harvest
Brasil
Search for the Titanic
History of the World: Part I
Tales of the Klondike
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow
Magnum, P.I.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park
Shōgun
The Secret of Nikola Tesla
A Step Away
The Greenstone
The New Media Bible: Book of Genesis
Frank Sinatra: The First 40 Years
To Try Again... and Succeed
Filming Othello
The Muppet Movie
The Double McGuffin
The Orson Welles Show
The Greatest Adventure--The Story of Man's Voyage to the Moon
A Woman Called Moses
The Magic of David Copperfield
Orson Welles at The Magic Castle
The Biggest Battle
The Late Great Planet Earth
Mysterious Castles of Clay
Caesar's Guide to Gaming with Orson Welles
It Happened One Christmas
The Lions of Capitalism: Some Call It Greed
The Force Beyond
Tut: The Boy King
Hot Tomorrows
The Shirley MacLaine Special: Where Do We Go from Here?
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
From Fiber to Fabric: Wool's a Natural
Voyage of the Damned
NBC: The First Fifty Years
The New Deal for Artists
Cérémonie des César
Bugs Bunny Superstar
A Mother's Tale
Doug Henning's World of Magic
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Orson Welles - Das vermarktete Genie
Magnificent Monsters of the Deep
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Who's Out There?
The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art
A Legend a Lifetime: Citizen Welles
Dinah!
And Then There Were None
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still
Power and Corruption
The Monkey's Paw
Kelly Country
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts
F for Fake
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
The Battle of Sutjeska
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
The Cave
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Treasure Island
Necromancy
Get to Know Your Rabbit
Malpertuis
Jeanne Moreau : Vive le cinéma !
Future Shock
Ten Days' Wonder
A Safe Place
Directed by John Ford
The Silent Years
V.I.P. Schaukel
Sentinels of Silence
Flame of Persia
Freedom River
An Evening with Orson Welles: The Golden Honeymoon
An Evening with Orson Welles: The Happy Prince
An Evening with Orson Welles: American Heritage, Vol. I – Selections from George Ade, Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain
An Evening with Orson Welles: American Heritage, Vol. II – Clarence Darrow
An Evening with Orson Welles: Two Wise Old Men – Socrates and Noah
An Evening with Orson Welles: My Little Boy
Night Gallery
Is It Always Right to Be Right?
Waterloo
The Enemy Before Us
Catch-22
Start the Revolution Without Me
The Kremlin Letter
Upon This Rock
A Horse Called Nijinsky
The Merchant of Venice (Rushes)
Soft Self-Portrait of Salvador Dali
The Merchant of Venice
Twelve Plus One
The Battle of Neretva
The Southern Star
The Fight for Rome II - The Betrayal
Tepepa
To Build a Fire
The Fight for Rome
The Name of the Game
The Immortal Story
House of Cards
Around the World of Mike Todd
The Dick Cavett Show
Portrait: Orson Welles
Oedipus the King
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Vienna
I'll Never Forget What's'isname
Beggars Would Ride
Omnibus
Disorder Is 20 Years Old
Casino Royale
The Sailor from Gibraltar
Ten Days That Shook the World
A Man for All Seasons
Is Paris Burning?
Orson Welles in Spain
Chimes at Midnight
Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees
Americans on Everest
National Geographic Specials
Marco the Magnificent
Profile No. 6: Orson Welles
A King's Story
Pour le plaisir
The Finest Hours
In the Land of Don Quixote
Hollywood and the Stars
The V.I.P.s
La ricotta
Ro.Go.Pa.G.
River of the Ocean
The Merv Griffin Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Trial
Lafayette
Tempo
King of Kings
The Tartars
Survival
Austerlitz
An Arabian Night
Crack in the Mirror
Five Columns on the Front Page: Hong Kong as seen by Orson Welles
David and Goliath
High Journey
Ferry to Hong Kong
Compulsion
Lords of the Forest
The Roots of Heaven
The Fountain of Youth
Orson Welles at Large: Portrait of Gina
Colgate Theatre
South Seas Adventure
The Vikings
The Long, Hot Summer
Touch of Evil
Monitor
Man in the Shadow
Out of Darkness
Moby Dick
The Steve Allen Show
Cinépanorama
Orson Welles and People: Camille, the Naked Lady and the Musketeers
The Land of the Basques
Around the World with Orson Welles
Ford Star Jubilee
Mr. Arkadin
Moby Dick—Rehearsed
Orson Welles' Sketch Book
Napoleon
Three Cases of Murder
Trouble in the Glen
Reflets de Cannes
Royal Affairs in Versailles
King Lear
Man, Beast and Virtue
Return to Glennascaul
Omnibus
Trent's Last Case
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Othello
I Love Lucy
Disorder
The Black Rose
What's My Line?
The Miracle of St. Anne
Prince of Foxes
The Third Man
Black Magic
Macbeth
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Lady from Shanghai
Duel in the Sun
Battle for Survival
The Stranger
Tomorrow Is Forever
Mexico City, Old and New
Follow the Boys
Know Your Ally: Britain
Jane Eyre
Show-Business at War
Journey into Fear
The Magnificent Ambersons
Citizen Kane
Swiss Family Robinson
The Green Goddess
The Spanish Earth
The Hearts of Age
Twelfth Night
Something Else
Voyage of the Brigantine Yankee