View source for Orson Welles

{{Short description|American actor and filmmaker (1915–1985)}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Orson Welles
| image              = Orson Welles 1937 cr3-4.jpg
| caption            = Welles in 1937
| birth_name         = George Orson Welles
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1915|05|06}}
| birth_place        = [[Kenosha, Wisconsin]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1985|10|10|1915|5|6}}
| death_place        = Los Angeles, California, U.S.
| resting_place      = [[Ronda]], Andalusia, Spain
| alma_mater         = 
| occupation         = {{flatlist|
* Film director
* producer
* screenwriter
* actor
}}
| years_active       = 1931–1985
| notable_works      = {{plainlist|
* ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)
* ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'' (1951)
* ''[[Touch of Evil]]'' (1958)
* ''[[The Trial (1962 film)|The Trial]]'' (1962)
* ''[[Chimes at Midnight]]'' (1965)
}}
| spouse             = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Virginia Nicolson|1934|1940|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Rita Hayworth]]|1943|1947|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Paola Mori]]|1955|}}
}}
| partner            = {{plainlist|
* [[Dolores del Río]] (1940–1943)
* [[Oja Kodar]] (from 1966)
}}
| children           = 3, including [[Beatrice Welles|Beatrice]]
| signature          = Orson Welles signature.svg
}}
'''George Orson Welles''' (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor and filmmaker. Remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre,<ref>Buffum, Richard (October 20, 1985). [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-20-me-14080-story.html "Magic Loomed Large in World of Orson Welles"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108062308/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-10-20-me-14080-story.html |date=January 8, 2024 }} ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]''</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Naremore |first1=James |date=2015 |title=Orson Welles: Director, Magician and Pedagogue |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24772596 |journal=New England Review |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=70–74 |doi=10.1353/ner.2015.0061 |jstor=24772596 |quote="'My name is Orson Welles. I am an actor. I am a writer. I am a producer. I am a director. I am a magician. I appear on stage and on the radio. Why are there so many of me and so few of you?'"|issn=1053-1297 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> he is considered among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time.<ref name="NYT obit">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/11/arts/orson-welles-is-dead-at-70-innovator-of-film-and-stage.html |title=Orson Welles is Dead at 70; Innovator of Film and Stage |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 11, 1985 |access-date=January 21, 2023 |archive-date=May 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508100921/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/11/arts/orson-welles-is-dead-at-70-innovator-of-film-and-stage.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Aged 21, Welles directed high-profile stage productions for the [[Federal Theatre Project]] in New York City—starting with a celebrated [[Voodoo Macbeth|1936 adaptation of ''Macbeth'']] with an African-American cast, and ending with the political musical ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' in 1937. He and [[John Houseman]] founded the [[Mercury Theatre]], an independent [[repertory theatre]] company that presented productions on Broadway through 1941, including a modern, politically charged ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]'' (1937). In 1938, his radio anthology series ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]'' gave Welles the platform to find international fame as the director and narrator of [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|a radio adaptation]] of [[H. G. Wells]]'s novel ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', which caused some listeners to believe a [[Martian]] invasion was occurring. The event rocketed the 23-year-old to notoriety.<ref name="McFarland">{{cite book |last=Bartholomew |first=Robert E. |date=2001 |title=Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illness and Social Delusion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GeWm-zM3NEoC&q=Little%20Green%20Men%2C%20Meowing%20Nuns%20and%20Head-Hunting%20Panics%3A&pg=PA219 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-0997-6|page=219 }}</ref>

His first film was ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941), which he  [[Screenplay for Citizen Kane|co-wrote]], produced, directed and starred in as the title character, [[Charles Foster Kane]]. It has been consistently ranked as [[List of films voted the best|one of the greatest films ever made]]. He directed twelve other features, the most acclaimed of which include [[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|''The Magnificent Ambersons'']] (1942), [[Othello (1951 film)|''Othello'']] (1951), ''[[Touch of Evil]]'' (1958), [[The Trial (1962 film)|''The Trial'']] (1962),  and ''[[Chimes at Midnight]]'' (1966).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1998/06/list-o-mania-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-american-movies/|title=List-o-Mania, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love American Movies| date=June 25, 1998|author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum| access-date=May 9, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428194825/http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1998/06/list-o-mania-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-american-movies/|archive-date=April 28, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-chimes-at-midnight-1965 |title=Great Movie: Chimes at Midnight |date=June 4, 2006 |author-link=Roger Ebert |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=January 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200104041851/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-chimes-at-midnight-1965 |url-status=live }}</ref> His distinctive directorial style featured layered and [[nonlinear narrative]] forms, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, [[deep focus]] shots and [[long take]]s. Welles struggled for [[creative control]] while working within the [[studio system]] and later worked as an [[independent film]]maker, though he often failed to secure financing for his projects. He also acted in other directors' films, playing Rochester in ''[[Jane Eyre (1943 film)|Jane Eyre]]'' (1943), Harry Lime in ''[[The Third Man]]'' (1949), and Cardinal Wolsey in ''[[A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)|A Man for All Seasons]]'' (1966).

Welles has been praised as "the ultimate {{lang|fr|[[auteur]]}}{{-"}}.<ref name="Rosenbaum">Rosenbaum, Jonathan (2007) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=95c3YFDncFYC&q=discovering+orson+welles Discovering Orson Welles]''. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-25123-7}}</ref>{{Rp|6|date=April 2014}} He received an [[Academy Award]] and three [[Grammy Awards]] among [[List of awards and nominations received by Orson Welles|other honors and accolades]] such as the [[Golden Lion]] in 1947, the [[Palme D'Or]] in 1952, the [[Academy Honorary Award]] in 1970, the [[AFI Life Achievement Award]] in 1975, and the [[British Film Institute Fellowship]] in 1983. [[British Film Institute]] polls in 2002 voted him the greatest film director ever.<ref name="BFI Directors">{{cite web |url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/directors-directors.html |title=Sight & Sound &#124;Top Ten Poll 2002&nbsp;– The Directors' Top Ten Directors |publisher=BFI |date=September 5, 2006 |access-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013231353/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/directors-directors.html |archive-date=October 13, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="BFI Critics">{{cite web |url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics-directors.html |title=Sight & Sound &#124;Top Ten Poll 2002&nbsp;– The Critics' Top Ten Directors |publisher=BFI |date=September 5, 2006 |access-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303181654/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/critics-directors.html |archive-date=March 3, 2016 }}</ref> In 2018, he was included in the list of the greatest Hollywood actors of all time by ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/best-actors-hollywoods-golden-age/orson-welles0/|title=The 50 greatest actors from Hollywood's Golden Age|date=June 25, 2018|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|access-date=November 9, 2019|issn=0307-1235|archive-date=November 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109191410/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/best-actors-hollywoods-golden-age/orson-welles0/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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== Early life (1915–1931) ==
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[[File:Orson-Welles-1918.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.7|Welles aged three (1918)]]
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George Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin to Richard and Beatrice Welles ([[née]] Ives). After his mother died, Welles ceased pursuing a musical career. It was decided he would spend the summer with the Watson family at a private art colony established by [[Lydia Avery Coonley|Lydia Avery Coonley Ward]] in the village of [[Wyoming, New York|Wyoming]] in the [[Finger Lakes Region]] of New York.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}} There, he played and became friends with the children of [[Aga Khan III|Aga Khan]], including the 12-year-old [[Prince Aly Khan]].{{efn|Years later, the two men successively married [[Rita Hayworth#Orson Welles|Rita Hayworth]].}} Then, in what Welles later described as "a hectic period", he lived in a Chicago apartment with his father and Maurice Bernstein, a Chicago physician who had been a close friend of his parents. Welles attended public school<ref name="Tarbox">{{cite book |last=Tarbox |first=Todd |date=2013 |title=Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts |location=Albany, Georgia |publisher=BearManor Media |isbn=978-1-59393-260-2}}</ref>{{Rp|133}} before his alcoholic father left business altogether and took him along on travels to Jamaica and the Far East. When they returned, they settled in a hotel his father owned in [[Grand Detour, Illinois]]. When the hotel burned down, Welles and his father took to the road again.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}}

"During the three years that Orson lived with his father, some observers wondered who took care of whom", wrote biographer Frank Brady.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}}
king{{anchor|Roger Hill}}
"In some ways, he was never really a young boy, you know", said Roger Hill, who became Welles's teacher and lifelong friend.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|24}}

[[File:Orson-Welles-1926.jpg|upright=.7|left|thumb|Welles in 1926: "Cartoonist, Actor, Poet and only 10"]]

Welles attended public school in Madison, Wisconsin, enrolled in the fourth grade.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|9}} On September 15, 1926, he entered the [[Todd Seminary for Boys]],<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|3|date=April 2014}} an expensive independent school in [[Woodstock, Illinois]], that his older brother Richard Ives Welles had attended ten years earlier, until he was expelled.<ref name="Higham">[[Charles Higham (biographer)|Higham, Charles]], ''Orson Welles: The Rise and Fall of an American Genius''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985 {{ISBN|0-312-31280-6}}</ref>{{Rp|48}} At Todd School, Welles came under the influence of Roger Hill, a teacher who was later the school's headmaster. Hill provided Welles with an ''[[ad hoc]]'' educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on subjects that interested him. Welles performed and staged theatrical experiments and productions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NseAVbjgYOMC&q=orson%20welles%20todd%20school&pg=PP11|title=Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts|last=France|first=Richard|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-97993-6}}</ref>

[[File:Welles-Todd-Schoolmates-1931.jpg|thumb|Welles (fourth from left) with classmates at the [[Todd Seminary for Boys|Todd School for Boys]] (1931)<ref name="woodstockpubliclibraryarchives.omeka/486">{{cite web |title=Todd School Class Photo (Includes Orson Welles) |url=https://woodstockpubliclibraryarchives.omeka.net/items/show/486 |website=Woodstock Public Library Archives |access-date=July 7, 2024 |date=1930}}</ref>]]

"Todd provided Welles with many valuable experiences", wrote critic Richard France. "He was able to explore and experiment in an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement. In addition to a theatre, the school's own radio station was at his disposal."<ref name="France" />{{Rp|27}} Welles's first radio experience was on that station, performing his own adaptation of ''Sherlock Holmes''.<ref name="Heyer">Heyer, Paul, ''The Medium and the Magician: Orson Welles, the Radio Years 1934–1952''. Lanham, Maryland: [[Rowman & Littlefield]], 2005 {{ISBN|0-7425-3797-8}}</ref>{{Rp|7}}

