Actors - Orson Welles

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	Actors - Orson Welles

George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) is considered one of the greatest directors of film and the theatre, as well as a fine actor, screenwriter, broadcaster and producer. His first feature film, Citizen Kane
(1941) and last Hollywood film Touch of Evil
(1958) are both universally acknowledged as important steps in the history of cinema and widely cited by critics as among the best films ever made, while his various productions with the Mercury Theatre were considered revolutionary in the theatrical world.

Early career

Welles was born in 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He had an unusual childhood, being somewhat of a prodigy, and his personal relationships suffered as a result. His mother died when he was nine, and his father, Richard Head Welles, receded into the past, an alcoholic.

Welles performed and staged his first theatrical productions while attending the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois and was brought under the guidance of the principal, Roger Hill, who became a surrogate father to Welles. While there he was also tutored by Dorothy Hartshorne, a singer and wife of late theologian-philosopher Charles Hartshorne. He made his stage debut at the famous Gate Theatre in Dublin, Ireland in 1931 when he talked himself onto the stage and appeared in small supporting roles, and by 1934 was a radio director/actor in the United States, working with some of the cast that later became the Mercury Theatre. In that year, the brown-eyed actor married the actress and socialite Virginia Nicholson; Welles also co-directed and starred in a short silent film, unintended for commercial release, titled The Hearts of Age
, which also featured Nicholson.

Renown in Theater and Radio

In 1936, the Federal Theatre Projects began putting theatre performers and employees to work with projects that were intended for the masses. Welles came to their attention, and at the age of only 21, he was assigned to direct a project in Harlem with a group of African-American performers and stagehands. At the suggestion of his wife, he decided to produce Macbeth but set it in Haiti, in the court of King Henri Christophe. While the play attracted its share of critics and detractors during pre-production, the show opened to rave reviews and sold out box offices.

After the success of Macbeth, Welles began producing and directing other shows, such as Dr. Faustus and a satire, Horse Eats Hat. In 1937, Welles was producing the pro-labor show, The Cradle Will Rock, when the Federal Theatre Project, aware of its subject matter, closed the Maxine Elliott Theatre on the day of its first dress rehearsal. In a move that would become legendary, Welles and his producing partner, John Houseman, decided to wait till almost curtain time to announce to the ticket holders standing outside the Maxine Elliott Theatre that the show was moving to another theater. The cast, crew and audience then proceeded to march to The Venice, about twenty blocks away. The show began, with its writer, Marc Blitzstein, introducing the show and playing the accompanying piano on stage. Since the unions wouldn't permit the actors or musicians to perform the show (naturally on the stage), the musicians and actors performed the show from the audience seats. The show was a hit.

With his theater success, Welles and Houseman decided to form their own theater company, the Mercury Theatre. Their first show was a production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. With fascism sweeping through Europe, Welles imagined the main characters in Nazi-type uniforms, with Nuremburg-type lights and a fascist theme to the settings. Not only was the play an enormous success, but some theater critics have said that it was among the best performances of Shakespeare in American theater history.

While setting Broadway on fire, Welles was very active in radio as well, first as an actor and soon as a director/producer. He began playing The Shadow
in late 1937, and in the summer of 1938 Welles and the Mercury Theatre began weekly broadcasts of short radio plays based on classic or popular literary works. Their October 30 broadcast of that year was an adaptation of The War of the Worlds
. This brought Welles his first public notoriety on a national level, as the program created panic among some listeners who found it completely convincing. Welles's adaptation of H. G. Wells' classic novel simulated a news broadcast, cutting into a routine dance music program to describe the landing of Martian spacecraft in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. The innovative broadcast was realistic enough to frighten many in the audience into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Recordings of the broadcast are still available (see old-time radio and also the UK Region 2 DVD of Citizen Kane). The publicity that resulted from this led to Campbell's Soup sponsoring the previously unsponsored Mercury Theatre on the Air and eventually the offer of a three-picture Hollywood contract from RKO Pictures. Welles continued working extensively in radio throughout the 1940s, though his success there had its ups and downs as did his movie career. The cast of The Mercury Theatre even made the move to Hollywood with him, and The Campbell Playhouse moved its broadcast from New York to Hollywood as well.

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Actors - Orson Welles

Early career

Renown in Theater and Radio

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