On December 28, 1930, when Welles was 15, his father died of heart and kidney failure in a hotel in Chicago, aged 58. Shortly before, Welles had told his father that he refused to see him until he stopped drinking. Welles suffered lifelong guilt and despair that he was unable to express. "That was the last I ever saw of him", Welles told biographer Barbara Leaming 53 years later. "I don't want to forgive myself."<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|32–33, 463}} His father's will left Welles to name his own guardian. When Roger Hill declined, he chose Dr. Maurice Bernstein,<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|71–72|date=April 2014}} a physician and friend of the family.<ref name="newyorker/ageless-soul">{{cite magazine |last1=Maloney |first1=Russell |title=The Young Orson Welles |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1938/10/08/this-ageless-soul |access-date=July 7, 2024 |magazine=The New Yorker |date=October 1, 1938}}</ref><ref name="umich.edu/never-before-seen">{{cite web |title=U-M's new Orson Welles acquisition from his daughter reveals never-before-seen work |url=https://news.umich.edu/u-m-s-new-orson-welles-acquisition-from-his-daughter-reveals-never-before-seen-work/ |website=University of Michigan News |access-date=July 7, 2024 |date=April 24, 2017 |archive-date=July 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240707063538/https://news.umich.edu/u-m-s-new-orson-welles-acquisition-from-his-daughter-reveals-never-before-seen-work/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following graduation from Todd in May 1931,<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|3}} Welles was awarded a scholarship to [[Harvard College]]; his mentor Roger Hill advised him to attend [[Cornell College]] in Iowa.{{efn|"Harvard reportedly offered a scholarship to its famous '47 Workshop' in playwriting", wrote biographer Patrick McGilligan.<ref name="McGilligan"/>{{Rp|184}} The course of study and training was created by [[George Pierce Baker]] in connection with the dramatics course known as English 47.<ref>{{cite book |last=Scholarship Committee of the Associated Harvard Clubs |date=1918 |title=Harvard College; A Descriptive Pamphlet for Students and Teachers |url=https://archive.org/details/harvarddescripti00asso/page/12/mode/1up |location= |publisher=n. p. |page=12 |isbn= |access-date=July 15, 2025}}</ref>}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cornellcollege.edu/2015/05/when-orson-welles-was-recommended-to-cornell-college/ |title=When Orson Welles was recommended to Cornell College |date=May 6, 2015 |publisher=[[Cornell College]] |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518073501/http://news.cornellcollege.edu/2015/05/when-orson-welles-was-recommended-to-cornell-college/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Instead, Welles chose travel. He studied for a few weeks at the Art Institute of Chicago<ref name="Time and Chance">Hill, Roger, [http://lookatillinois.info/content/one-mans-time-and-chance-memoir-eighty-years-1895-1975-cover ''One Man's Time and Chance, a Memoir of Eighty Years 1895 to 1975''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140907031035/http://lookatillinois.info/content/one-mans-time-and-chance-memoir-eighty-years-1895-1975-cover |date=September 7, 2014 }}. Privately printed, 1977. Woodstock Public Library collection, digitized by Illinois State Library.</ref>{{Rp|117}} with [[Boris Anisfeld]], who encouraged him to pursue painting.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|18}}

Welles occasionally returned to Woodstock. He was asked in a 1960 interview, "Where is home?" and replied, "I suppose it's Woodstock, Illinois, if it's anywhere... If I try to think of a home, it's that."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1869482748 |title=Close Up: Orson Welles, part 1 |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=February 25, 1960 |time=22:58–23:12 |access-date=December 26, 2017}}</ref>

== Early career (1931–1935) ==
[[File:Welles-Ireland-1931.jpg|thumb|After graduating, 16-year-old Welles embarked on a painting and sketching tour of Ireland and the [[Aran Islands]], traveling by donkey cart (1931).]]
After his father's death, Welles traveled to Europe using a portion of his inheritance. Welles said that while on a walking and painting trip through Ireland, he strode into the [[Gate Theatre]] in Dublin and claimed he was a Broadway star. The manager of the Gate, [[Hilton Edwards]], later said he had not believed Welles but was impressed by his brashness and an impassioned audition.<ref>[[Micheál Mac Liammóir|Mac Liammóir, Micheál]], ''All For Hecuba: An Irish Theatrical Biography''. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1946, {{ISBN|978-0-8283-1137-3}}</ref>{{Rp|134}} Welles made his stage debut at the Gate Theatre on October 13, 1931, appearing in [[Ashley Dukes]]'s adaptation of ''[[Jud Süß (Feuchtwanger novel)|Jud Süß]]'' as Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. He performed supporting roles in Gate productions, and produced and designed productions of his own. In March 1932, Welles performed in [[W. Somerset Maugham]]'s ''The Circle'' at Dublin's [[Abbey Theatre]] and traveled to London to find work in the theatre. Unable to obtain a work permit, he returned to the U.S.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|327–330}}

Welles found his fame ephemeral and turned to a writing project at Todd School that became immensely successful, first entitled ''Everybody's Shakespeare'',<ref name="10.1080/17450910600983828">{{cite journal |last1=Courtney |first1=Angela |title=The Boy Genius and the Bard: Orson Welles, Childhood, and Everybody's Shakespeare |journal=Shakespeare |date=December 2006 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=194–207 |doi=10.1080/17450910600983828 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249018756<!-- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17450910600983828 --> |access-date=July 7, 2024}}</ref><ref name="oldfloridabookshop/11971">{{cite web |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |last2=Hill |first2=Roger |title=Everybody's Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice |url=https://www.oldfloridabookshop.com/product/11971/Everybodys-Shakespeare-Merchant-of-Venice-SIGNED-by-Welles-et-al-Edited-for-Reading-and-Arranged-for-Staging |website=oldfloridabookshop.com |access-date=July 7, 2024 |quote=Published by the press at Todd School, a residential school for boys, attended by Orson Welles in his youth. Black and white illustrations throughout. 28, 64 pp. [92 total] 6 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches First Edition. |archive-date=July 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240707091949/https://www.oldfloridabookshop.com/product/11971/Everybodys-Shakespeare-Merchant-of-Venice-SIGNED-by-Welles-et-al-Edited-for-Reading-and-Arranged-for-Staging |url-status=live }}</ref> for the first three volumes,<ref name="lib.uiowa/">{{cite web |title=The Mercury Shakespeare / edited for reading and arranged for staging. Shakespeare, William 1564-1616., Orson Welles 1915-1985, editor.; Roger Hill 1895-1990, editor. New York; London : Harper & Brothers 1939 |url=https://search.lib.uiowa.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/01IOWA_ALMA21304778080002771/01IOWASC |website=[[University of Iowa]] Libraries |access-date=July 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240707094712/https://search.lib.uiowa.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/01IOWA_ALMA21304778080002771/01IOWASC |archive-date=July 7, 2024 |quote=[v. 1] The merchant of Venice.--[v. 2] Twelfth night.--[v. 3] Julius Caesar.--[[v. 4]] Macbeth. Facsimiles on lining-papers. "[Volume 1-3] published [in 1934] under the title of 'Everybody's Shakespeare.'."}}</ref> and subsequently, ''The Mercury Shakespeare''. In Spring 1933, Welles traveled via the ''[[American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines#Ships|SS Exermont]]'', a tramp steamer, writing the introduction for the books while onboard. After landing at Morocco, he stayed as the guest of [[Thami El Glaoui]], in the Atlas Mountains surrounding [[Tangier]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-writes-the-introduction-to-everybodys-shakespeare-in-the-north-atlantic/ |title=Orson Welles writes the Introduction to Everybody's Shakespeare in the North Atlantic |date=September 23, 2007 |website=Wellesnet |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408210018/http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-writes-the-introduction-to-everybodys-shakespeare-in-the-north-atlantic/ |url-status=live }}</ref> while working on thousands of illustrations for the ''Everybody's Shakespeare'' series of educational books, a series that remained in print for decades.{{citation needed|date= July 2024}}
[[File:Orson typewriter.jpg|thumb|left|Orson Welles's typewriter.]]

[[File:Katharine-Cornell-Tour-Map.jpg|thumb|Map of [[Katharine Cornell]]'s [[Katharine Cornell#1933–1934 transcontinental repertory tour|1933–1934 transcontinental repertory tour]], Welles's professional debut on the American stage]]

In 1933, Hortense and Roger Hill invited Welles to a party in Chicago, where Welles met [[Thornton Wilder]]. Wilder arranged for Welles to meet [[Alexander Woollcott]] in New York so he could be introduced to [[Katharine Cornell]], who was assembling a [[repertory theatre|theatre company]] for a [[Katharine Cornell#1933–1934 transcontinental repertory tour|seven-month transcontinental repertory tour]]. Cornell's husband, director [[Guthrie McClintic]], immediately put Welles under contract and cast him in three plays.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|46–49|date=April 2014}} ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[The Barretts of Wimpole Street]]'' and ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' began touring in repertory in November 1933, with the first of more than 200 performances taking place in Buffalo, New York.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|330–331}}

[[File:The Hearts of Age.webm|thumb|thumbtime=293|Welles's earliest film, ''[[The Hearts of Age]]'' (1934)]]
In 1934, Welles got his first job on radio—with ''[[The American School of the Air]]''—through actor-director [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]], who introduced him to director Knowles Entrikin.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|331|date=April 2014}} That summer, Welles staged a drama festival with the Todd School at the Opera House in Woodstock, Illinois, inviting [[Micheál Mac Liammóir]] and [[Hilton Edwards]] from Dublin's Gate Theatre to appear along with New York stage luminaries in productions including ''[[Trilby (play)|Trilby]]'', ''[[Hamlet]]'', ''[[The Drunkard]]'' and ''Tsar Paul''. At the old firehouse in Woodstock, he also shot his first film, an eight-minute short titled ''[[The Hearts of Age]]''.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|330–331}}

On November 14, 1934, Welles married Chicago socialite and actress Virginia Nicolson<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|332}}<ref name="Bright Lights">{{cite news |url=http://brightlightsfilm.com/66/66bookswelles.php#.Un_FuY0-Ngc |archive-url=https://archive.today/20131110180738/http://brightlightsfilm.com/66/66bookswelles.php%23.Un_FuY0-Ngc |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |title=Book review, ''In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles'' |last=McBride |first=Joseph |date=November 23, 2009 |website=[[Bright Lights Film Journal]] |access-date=November 21, 2020 }}</ref> in a civil ceremony in New York. To appease the Nicolsons, who were furious at the elopement, a formal ceremony took place December 23, 1934, at the New Jersey mansion of the bride's godmother. Welles wore a [[Morning coat|cutaway]] borrowed from his friend [[George Macready]].<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|182}}

A revised production of Katharine Cornell's ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' opened December 20, 1934, at the [[Al Hirschfeld Theatre|Martin Beck Theatre]] in New York.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|331–332|date=April 2014}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=10436 |title=Romeo and Juliet |publisher=[[Internet Broadway Database]] |access-date=April 27, 2014 |archive-date=April 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427232609/http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=10436 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Broadway production brought the 19-year-old Welles to the notice of [[John Houseman]], a theatrical producer who was casting the lead in the debut production of one of [[Archibald MacLeish]]'s verse plays, ''[[Panic (1935 play)|Panic]]''.<ref name="Houseman RT">[[John Houseman|Houseman, John]], ''Run-Through: A Memoir''. New York: [[Simon & Schuster]], 1972, {{ISBN|0-671-21034-3}}</ref>{{Rp|144–158}} On March 22, 1935, Welles made his debut on the [[CBS Radio]] series ''[[The March of Time (radio program)|The March of Time]]'', performing a scene from ''Panic'' for a news report on the stage production.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|70–71}}

By 1935, Welles was supplementing his earnings in the theatre as a radio actor in [[Manhattan]], working with many actors who later formed the core of his [[Mercury Theatre]] on programs including ''America's Hour'', ''[[Cavalcade of America]]'', ''[[Columbia Workshop]]'' and ''The March of Time''.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|331–332}} "Within a year of his debut Welles could claim membership in that elite band of radio actors who commanded salaries second only to the highest paid movie stars," wrote critic [[Richard France (writer)|Richard France]].<ref name="France">[[Richard France (writer)|France, Richard]], ''The Theatre of Orson Welles''. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: [[Bucknell University Press]], 1977 {{ISBN|0-8387-1972-4}}</ref>{{Rp|172|date=May 2014}}

== Theatre (1936–38) ==
{{Main|Orson Welles theatre credits}}

=== Federal Theatre Project ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="160px">
File:Voodoo-Macbeth-Poster.jpg|''[[Voodoo Macbeth|Macbeth]]'' (1936)
File:Horse Eats Hat by Edwin Denby after Eugène Labiche.jpg|''[[Horse Eats Hat]]'' (1936)
File:Faustus-FTP-Poster.jpg|''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Faustus]]'' (1937)
File:The Cradle Will Rock.jpg|''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' (1937)
</gallery>
Part of the [[Works Progress Administration]], the [[Federal Theatre Project]] (1935–39) was a [[New Deal]] program to fund theatre and other live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the US during the [[Great Depression]]. It was created as a [[Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935|relief measure]] to employ artists, writers, directors and theatre workers. Under national director [[Hallie Flanagan]] it was shaped into a national theatre that created relevant art, encouraged experimentation and innovation, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time.<ref name="Arena">{{cite book |last=Flanagan |first=Hallie |author-link=Hallie Flanagan |date=1965 |title=Arena: The History of the Federal Theatre |location=New York |publisher=Benjamin Blom, reprint edition [1940] |oclc=855945294}}</ref>

[[File:Macbeth-39-Carter-Murderers.jpg|thumb|upright|Macbeth ([[Jack Carter (stage actor)|Jack Carter]], left) with the Murderers in ''[[Voodoo Macbeth|Macbeth]]'' (1936)]]

[[John Houseman]], director of the [[Federal Theatre Project#African-American theatre|Negro Theatre Unit]] in New York, invited Welles to join the Federal Theatre Project in 1935. Far from unemployed—"I was so employed I forgot how to sleep"—Welles put a large share of his $1,500-a-week radio earnings into his stage productions, bypassing administrative red tape and mounting the projects more quickly and professionally. "[[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] once said that I was the only operator in history who ever illegally siphoned money ''into'' a Washington project," Welles said.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|11–13}}

The Federal Theatre Project was the ideal environment in which Welles could develop his art. Its purpose was employment, so he was able to hire many artists, craftsmen and technicians, and he filled the stage with performers.<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|3}} The company for the first production, an adaptation of Shakespeare's ''Macbeth'' with an African-American cast, numbered 150.<ref>{{cite news |last=Collins |first=Charles |date=August 30, 1936 |title='Macbeth' as Negro Play Comes to Great Northern Theater |url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1936/08/30/page/95/article/macbeth-as-negro-play-comes-to-great-northern-theater |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |access-date=February 17, 2015 |archive-date=February 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213065212/http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1936/08/30/page/95/article/macbeth-as-negro-play-comes-to-great-northern-theater/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The production became known as the ''[[Voodoo Macbeth]]'' because Welles changed the setting to a mythical island suggesting the Haitian court of King [[Henri Christophe]],<ref name="A to Z">{{cite book |last=Hill |first=Anthony D. |date=2009 |title=The A to Z of African American Theater|location=Lanham |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8108-7061-1}}</ref>{{Rp|179–180}} with [[Haitian Vodou|Haitian ''vodou'']] fulfilling the role of Scottish [[witchcraft]].<ref name="Kliman">{{cite book |last=Kliman |first=Bernice W. |date=1992 |title=Macbeth |location=Manchester |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=978-0-7190-2731-4}}</ref>{{Rp|86}} The play opened April 14, 1936, at the [[Lafayette Theatre (Harlem)|Lafayette Theatre]] in Harlem and was received rapturously. At 20, Welles was hailed as a prodigy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Callow|first=Simon|title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu|publisher=Penguin|year=1995|page=[https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo/page/145 145]|isbn=978-0-670-86722-6|url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo/page/145}}</ref> The production then made a 4,000-mile national tour<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|333}}<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=No title |newspaper=Syracuse Herald |page=12 |date=August 27, 1936}}</ref> that included two weeks at the [[Texas Centennial Exposition]] in Dallas.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer; no by-line.--> |title=All-Negro Cast to Produce Macbeth |newspaper=The [[Olney, Texas|Olney]] Enterprise |date=August 14, 1936}}</ref>
[[File:Horse-Eats-Hat-42-Houseman-Welles.jpg|thumb|upright|From left, Houseman, Edwin Denby and Welles at a rehearsal of ''[[Horse Eats Hat]]'' (1936)]]

Next mounted was the farce ''[[Horse Eats Hat]]'', an adaptation by Welles and [[Edwin Denby (poet)|Edwin Denby]] of ''[[The Italian Straw Hat (play)|The Italian Straw Hat]]'', an 1851 five-act [[farce]] by [[Eugène Marin Labiche]] and [[Marc-Michel]].<ref name="Leaming">Leaming, Barbara, ''Orson Welles, A Biography''. New York: [[Viking Press|Viking]], 1985 {{ISBN|0-670-52895-1}}</ref>{{Rp|114}} The play was presented September 26 – December 5, 1936, at [[Maxine Elliott Theatre|Maxine Elliott's Theatre]], New York,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|334}} and featured [[Joseph Cotten]] in his first starring role.<ref name="Vanity">{{cite book |last=Cotten |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Cotten |date=1987 |title=Vanity Will Get You Somewhere |location=San Francisco |publisher=[[Mercury House (publishers)|Mercury House]] |isbn=978-0-916515-17-1 }}</ref>{{Rp|34}} It was followed by an adaptation of ''[[Doctor Faustus (play)|Dr. Faustus]]'' that used light as a prime unifying scenic element in a nearly black stage, presented January 8 – May 9, 1937, at Maxine Elliott's Theatre.<ref name="Welles TIOW">{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=This is Orson Welles |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] Publishers |location=New York |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-06-016616-8|title-link=This is Orson Welles }}</ref>{{Rp|335}}

Outside the scope of the Federal Theatre Project,<ref name="France" />{{Rp|100}} American composer [[Aaron Copland]] chose Welles to direct ''[[The Second Hurricane]]'' (1937), an operetta with a libretto by Edwin Denby. Presented at the [[Henry Street Settlement]] Music School in New York for the benefit of high school students, the production opened April 21, 1937, and ran its scheduled three performances.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|337}}
[[File:Cradle Will Rock Rehearsal 370-9.jpg|thumb|left|Choreographer Clarence Yates rehearses a musical sequence with Olive Stanton for the [[The Cradle Will Rock#Federal Theatre Project|Federal Theatre Project production]] of ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' (1937)]]
In 1937, Welles rehearsed [[Marc Blitzstein]]'s political opera, ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/arts/music/the-cradle-will-rock-returns-with-its-brazen-politics-intact.html|title='The Cradle Will Rock' Returns With Its Brazen Politics Intact|last=Barone|first=Joshua|date=July 9, 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 27, 2017|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=October 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027182209/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/09/arts/music/the-cradle-will-rock-returns-with-its-brazen-politics-intact.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It was originally scheduled to open June 16, 1937, in its first public preview. Because of cutbacks in the WPA projects, the premiere at the [[Maxine Elliott Theatre]] was canceled. The theater was locked, and guarded, to prevent any government-purchased materials from being used for a commercial production of the work. In a last-minute move, Welles announced to ticket-holders that the show was being transferred to [[New Century Theatre|the Venice]], 20 blocks away. Some cast, crew and audience, walked on foot. The union musicians refused to perform in a commercial theater for lower non-union government wages. The actors' union stated that the production belonged to the Federal Theatre Project, and could not be performed outside that context without permission. Lacking participation of the union members, ''The Cradle Will Rock'' began with Blitzstein introducing it and playing the piano accompaniment on stage, with some cast members performing from the audience. This impromptu performance was well received.

=== Mercury Theatre ===
{{Main|Mercury Theatre}}

[[File:Welles-American-1938.jpg|thumb|upright|Aged 22 Welles was Broadway's youngest impresario – producing, directing and starring in an adaptation of ''Julius Caesar'' that broke all performance records for the play (1938).]]
Breaking with the [[Federal Theatre Project]] in 1937, Welles and Houseman founded a repertory company, called the Mercury Theatre. The name was inspired by the title of the iconoclastic magazine ''[[The American Mercury]]''.<ref name="Brady">[[Frank Brady (writer)|Brady, Frank]], ''Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1989 {{ISBN|0-684-18982-8}}</ref>{{Rp|119–120}} Welles was executive producer, and the original company included such actors as [[Joseph Cotten]], [[George Coulouris]], [[Geraldine Fitzgerald]], [[Arlene Francis]], [[Martin Gabel]], [[John Hoyt]], [[Norman Lloyd]], [[Vincent Price]], [[Stefan Schnabel]] and [[Hiram Sherman]].

"I think he was the greatest directorial talent we've ever had in the [American] theater", Lloyd said of Welles in 2014. "When you saw a Welles production, you saw the text had been affected, the staging was remarkable, the sets were unusual, music, sound, lighting, a totality of everything. We had not had such a man in our theater. He was the first and remains the greatest."<ref name="Lloyd 2014">{{cite news |url=http://eatdrinkfilms.com/2014/07/17/orson-welles-world-and-were-just-living-in-it-a-conversation-with-norman-lloyd/ |title=Orson Welles' World, and We're Just Living in It: A Conversation with Norman Lloyd |last=Lattanzio |first=Ryan |date=2014 |website=EatDrinkFilms.com |access-date=August 6, 2015 |archive-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919113159/http://eatdrinkfilms.com/2014/07/17/orson-welles-world-and-were-just-living-in-it-a-conversation-with-norman-lloyd/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Mercury Theatre opened November 11, 1937, with ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]'', Welles's modern-dress adaptation of Shakespeare's ''[[Julius Caesar (play)|Julius Caesar]]''—streamlined into an [[anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] tour de force that Joseph Cotten later described as "so vigorous, so contemporary that it set Broadway on its ear".<ref name="Vanity" />{{Rp|108}} The set was completely open with no curtain, and the brick stage wall was painted dark red. Scene changes were achieved by lighting alone.<ref name="OW on Shakespeare" />{{Rp|165}} On the stage was a series of risers; squares were cut into one at intervals and lights, designed by [[Jean Rosenthal]], were set beneath it, pointing straight up to evoke the "[[cathedral of light]]" at the [[Nuremberg Rally|Nuremberg Rallies]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shirsat |first=Dipali |date=November 8, 2019 |title=R.A.W: Jean Rosenthal |url=https://womeninlighting.com/extras/entry/r.a.w-jean-rosenthal |access-date=August 15, 2024 |website=Women in Lighting |language=en |archive-date=July 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721203205/https://womeninlighting.com/extras/entry/r.a.w-jean-rosenthal |url-status=live }}</ref> "He staged it like a political melodrama that happened the night before," said Lloyd.<ref name="Lloyd 2014" />

Beginning January 1, 1938, ''Caesar'' was performed in repertory with ''[[The Shoemaker's Holiday]]''; both productions moved to the larger [[Nederlander Theatre|National Theatre]]. They were followed by ''[[Heartbreak House]]'' (April 29, 1938) and ''[[Danton's Death]]'' (November 5, 1938).<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|344}} As well as being presented in a pared-down oratorio version at the Mercury Theatre in December 1937, ''The Cradle Will Rock'' was at the [[48th Street Theatre|Windsor Theatre]] January 4 – April 2, 1938.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|340}} Such was the success of the Mercury Theatre that Welles appeared on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', in full makeup as Captain Shotover in ''Heartbreak House'', on May 9—three days after his 23rd birthday.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19380509,00.html |title=Orson Welles, May 9, 1938 |magazine=Time |access-date=August 6, 2015 |archive-date=August 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150831010028/http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19380509,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Radio (1936–1940) ==
{{Main|Orson Welles radio credits}}
[[File:WellesShadow.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Welles was the voice of [[The Shadow]] on the Mutual radio network (1937–1938).]]

Simultaneously with his work in the theatre, Welles worked extensively in radio as an actor, writer, director, and producer, often without credit.<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|77}} Between 1935–37 he was earning as much as $2,000 a week, shuttling between studios at such a pace that he would arrive barely in time for a scan of his lines before he was on the air. While he was directing the ''Voodoo Macbeth'', Welles was dashing between Harlem and [[midtown Manhattan]] three times a day to meet his radio commitments.<ref name="France" />{{Rp|172|date=May 2014}}
In addition to continuing as a repertory player on ''[[The March of Time (radio program)|The March of Time]]'' in the fall of 1936, Welles adapted and performed ''[[Hamlet]]'' in an episode of [[CBS Radio]]'s ''[[Columbia Workshop]]''. His performance as the announcer in the series' April 1937 presentation of [[Archibald MacLeish]]'s verse drama ''[[The Fall of the City]]'' was an important development in his radio career<ref name="Bret Wood">{{cite book |last=Wood |first=Bret |author-link=Bret Wood |title=Orson Welles: A Bio-Bibliography |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Connecticut |date=1990 |isbn=978-0-313-26538-9}}</ref>{{Rp|78}} and made the 21-year-old Welles an overnight star.<ref name="Museum of Broadcasting">''Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years''. New York: [[Paley Center for Media|The Museum of Broadcasting]], catalogue for exhibition October 28 – December 3, 1988.</ref>{{Rp|46}}

In July 1937, the [[Mutual Network]] gave Welles a seven-week series to adapt ''[[Les Misérables (radio series)|Les Misérables]]''. It was his first job as a writer-director for radio,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|338}} the debut of the Mercury Theatre, and one of Welles's finest achievements.<ref name="Callow Hello">{{cite book |last=Callow |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Callow |title=Orson Welles: Hello Americans |publisher=[[Viking Press|Viking Penguin]] |location=New York |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-670-87256-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo }}</ref>{{Rp|160}} He invented the use of narration in radio.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|88}}

"By making himself the center of the storytelling process, Welles fostered the impression of self-adulation that was to haunt his career to his dying day", wrote critic [[Andrew Sarris]]. "For the most part, however, Welles was singularly generous to the other members of his cast and inspired loyalty from them above and beyond the call of professionalism."<ref name="Museum of Broadcasting" />{{Rp|8}}

That September, Mutual chose Welles to play Lamont Cranston, also known as [[The Shadow]]. He performed the role through mid-September 1938.<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|83|date=January 2014}}<ref name="Goldin Shadow">{{cite web |url=https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=The%20Shadow&type=Programs |title=The Shadow |publisher=RadioGOLDINdex |access-date=January 12, 2014 |archive-date=January 13, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113001643/http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=The+Shadow |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' ===
{{Main|The Mercury Theatre on the Air|The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)}}
[[File:Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938.jpg|left|thumb|Welles at the press conference after "The War of the Worlds" broadcast (October 31, 1938)]]
After the theatrical successes of the Mercury Theatre, [[CBS Radio]] invited Welles to create a summer show for 13 weeks. The series began July 11, 1938, with the formula that Welles would play the lead in each show.<ref name="Museum of Broadcasting" /> The weekly hour-long show presented radio plays based on classic literary works, with original music composed and conducted by [[Bernard Herrmann]].

The Mercury Theatre's [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|radio adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds'']] by [[H. G. Wells]] October 30, 1938, brought Welles instant fame. The combination of the news bulletin form of the performance, with the between-breaks dial-spinning habits of listeners, created confusion among listeners who failed to hear the introduction, although the extent of this confusion has come into question.<ref name="McFarland" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism |url=https://archive.org/details/gettingitwrongte0000camp |url-access=registration |last=Campbell |first=W. Joseph |year=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-26209-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mediamythalert.wordpress.com/tag/war-of-the-worlds/|title=The spoof in Georgia: Evocative of the 'War of the Worlds?|publisher=wordpress.com|access-date=May 23, 2010|archive-date=November 23, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123043751/http://mediamythalert.wordpress.com/tag/war-of-the-worlds/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/10/orson_welles_war_of_the_worlds_panic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.single.html | title=The Myth of The War of the Worlds Panic | journal=Slate | access-date=October 31, 2013 | date=October 28, 2013 | archive-date=October 30, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030212245/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/history/2013/10/orson_welles_war_of_the_worlds_panic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.single.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Panic was reportedly spread among listeners who believed the fictional news reports of a Martian invasion.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/war-of-the-worlds-radio-broadcast-1779286 |title=War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast Causes Panic |publisher=www.thoughtco.com |access-date=May 7, 2020 |archive-date=May 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529235731/https://www.thoughtco.com/war-of-the-worlds-radio-broadcast-1779286 |url-status=live }}</ref> The myth of the result created by the combination was reported as fact around the world and disparagingly mentioned by [[Adolf Hitler]] in a speech.<ref name="hand">"evidence of the decadence and corrupt condition of democracy" – {{cite book |last=Hand |first=Richard J. |title=Terror on the Air!: Horror Radio in America, 1931–1952 |year=2006 |publisher=Macfarlane & Company |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-2367-5 |page=7}}</ref>
[[File:Orson Welles by Harry Warnecke and Lee Elkins, 1939, color carbro print, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 94 50Welles-000002.jpg|thumb|upright|''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' became ''The Campbell Playhouse'' in December 1938.]]
Welles's growing fame drew [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] offers, lures that the independent-minded Welles resisted at first. ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'', which had been a sustaining show (without sponsorship), was picked up by [[Campbell Soup Company|Campbell Soup]] and renamed ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature/-/The-Mercury-Theatre-on-the-Air/16905 |title=Learn Out Loud |publisher=Learn Out Loud |access-date=March 30, 2010 |archive-date=February 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211083357/http://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature/-/The-Mercury-Theatre-on-the-Air/16905 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' made its last broadcast on December 4, 1938, and ''The Campbell Playhouse'' began five days later.

Welles began commuting from California to New York for the Sunday broadcasts of ''The Campbell Playhouse'' after signing a film contract with [[RKO Pictures]] in August 1939. In November, production of the show moved to Los Angeles.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|353|date=January 2014}} After 20 shows, Campbell began to exercise more creative control and had complete control over story selection. As his contract with Campbell came to an end, Welles chose not to sign on for another season. After the broadcast of March 31, 1940, Welles and Campbell parted amicably.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|221–226}}
{{clear}}

== Hollywood (1939–1948) ==
<gallery heights="160px">
File:Citizen Kane poster, 1941 (Style B, unrestored).jpg|''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)
File:The Magnificent Ambersons (1942 film poster).jpg|''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' (1942)
File:Journey into Fear (1942 poster).jpg|''[[Journey into Fear (1943 film)|Journey into Fear]]'' (1943)
File:The Stranger (1946 film poster).jpg|''[[The Stranger (1946 film)|The Stranger]]'' (1946)
File:The Lady from Shanghai (1947 poster).jpg|''[[The Lady from Shanghai]]'' (1947)
File:Macbeth (1948 film poster).jpg|''[[Macbeth (1948 film)|Macbeth]]'' (1948)
</gallery>
[[RKO Radio Pictures]] president [[George J. Schaefer]] ultimately offered Welles what generally is considered the greatest contract offered to a filmmaker, much less to one who was untried. Engaging him to write, produce, direct and perform in two pictures, the contract subordinated the studio's financial interests to Welles's creative control, and broke precedent by granting Welles final cut.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|1–2}} After signing a summary agreement with RKO on July 22, Welles signed a full-length 63-page contract August 21, 1939.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|353}} The agreement was bitterly resented by the Hollywood studios and persistently mocked in the trade press.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|2}}

=== ''Citizen Kane'' ===
{{Main|Citizen Kane}}
[[File:Citizen-Kane-Welles-Podium.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941)]]

RKO rejected Welles's first two movie proposals,<ref name="Carringer 1985"/>{{Rp|3–15}} but agreed on the third—''[[Citizen Kane]]''. Welles co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in it.<ref name="autogenerated2001">McMahon, Thomas, "Orson Welles", ''Authors & Artists for Young Adults: Vol. 40''. Michigan: Gale Research, 2001 {{ISBN|0-7876-4673-3}}</ref> Welles conceived the project with screenwriter [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]], who was writing radio plays for ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]''.<ref name="Carringer 1985">{{cite book |title=The Making of Citizen Kane |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofcitizenk00carr |url-access=registration |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles California |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-520-20567-3 }}</ref>{{Rp|16}} Mankiewicz based the original outline of the film script on the life of [[William Randolph Hearst]], whom he knew and came to hate after being exiled from Hearst's circle.<ref name="Meryman">{{cite book |last=Meryman |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Meryman |title=Mank: The Wit, World and Life of Herman Mankiewicz |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company]], Inc. |location=New York |date=1978 |isbn=978-0-688-03356-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/mankwitworldlife00mery }}</ref>{{Rp|231}}

After agreeing on the storyline and character, Welles supplied Mankiewicz with 300 pages of notes and put him under contract to write the first-draft screenplay under the supervision of [[John Houseman]]. Welles wrote his own draft,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|54}} then drastically condensed and rearranged both versions and added scenes of his own. The industry accused Welles of underplaying Mankiewicz's contribution to the script, but Welles countered the attacks by saying, "At the end, naturally, I was the one making the picture, after all—who had to make the decisions. I used what I wanted of Mank's and, rightly or wrongly, kept what I liked of my own."<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|54}}

For the cast, Welles primarily used actors from his Mercury Theatre, including [[William Alland]],  [[Ray Collins (actor)|Ray Collins]], [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Agnes Moorehead]], [[Erskine Sanford]], [[Everett Sloane]] and [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] in their film debuts. Welles's project attracted some of Hollywood's best technicians, including cinematographer [[Gregg Toland]].<ref name="autogenerated2001" /> Welles and Toland made extensive use of [[deep focus]] photography, in which everything in the frame is in focus. Toland explained that he and Welles thought "that if it was possible, the picture should be brought to the screen in such a way that the audience would feel it was looking at reality, rather than merely at a movie." They composed "our angles and compositions so that action which ordinarily would be shown in direct cuts would be shown in a single, longer scene--often one in which important action might take place simultaneously in widely separated points in extreme foreground and background."<ref name=AFI>{{cite web| title=AFI Catalog Citizen Kane| url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27624| access-date=December 30, 2024| archive-date=December 26, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241226022629/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27624| url-status=live}}</ref>

Toland explained their use of deep (or pan) focus: <blockquote> Through its use, it is possible to photograph action from a range of eighteen inches from the camera lens to over two hundred feet away, with extreme foreground and background figures and action both recorded in sharp relief. Hitherto, the camera had to be focused either for a close or a distant shot, all efforts to encompass both at the same time resulting in one or the other being out of focus. This handicap necessitated the breaking up of a scene into long and short angles, with much consequent loss of realism. With pan-focus, the camera, like the human eye, sees an entire panorama at once, with everything clear and lifelike.<ref name=Toland>{{cite news| last=Toland| first=Gregg| author-link=Gregg Toland| title=The American Cameraman| date=September 1941| work=Theater Arts| url=https://www.wellesnet.com/gregg-toland-on-working-with-orson-welles-on-citizen-kane/| archive-date=January 1, 2025| access-date=December 30, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250101194349/https://www.wellesnet.com/gregg-toland-on-working-with-orson-welles-on-citizen-kane/| url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>

Welles called Toland "the greatest gift any director—young or old—could ever, ever have. And he never tried to impress on us that he was performing miracles. He just went ahead and performed them. I was calling on him to do things only a beginner could be ignorant enough to think anybody could ever do, and there he was, ''doing'' them." When asked why he and Toland used deep focus, Welles explained: "Well, in life you see everything in focus at the same time, so why not in the movies?"<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|60}}

It was the first film scored by [[Bernard Herrmann]], who had worked with Welles in radio. Hermann recalled: "two full weeks were spent in the dubbing room, and music under our supervision was often re-recorded six or seven times before the proper dynamic level was achieved. The result is an exact projection of the original musical ideas in the score. Technically, no composer could ask for more."<ref name=Herrmann>{{cite news| title=Score For a Film| last=Herrmann| first=Bernard| author-link=Bernard Herrmann| date=May 25, 1941| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/05/25/85499646.html?pageNumber=179}}</ref> Filming ''Citizen Kane'' took ten weeks.<ref name="autogenerated2001" />

Hearst's newspapers barred all reference to ''Citizen Kane'' and exerted enormous pressure on the Hollywood film community to force RKO to shelve the film.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|111}} RKO chief [[George J. Schaefer]] received a cash offer from [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]]'s [[Louis B. Mayer]] and other major studio executives if he would destroy the negative and existing prints of the film.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|112}}
[[File:Canada-Lee-Native-Son-1941.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Canada Lee]] as Bigger Thomas in ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]'' (1941), co-produced and directed by Welles]]
While waiting for ''Citizen Kane'' to be released, Welles produced and directed the original Broadway production of ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]'', a drama written by [[Paul Green (playwright)|Paul Green]] and [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] based on Wright's  [[Native Son|novel]]. Starring [[Canada Lee]], the show ran March 24 – June 28, 1941, at the [[St. James Theatre]]. The Mercury Production was the last time Welles and Houseman worked together.<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|12}}

Although ''Citizen Kane'' was given a limited release, it received overwhelming critical praise. It was voted the best picture of 1941 by the [[National Board of Review]] and [[New York Film Critics Circle]]. The film garnered nine Academy Award nominations but won only [[Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay)|Best Original Screenplay]], shared by Mankiewicz and Welles.<ref>{{cite web| title=The 14th Academy Awards| work=[[The Academy Awards]]| date=October 3, 2014| url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942| access-date=January 3, 2025| archive-date=October 11, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141011022900/https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1942| url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' reported that block voting by extras deprived ''Citizen Kane'' of Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor (Welles), and similar prejudices were likely to have been responsible for the film receiving no technical awards.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|117}} [[Bosley Crowther]] wrote that Welles "has made a picture of tremendous and overpowering scope, not in physical extent so much as in its rapid and graphic rotation of thoughts. Mr. Welles has put upon the screen a motion picture that really moves."<ref>{{cite news| title=Orson Welles's Controversial 'Citizen Kane' Proves a Sensational Film at Palace| last=Crowther| first=Bosley| author-link=Bosley Crowther| date=May 21, 1941| work=[[The New York Times]]| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/05/02/archives/orson-welless-controversial-citizen-kane-proves-a-sensational-film.html}}</ref> [[Cecelia Ager]], in ''[[PM Magazine]]'', wrote: "Before ''Citizen Kane'', it's as if the motion picture were a slumbering monster, a mighty force stupidly sleeping, lying there...awaiting a fierce young man to come kick it to life, to rouse it, shake it, awaken it to its potentialities ... Seeing it, it's as if you never really saw a movie before."<ref name=Kael>{{cite magazine| title=Raising Kane| last=Kael| first=Pauline| author-link=Pauline Kael| magazine=[[The New Yorker]]| date=February 12, 1971| url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1971/02/20/raising-kane-i}}</ref>

The delay in the film's release and uneven distribution contributed to mediocre results at the box office. After it ran its course theatrically, ''Citizen Kane'' was retired to the vault in 1942. In France, however, its reputation grew after it was seen there for the first time in 1946.<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|117–118}} In the US, it began to be re-evaluated after it appeared on television in 1956. That year it was re-released theatrically,<ref name="Carringer 1985" />{{Rp|119}} and film critic [[Andrew Sarris]] described it as "the great American film" and "the work that influenced the cinema more profoundly than any American film since ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]''."<ref name="Sarris">{{cite news |last=Sarris |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Sarris |title=Citizen Kane: The American Baroque |publisher=[[Film Culture]], number 9 |year=1956 }}</ref> ''Citizen Kane'' [[Legacy of Citizen Kane|is now widely hailed]] as one of the greatest films ever made.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |title=The 50 Greatest Films of All Time |publisher=[[British Film Institute]] |date=September 2012 |access-date=February 11, 2016 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301135739/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time |url-status=dead }}</ref> From 1962 to 2012, it topped the decennial ''[[Sight and Sound]]'' poll of the Greatest Films of All Time.<ref>{{cite news| author=[[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]]| title=Is Citizen Kane still the greatest film of all time?| work=[[Sight and Sound]]| date=May 10, 2012| url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/greatest-films-all-time/what-makes-citizen-kane-great| archive-date=April 25, 2024| access-date=April 25, 2024| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240425191133/https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/greatest-films-all-time/what-makes-citizen-kane-great| url-status=live}}</ref>

=== ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' ===
{{Main|The Magnificent Ambersons (film)}}
[[File:Welles-Magnificent-Ambersons-Pub-A16.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|Welles at work on ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' (1942)]]
"The fate of ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' is one of film history's great tragedies," wrote film historian Robert L. Carringer.<ref name="Carringer Ambersons">{{cite book |last=Carringer |first=Robert L. |date=1993 |title=The Magnificent Ambersons: A Reconstruction |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-07857-8}}</ref>{{Rp|1}} It was Welles's second film for RKO, adapted by Welles from [[Booth Tarkington]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning [[The Magnificent Ambersons|1918 novel]] about the declining fortunes of a wealthy Midwestern family and the [[Effects of the automobile on societies|social changes brought by the automobile age]]. Toland was unavailable, so [[Stanley Cortez]] was named cinematographer. The meticulous Cortez worked slowly and the film lagged behind schedule and over budget. In contract renegotiations with RKO over a film he was obliged to direct, Welles had conceded final cut.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://collider.com/orson-welles-the-magnificent-ambersons/|title=Orson Welles Running into Trouble on Citizen Kane Follow-Up, The Magnificent Ambersons |date=March 31, 2015|newspaper=Collider|access-date=January 31, 2017|archive-date=January 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109103952/https://collider.com/orson-welles-the-magnificent-ambersons/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:The-Magnificent-Ambersons-6.jpg|thumb|Promotional photograph of Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead in the excised concluding scene of ''The Magnificent Ambersons'']]
''The Magnificent Ambersons'' was in production October 28, 1941, to January 22, 1942,<ref name="AFI Ambersons">{{cite web |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/27328 |title=The Magnificent Ambersons |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=April 25, 2024 |archive-date=April 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240415162118/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/27328 |url-status=live }}</ref> with a cast including Cotten, Collins, Moorehead, [[Dolores Costello]], [[Anne Baxter]] and [[Tim Holt]].<ref name="AFI Ambersons"/> RKO chief George Schaefer understood that presenting a downbeat period film without marquee stars was a risk, but he was reassured by a special screening of the film-in-progress Welles arranged for him on November 28. Schaefer was an expert in film distribution and attended to the marketing strategy.<ref name="Carringer Ambersons"/>{{Rp|1}}

Required to start filming the "Carnaval" segment of ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'' in early February 1942, Welles rushed to edit ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' and finish his acting scenes in ''Journey into Fear''. He ended his lucrative [[The Orson Welles Show (radio series)|CBS radio show]]<ref name="Wilson">Wilson, Richard, "It's Not ''Quite'' All True". ''[[Sight & Sound]]'', Volume 39 Number 4, Autumn 1970.</ref>{{Rp|189}} February 2, flew to Washington, D.C., for a briefing, and then lashed together a rough cut of ''Ambersons'' in Miami with editor [[Robert Wise]].<ref name="Welles TIOW"/>{{Rp|369–370}}

A finished 131-minute version, edited per Welles's detailed instructions, was previewed March 17, 1942, in Pomona. Schaefer was present, and was rattled by the audience response: 75 percent of the preview cards were negative. The film was received more favorably by a preview audience in the more upscale Pasadena on March 19, with only 25 percent of the preview cards negative. But the experience led Schaefer to authorize the studio to make whatever changes necessary to make ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' a commercial success.<ref name="Carringer Ambersons"/>{{Rp|1–2}}

Wise, whom Welles had left in charge of postproduction, removed nearly 50 minutes of footage from Welles's cut, and several scenes — including the ending — were rewritten and reshot. [[List of films cut over the director's opposition|Over Welles's opposition]], ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' was cut to 88 minutes.<ref name="Carringer Ambersons"/>{{Rp|2}}<ref name="AFI Ambersons"/> Like the film, [[Bernard Herrmann]]'s score was heavily edited by RKO. When more than half the score was removed and replaced by music by [[Roy Webb]], Herrmann bitterly severed his ties with the film and promised legal action if he was not removed from the credits.<ref>Husted, Christopher, liner notes for ''The Magnificent Ambersons: Original 1942 Motion Picture Score'', Preamble (PRCD 1783), Fifth Continent Music Corp. 1990</ref>

Even in its released form, ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' is considered one of the best films of all time.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/collection/100-best-movies/6295231/the-magnificent-ambersons-1942/ |title=The 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades: The Magnificent Ambersons |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=July 26, 2023 |access-date=April 29, 2024 |archive-date=April 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429062756/https://time.com/collection/100-best-movies/6295231/the-magnificent-ambersons-1942/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was nominated for four [[15th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]], including [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], and added to the [[National Film Registry]] in 1991.

=== ''Journey into Fear'' ===
{{Main|Journey into Fear (1943 film)}}
At RKO's request, Welles worked on an adaptation of [[Eric Ambler]]'s spy thriller ''[[Journey into Fear (1943 film)|Journey into Fear]]'', co-written with Cotten. In addition to acting in it, Welles was the producer. Direction was credited to [[Norman Foster (director)|Norman Foster]]. Welles later said they were in such a rush that the director of each scene was determined by whoever was closest to the camera.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|165}} ''Journey into Fear'' was in production January 6 – March 12, 1942.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=27290 |title=Journey into Fear |publisher=The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures |access-date=August 23, 2014 |archive-date=November 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102172421/http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=27290 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== War work ===
==== Goodwill ambassador ====
[[File:Welles-Reisman-Rio-1942-C.jpg|thumb|upright|Welles, accompanied by RKO vice-president Phil Reisman, arrives in [[Rio de Janeiro]] as a goodwill ambassador to Latin America (February 1942)]]
In late November 1941, Welles was appointed as a [[Goodwill Ambassador|goodwill ambassador]] to Latin America by [[Nelson Rockefeller]], [[Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs|U.S. Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs]] and a principal stockholder in RKO Radio Pictures.<ref name="Benamou">Benamou, Catherine L., ''It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-520-24247-0}}</ref>{{Rp|244}} The mission of the OCIAA was [[cultural diplomacy]], promoting [[Pan-Americanism|hemispheric solidarity]] and countering the growing [[Latin America during World War II#Axis activity|influence of the Axis powers in Latin America]].<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|10–11}} [[John Hay Whitney]], head of the agency's Motion Picture Division, was asked by the Brazilian government to produce a documentary of the annual [[Rio Carnival]] taking place in early February 1942.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|40–41}} In a telegram on December 20, 1941, Whitney wrote Welles, "Personally believe you would make great contribution to hemisphere solidarity with this project."<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|65}}

The OCIAA sponsored cultural tours to Latin America and appointed goodwill ambassadors including [[George Balanchine]] and the [[American Ballet]], [[Bing Crosby]], [[Aaron Copland]], [[Walt Disney]], [[John Ford]] and [[Rita Hayworth]]. Welles was briefed in Washington, D.C., immediately before departure for Brazil, and film scholar Catherine L. Benamou, finds it likely he was among the goodwill ambassadors asked to gather intelligence for the U.S. government. She concludes that Welles's acceptance of Whitney's request was "a logical and patently patriotic choice".<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|245–247}}

In addition to working on his ill-fated film ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'', Welles was responsible for radio programs, lectures, interviews and informal talks as part of his OCIAA-sponsored cultural mission, which was regarded as a success.<ref name="Wilson"/>{{Rp|192}} He spoke on topics ranging from Shakespeare to visual art at gatherings of Brazil's elite, and his intercontinental radio broadcasts in April 1942 were particularly intended to tell U.S. audiences that President [[Getúlio Vargas]] was a partner with the Allies. Welles's ambassadorial mission was extended to permit his travel to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|247–249, 328}} Welles worked for more than 6 months with no compensation.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|41, 328}}<ref name="Wilson" />{{Rp|189}}

Welles's own expectations for the film were modest. "''It's All True'' was not going to make any cinematic history, nor was it intended to," he later said. "It was intended to be a perfectly honorable execution of my job as a goodwill ambassador, bringing entertainment to the Northern Hemisphere that showed them something about the Southern one."<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|253}}

==== ''It's All True'' ====
{{Main|It's All True (film)}}
[[File:Welles It's All True.jpg|thumb|Welles on location in [[Fortaleza]], Brazil, while filming the "Jangadeiros" section of the unfinished film ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'']]
[[File:It's-All-True-Crew-1942.jpg|thumb|Some of Welles's ''It's All True'' film crew at the top of [[Sugarloaf Mountain]], Rio de Janeiro, in early 1942]]
In July 1941, Welles conceived ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'' as an [[Anthology|omnibus]] film mixing documentary and [[docufiction]]<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|221}}<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|27}} in a project that emphasized the [[dignity of labor]] and celebrated the cultural and ethnic diversity of North America. It was to have been his third film for RKO, following ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941) and ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons (film)|The Magnificent Ambersons]]'' (1942).<ref name="South American Cinema">Benamou, Catherine, "It's All True". Barnard, Tim, and Peter Rist (eds.), ''South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography, 1915–1994''. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1996; Austin: [[University of Texas Press]], 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-292-70871-6}}</ref>{{Rp|109}} [[Duke Ellington]] was put under contract to score a segment with the working title, "The Story of Jazz", drawn from [[Louis Armstrong]]'s 1936 autobiography, ''Swing That Music''.<ref name="Teachout Duke">[[Terry Teachout|Teachout, Terry]], ''Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington''. New York: [[Penguin Group|Gotham Books]], 2013 {{ISBN|978-1-59240-749-1}}</ref>{{Rp|232–233}} Armstrong was cast to play himself in the dramatization of the history of jazz performance, from its roots to its place in American culture.<ref name="South American Cinema" />{{Rp|109}} "The Story of Jazz" was to go into production in December 1941.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|119–120}}

Mercury Productions purchased the stories for other segments—"My Friend Bonito" and "The Captain's Chair"—from documentary filmmaker [[Robert J. Flaherty]].<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|33, 326}} Adapted by [[Norman Foster (director)|Norman Foster]] and [[John Fante]], "My Friend Bonito" was the only segment of the original ''It's All True'' to go into production.<ref name="South American Cinema" />{{Rp|109|date=April 2014}} Filming took place in Mexico September–December 1941, with Norman Foster directing under Welles's supervision.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|311}}

In December 1941, the [[Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs]] asked Welles to make a film in Brazil that would showcase the  [[Brazilian Carnival|Carnaval]] in Rio.<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|65}} With filming of "My Friend Bonito" about two-thirds complete, Welles decided he could shift the geography of ''It's All True'' and incorporate Flaherty's story into an omnibus film about Latin America—supporting the [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] administration's [[Good Neighbor policy]], which Welles advocated.<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|41, 246}} In this revised concept, "The Story of Jazz" was replaced by the story of [[samba]], a musical form with a comparable history and one that came to fascinate Welles. He decided to do a ripped-from-the-headlines episode about the epic voyage of four poor Brazilian fishermen, the [[Jangada|jangadeiros]], who had become national heroes. Welles later said this was the most valuable story.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|158–159}}<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|15}}

Required to film the Carnaval in Rio in early February 1942, Welles rushed to edit ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' and finish his acting scenes in ''Journey into Fear''. He ended his lucrative [[The Orson Welles Show (radio series)|CBS radio show]]<ref name="Wilson" />{{Rp|189}} February 2, flew to Washington, D.C., for a briefing, and then lashed together a rough cut of ''Ambersons'' in Miami with editor [[Robert Wise]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|369–370}} Welles recorded the film's narration the night before he left for South America: "I went to the projection room at about four in the morning, did the whole thing, and then got on the plane and off to Rio—and the end of civilization as we know it."<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|115}}

Welles left for Brazil on February 4 and began filming in Rio on February 8, 1942.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|369–370}} It did not seem that Welles's other film projects would be disrupted, but as film historian Catherine L. Benamou wrote, "the ambassadorial appointment would be the first in a series of turning points leading—in 'zigs' and 'zags,' rather than in a straight line—to Welles's loss of complete directorial control over ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' and ''It's All True'', the cancellation of his contract at RKO Radio Studio, the expulsion of his company Mercury Productions from the RKO lot, and the total suspension of ''It's All True''."<ref name="Benamou" />{{Rp|46}}

In 1942 RKO Pictures underwent changes under new management. [[Nelson Rockefeller]], the primary backer of the Brazil project, left its board, and Welles's principal sponsor at RKO, studio president George Schaefer, resigned. RKO took control of ''Ambersons'' and edited it into what RKO considered a commercial format. Welles's attempts to protect his version failed.<ref name="AFI Ambersons" /><ref>Barnett, Vincent L. "Cutting Koerners: Floyd Odlum, the Atlas Corporation and the Dismissal of Orson Welles from RKO". ''Film History: An International Journal'', Volume 22, Number 2, 2010, pp. 182–198.</ref> In South America, Welles requested resources to finish ''It's All True''. Given a limited amount of black-and-white film stock and a silent camera, he was able to finish shooting the episode about the [[Jangada|jangadeiros]], but RKO refused to support further production.

"So I was fired from RKO," Welles recalled. "And they made a great publicity point of the fact that I had gone to South America without a script and thrown all this money away. I never recovered from that attack."<ref name="Estrin">Estrin, Mark W., and Orson Welles. ''Orson Welles: Interviews''. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. {{ISBN|1-57806-209-8}}</ref>{{Rp|188}} Later in 1942, when RKO Pictures began promoting its new corporate motto, "Showmanship In Place of Genius: A New Deal at RKO",<ref>{{cite news |last=Brady |first=Thomas F. |date=November 15, 1942 |title=Off the Hollywood Wire; Orson Welles Attempts to Appease His RKO Bosses |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1942/11/15/archives/off-the-hollywood-wire-orson-welles-attempts-to-appease-his-rko.html |work=The New York Times  |access-date=May 7, 2024 }}</ref> Welles understood it as a reference to him.<ref name="Estrin" />{{Rp|188}}

==== Radio (1942–1943) ====
[[File:Welles-Sandburg-1942.jpg|thumb|Welles performs a card trick for [[Carl Sandburg]] before the War Bond drive broadcast ''I Pledge America'' (August 1942).]]

Welles returned to the US on August 22, 1942, after more than six months in South America.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|372}} A week after his return<ref>''[[Detroit Free Press]]'', August 29, 1942</ref><ref>Norris, Chan, "Orson Welles on Latin America". ''[[PM (newspaper)|PM]]'', September 13, 1942, pp. 16–17.</ref> he produced and emceed the first two hours of a seven-hour coast-to-coast [[Series E bond|War Bond]] drive broadcast titled ''I Pledge America''. Airing August 29, 1942, on the [[Blue Network]], the program was presented in cooperation with the [[United States Department of the Treasury]], [[Western Union]] and the [[American Women's Voluntary Services]]. Featuring 21 dance bands and a score of stage and screen and radio stars, the broadcast raised more than $10&nbsp;million—more than $146&nbsp;million today<ref>{{cite web |url=http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10%2C000%2C000.00&year1=1942&year2=2014 |title=Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator |publisher=[[United States Department of Labor]] |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=August 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120657/http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10%2C000%2C000.00&year1=1942&year2=2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>—for the war effort.<ref>"Bond Show Nets 10-Million Order". ''Detroit Free Press'' ([[Associated Press]]), August 31, 1942</ref><ref>''[[Des Moines Tribune]]'', August 29, 1942</ref><ref>''[[The Washington Post]]'', August 29, 1942</ref><ref>"7 Hour Radio Show to Push War Bonds". ''[[The New York Times]]'', August 29, 1942</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CgwEAAAAMBAJ&q=William+Bacher+War+Bonds&pg=PT5 |title=100 Million in Bonds Already Sold by Radio for Gov't; Blue Net Alone Sold 16 Million |magazine=Billboard|date=September 12, 1942 }}</ref><ref>"More on War Bond Selling". ''Broadcasting'', August 31, 1942, p. 50.</ref>

On October 12, 1942, ''[[Cavalcade of America]]'' presented Welles's radio play, ''Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', an entertaining and factual look at the legend of [[Christopher Columbus]]. "It belongs to a period when hemispheric unity was a crucial matter and many programs were being devoted to the common heritage of the Americas," wrote broadcasting historian [[Erik Barnouw]]. "Many such programs were being translated into Spanish and Portuguese and broadcast to Latin America, to counteract many years of successful Axis propaganda to that area. The Axis, trying to stir Latin America against Anglo-America, had constantly emphasized the differences between the two. It became the job of American radio to emphasize their common experience and essential unity."<ref name="Barnouw">[[Erik Barnouw|Barnouw, Erik]] (ed.), ''Radio Drama in Action: 25 Plays of a Changing World''. New York: [[Farrar & Rinehart]], 1945. Written by Orson Welles in collaboration with Robert Meltzer and [[Norris Houghton]], the radio play ''Columbus Day'' appears on pp. 4–13.</ref>{{Rp|3}}

''Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', also known as ''Columbus Day'', begins with the words, "Hello Americans"—the title Welles would choose for his own series five weeks later.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|373}}
[[File:Ceiling-Unlimited-1942.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and Col. Arthur I. Ennis, head of the public relations branch of the [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]], discuss plans for the [[CBS Radio]] series ''[[Ceiling Unlimited]]'' (October 1942).]]

''[[Hello Americans]]'', a CBS Radio series broadcast November 15, 1942 – January 31, 1943, was produced, directed and hosted by Welles under the auspices of the Office of the Coordinator for Inter-American Affairs. The 30-minute weekly program promoted inter-American understanding and friendship, drawing upon the research amassed for the ill-fated film, ''It's All True''.<ref>Hickerson, Jay, ''The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide to All Circulating Shows''. Hamden, Connecticut, second edition December 1992, p. 303.</ref> The series was produced concurrently with Welles's other CBS series, ''[[Ceiling Unlimited]]'' (November 9, 1942 – February 1, 1943), sponsored by the [[Lockheed Corporation|Lockheed]]-[[Vega Aircraft Corporation|Vega]] Corporation. The program was conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role in World War II. Welles's shows were regarded as significant contributions to the war effort.<ref name="Museum of Broadcasting" />{{Rp|64}}
Throughout the war Welles worked on patriotic radio programs including ''[[Command Performance (radio series)|Command Performance]]'', ''G.I. Journal'', ''[[Mail Call (radio program)|Mail Call]]'', ''Nazi Eyes on Canada'', ''Stage Door Canteen'' and ''Treasury Star Parade''.

==== ''The Mercury Wonder Show'' ====
{{Main|The Mercury Wonder Show}}

[[File:Mercury-Wonder-Show-Welles.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|"Hello, suckers!" Orson the Magnificent welcomes the audience to ''[[The Mercury Wonder Show]]'' (August 1943).]]
In early 1943, the two concurrent radio series (''[[Ceiling Unlimited]]'', ''[[Hello Americans]]'') that Welles created for [[CBS Radio|CBS]] to support the war effort had ended. Filming had wrapped on the 1943 [[Jane Eyre (1943 film)|film adaptation]] of ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', for which he received $100,000; that fee, in addition to the income from his guest-star roles in radio, made it possible for Welles to fulfill a lifelong dream. He approached the War Assistance League of Southern California and proposed a show that evolved into a big-top spectacle, part [[circus]] and part [[magic (illusion)|magic show]]. He offered his services as magician and director,<ref name="Magic">Charvet, David, "Orson Welles and The Mercury Wonder Show". ''[[Magic (American magazine)|Magic, An Independent Magazine for Magicians]]'', Volume 2 Number 12, August 1993</ref>{{Rp|40}} and invested $40,000 in an extravaganza he co-produced with his friend Cotten: ''[[The Mercury Wonder Show|The Mercury Wonder Show for Service Men]]''. Members of the armed forces were admitted free of charge, while the public had to pay.<ref name="Genii" />{{Rp|26}} The show entertained 1,000 service members each night, and proceeds went to the War Assistance League, a charity for military service personnel.<ref name="Billboard" />
[[File:Welles-Draft-1943.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles leaves his Army physical after being judged unfit for military service (May 6, 1943).]]
The development of the show coincided with the resolution of Welles's oft-changing [[Selective Service System|draft status]] in May 1943, when he was finally declared 4-F—unfit for military service—for medical reasons. "I felt guilty about the war," Welles told biographer [[Barbara Leaming]]. "I was guilt-ridden about my civilian status."<ref name="Leaming Hayworth">Leaming, Barbara, ''If This Was Happiness: A Biography of Rita Hayworth''. New York: Viking, 1989 {{ISBN|0-670-81978-6}}</ref>{{Rp|86}} He had been publicly hounded about his patriotism since ''Citizen Kane'', when the Hearst press began persistent inquiries about why Welles had not been drafted.<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|66–67}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://framework.latimes.com/2011/09/28/orson-welles-rejected-by-army/ |title=Orson Welles Rejected by Army (May 6, 1943) |publisher=[[Los Angeles Times]], September 28, 2011 |access-date=August 24, 2014 |date=September 28, 2011 |archive-date=July 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714170629/http://framework.latimes.com/2011/09/28/orson-welles-rejected-by-army/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=6392 |title=70 years ago: Orson Welles's patriotism, military service made headlines |publisher=Wellesnet, May 3, 2013 |access-date=August 24, 2014 |date=May 3, 2013 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164505/https://www.wellesnet.com/70-years-ago-orson-welles%e2%80%99-patriotism-military-service-made-headlines/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Welles-Hayworth-Cotten-1943.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Rita Hayworth]] took a lunch-hour break from the set of ''[[Cover Girl (film)|Cover Girl]]'' to marry Welles, with best man Cotten (September 7, 1943).<ref name="Leaming Hayworth"/>{{Rp|91}}]]
''The Mercury Wonder Show'' ran August 3 – September 9, 1943, in an 80-by-120-foot tent<ref name="Billboard">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lgwEAAAAMBAJ&q=Mercury+Wonder+Show+tent&pg=PT3 |title=Welles Dishes Magic, Sawdust at Mercury Bow |last=Abbott|first= Sam|magazine= [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|date=August 14, 1943 }}</ref> located at 900 [[Cahuenga Boulevard]], in the heart of Hollywood.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|377}}<ref name="Genii">{{cite magazine|last=Wheldon|first= Wynn Pierce|title=Orson Welles the Magician|magazine=[[Genii (magazine)|Genii, The Conjurors' Magazine]]|volume= 63|number=2|date=February 15, 2000}}</ref>{{Rp|26}} At intermission on September 7, 1943, [[KMPC#KMPC-710|KMPC]] radio interviewed audience and cast members of ''The Mercury Wonder Show''—including Welles and [[Rita Hayworth]], who were married earlier that day. Welles remarked that ''The Mercury Wonder Show'' had been performed for 48,000 members of the armed forces.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|378}}<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|129}}

==== Radio (1944–45) ====
The idea of doing a radio variety show occurred to Welles after his success as substitute host of consecutive episodes (March 14 – April 4, 1943) of ''[[The Jack Benny Program]]'', radio's most popular show, when [[Jack Benny|Benny]] contracted pneumonia on a performance tour of military bases.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|368|date=May 2014}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=The%20Jack%20Benny%20Program%20For%20Grape-Nuts%20and%20Grape-Nuts%20Flakes&type=Programs |title=The Jack Benny Program for Grape-Nuts and Grape-Nuts Flakes |publisher=RadioGOLDINdex |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=October 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025194304/http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=The%20Jack%20Benny%20Program%20For%20Grape-Nuts%20and%20Grape-Nuts%20Flakes |url-status=live }}</ref> A half-hour variety show broadcast January 26 – July 19, 1944, on the Columbia Pacific Network, ''[[The Orson Welles Almanac]]'' presented sketch comedy, magic, mindreading, music and readings from classic works. Many of the shows originated on U.S. military camps, where Welles and his repertory company and guests entertained the troops with a reduced version of ''The Mercury Wonder Show''.<ref name="Museum of Broadcasting" />{{Rp|64}}<ref name="Almanac Part 1">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart1 |title=Orson Welles Almanac – Part 1 |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=August 24, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Almanac Part 2">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart2 |title=Orson Welles Almanac – Part 2 |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=August 24, 2014}}</ref> The performances of the [[The Orson Welles Almanac#All Star Jazz Group|all-star jazz group]] Welles brought together for the show were so popular that the band became a regular feature and was an important force in reviving interest in [[Dixieland|traditional New Orleans jazz]].<ref name="Bigard">[[Barney Bigard|Bigard, Barney]], and Martyn, Barry (ed.), ''With Louis and the Duke: The Autobiography of a Jazz Clarinetist''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]], 1986. {{ISBN|0-19-520637-1}}</ref>{{Rp|85}}

Welles was placed on the U.S. Treasury payroll on May 15, 1944, as an expert consultant for the duration of the war, with a retainer of $1 a year.<ref name="Oakland Trib">{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=May 17, 1944 |title=Orson Welles in War Loan Drive |newspaper=Oakland Tribune}}</ref> On the recommendation of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Secretary of the Treasury [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.|Henry Morgenthau]] asked Welles to lead the Fifth War Loan Drive, which opened June 12 with a radio show on all four networks, broadcast from Texarkana, Texas. Including a statement by the President,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/061244.html |title=Opening Fifth War Loan Drive, June 12, 1944 |publisher=[[Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum]] |access-date=August 24, 2014 |archive-date=December 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141202140258/http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/061244.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the program defined the causes of the war and encouraged Americans to buy $16&nbsp;billion in [[Series E bond|bonds]] to finance the [[Normandy landings]]. Welles produced additional war loan drive broadcasts on June 14 from the [[Hollywood Bowl]], and June 16 from [[Soldier Field]], Chicago.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|371–373}} Americans purchased $21&nbsp;billion in War Bonds during the Fifth War Loan Drive, which ended on July 8, 1944.<ref name="Duke">{{cite web |url=http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/guide/wwii/bonds-loans |title=Brief History of World War Two Advertising Campaigns War Loans and Bonds |publisher=[[Duke University Libraries]] |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140911083904/http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/guide/wwii/bonds-loans/ |archive-date=September 11, 2014 }}</ref>
[[File:Independent-Voters-Committee-of-the-Arts-and-Sciences-for-Roosevelt-poster.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|Welles introduced Vice President [[Henry A. Wallace]] at a [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] rally advocating a fourth term for President Franklin D. Roosevelt (September 21, 1944).<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|385}}]]

Welles campaigned ardently for Roosevelt in 1944. A longtime supporter and campaign speaker for FDR, he occasionally sent the president ideas and phrases that were sometimes incorporated into what Welles characterized as "less important speeches".<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|372, 374}} One of these was the joke in what came to be called the [[Fala speech]], Roosevelt's nationally broadcast September 23 address to the International [[Teamsters]] Union which opened the [[U.S. presidential election, 1944|1944 presidential campaign]].<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|292–293}}<ref>{{cite web |title=FDR, Orson Welles, and "the Fala speech" |url=https://prorhetoric.com/fdr-orson-welles-and-the-fala-speech/ |website=Pro Rhetoric |date=September 25, 2020 |access-date=February 22, 2024}}</ref>

Welles campaigned for the Roosevelt–Truman ticket almost full-time in the fall of 1944, traveling to nearly every state<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|373–374}} to the detriment of his health<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|293–294}} and at his own expense.<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|219}} In addition to his radio addresses he filled in for Roosevelt, opposite Republican presidential nominee [[Thomas E. Dewey]], at ''The New York Herald Tribune Forum'' broadcast October 18 on the Blue Network.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|386}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|292}} Welles accompanied FDR to his last campaign rally, speaking at an event November 4 at Boston's [[Fenway Park]] before 40,000 people,<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|294}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1944/11/05/fenway-park-spectacle-color-leaders-rally-for-fdr/7kMRex8WrLh5pBBcXglf2H/story.html |title=Fenway Park is spectacle of color as leaders rally for FDR |publisher=Ainley, Leslie G., [[Boston Globe]], November 5, 1944 |access-date=September 21, 2014 |archive-date=June 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629161922/http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/1944/11/05/fenway-park-spectacle-color-leaders-rally-for-fdr/7kMRex8WrLh5pBBcXglf2H/story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and took part in a historic election-eve campaign broadcast November 6 on all four radio networks.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|387}}<ref name="Dunning">[[John Dunning (radio historian)|Dunning, John]], ''On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio''. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1998 {{ISBN|978-0-19-507678-3}} hardcover; revised edition of ''Tune In Yesterday'' (1976)</ref>{{Rp|166–167}}

On November 21, 1944, Welles began his association with ''[[This Is My Best]]'', a CBS radio series he would produce, direct, write and host (March 13 – April 24, 1945).<ref name="Goldin Best">{{cite web |url=https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=This%20Is%20My%20Best&type=Programs |title=This Is My Best |publisher=RadioGOLDINdex |access-date=September 21, 2014 |archive-date=April 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403213725/http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=This%20Is%20My%20Best |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="TIMB Internet Archive">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/ThisIsMyBest |title=This Is My Best |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=September 21, 2014}}</ref> He wrote a political column called ''Orson Welles' Almanac'' (later titled ''Orson Welles Today'') for ''[[New York Post|The New York Post]]'' January–November 1945, and advocated the continuation of FDR's New Deal policies and international vision, particularly the establishment of the UN and world peace.<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|84}}

On April 12, 1945, the day Roosevelt died, the Blue-ABC network marshalled its executive staff and national leaders to pay homage to the president. "Among the outstanding programs which attracted wide attention was a special tribute delivered by Orson Welles", reported ''[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]]'' magazine.<ref>"Presidential Coverage Wins High Praise". ''[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]]'' April 23, 1945, page 68.</ref> Welles spoke at 10:10 p.m., Eastern War Time, from Hollywood, and stressed the importance of continuing FDR's work: "He has no need for homage and we who loved him have no time for tears ... Our fighting sons and brothers cannot pause tonight to mark the death of him whose name will be given to the age we live in."<ref>"Radio Handles Tragic News with Dignity". ''Broadcasting'', April 16, 1945, page 18.</ref> Welles presented another special broadcast on the  evening following Roosevelt's death: "We must move on beyond mere death to that free world which was the hope and labor of his life."<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|390}}<ref name="Callow Hello" />{{Rp|242}}

He dedicated the April 17 episode of ''[[This Is My Best]]'' to Roosevelt and the future of America on the eve of the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|390}}<ref name="Goldin Best" /><ref name="TIMB Internet Archive" /> Welles was an advisor and correspondent for the Blue-ABC radio network's coverage of the San Francisco conference that formed the UN, taking place April 24 – June 23, 1945. He presented a half-hour dramatic program written by [[Ben Hecht]] on the opening day of the conference, and on Sunday afternoons (April 29 – June 10) he led a weekly discussion from the [[Bill Graham Civic Auditorium|San Francisco Civic Auditorium]].<ref>"Local Interest Coverage Aim of Independents at Conference". ''[[Broadcasting & Cable|Broadcasting]]'', April 2, 1945, page 20.</ref><ref name="Blue-ABC Ad">Display advertisement, "What America's Youngest News Network Is Doing About the Greatest News Story of Our Time". American Broadcasting Company, Inc., The Blue Network. ''Broadcasting'', April 30, 1945, pp. 22–23</ref>

=== ''The Stranger'' ===

{{Main|The Stranger (1946 film)}}
[[File:Orson-Welles-1945.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Director and star Orson Welles at work on ''[[The Stranger (1946 film)|The Stranger]]'' (October 1945)]]

In the fall of 1945 Welles began work on ''[[The Stranger (1946 film)|The Stranger]]'' (1946), a [[film noir]] drama about a war crimes investigator who tracks a high-ranking Nazi fugitive to an idyllic [[New England]] town. [[Edward G. Robinson]], [[Loretta Young]] and Welles star.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=24989 |title=The Stranger |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=May 10, 2015 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402105022/http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=24989 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Producer [[Sam Spiegel]] initially planned to hire director [[John Huston]], who had rewritten the screenplay by [[Anthony Veiller]]. When Huston entered the military, Welles was given the chance to direct and prove himself able to make a film on schedule and under budget<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|19}}—something he was so eager to do that he accepted a disadvantageous contract. One of its concessions was that he would defer to the studio in any creative dispute.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|379}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|309–310}}

''The Stranger'' was Welles's first job as a film director in four years.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|391}} He was told that if the film was successful he could sign a four-picture deal with International Pictures, making films of his own choosing.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|379}} Welles was given some creative control,<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|19}} and endeavored to personalize the film and develop a nightmarish tone.<ref name="Bret Wood Commentary">{{cite AV media |last=Wood |first=Bret |year=2013 |title=''Audio commentary'', The Stranger |type=[[Blu-ray Disc]] |location=New York |publisher=[[Kino International (company)|Kino Classics]] |oclc=862466296 }}</ref>{{Rp|2:30}} He worked on the general rewrite of the script and wrote scenes at the beginning of the picture shot, but cut by producers.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|186}} He filmed in long takes that largely thwarted the control given to editor Ernest J. Nims under the terms of the contract.<ref name="Bret Wood Commentary" />{{Rp|15:45}}

''The Stranger'' was the first commercial film to use documentary footage from the concentration camps.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|189}}<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Wilson |editor1-first=Kristi M. |editor2-last=Crowder-Taraborrelli |editor2-first=Tomás F. |title=Film and Genocide |date=January 4, 2012 |location=Madison, Wisconsin |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |page=11 |isbn=978-0-299-28564-7 }}</ref> Welles had seen the footage in early May 1945<ref name="Bret Wood Commentary" />{{Rp|102:03}} in San Francisco,<ref name="Barker">{{cite book |last=Barker |first=Jennifer L. |year=2012 |chapter=Documenting the Holocaust in Orson Welles's ''The Stranger'' |editor1-last=Wilson |editor1-first=Kristi M. |editor2-last=Crowder-Taraborrelli |editor2-first=Tomás F. |title=Film and Genocide |location=Madison, Wisconsin |publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press |pages=55–58 |isbn=978-0-299-28564-7 }}</ref>{{Rp|56}} as a correspondent and discussion moderator at the UN Conference on International Organization.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|304}} He wrote of the Holocaust footage in his syndicated ''New York Post'' column May 7, 1945.<ref name="Barker" />{{Rp|56–57}}

Completed a day ahead of schedule and under budget,<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|379–380}} ''The Stranger'' was the only film made by Welles to have been a ''bona fide'' box office success upon its release. Its cost was $1.03&nbsp;million; 15 months after its release it had grossed $3.2&nbsp;million.<ref name="Rosebud">{{cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |title=Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |location=New York |date=1996 |page=268 |isbn=978-0-679-41834-4}}</ref> Within weeks of the completion of the film, International Pictures backed out of its promised four-picture deal with Welles. No reason was given, but the impression was left that ''The Stranger'' would not make money.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|381}}

=== ''Around the World'' ===
{{Main|Around the World (musical)}}
In the summer of 1946, Welles moved to New York to direct the Broadway musical ''[[Around the World (musical)|Around the World]]'', a stage adaptation of [[Jules Verne]]'s novel ''[[Around the World in Eighty Days]]'' with a book by Welles and music by [[Cole Porter]]. Producer [[Mike Todd]], who would produce the successful [[Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film)|1956 film adaptation]], pulled out from the lavish and expensive production, leaving Welles to support the finances. When Welles ran out of money he convinced [[Columbia Pictures]] president [[Harry Cohn]] to send enough to continue the show, and in exchange Welles promised to write, produce, direct and star in a film for Cohn for no further fee. The stage show soon failed due to poor box-office, with Welles unable to claim the losses on his taxes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/around-the-world-musical-opened-on-broadway-70-years-ago/ |title=Around the World Musical Opened on Broadway 70 years ago |date=May 27, 2016 |website=Wellesnet |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=October 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171004141900/http://www.wellesnet.com/around-the-world-musical-opened-on-broadway-70-years-ago/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Inspired by magician and cinema pioneer [[Georges Méliès]], the show required 55 stagehands and used films to bridge scenes. Welles said it was his favorite of his stage productions. Regarding its extravagance, critic Robert Garland said it had "everything but the kitchen sink." The next night, Welles brought out a kitchen sink.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |page=395}}</ref>

=== Radio (1946) ===

In 1946, Welles began two new radio series—''[[The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air]]'' for CBS, and ''[[Orson Welles Commentaries]]'' for ABC. While ''Mercury Summer Theatre'' featured half-hour adaptations of some classic Mercury radio shows from the 1930s, the first episode was a condensation of his ''Around the World'' stage play, and is the only record of Cole Porter's music for the project. Several original Mercury actors returned for the series, as well as Bernard Herrmann. Welles invested his earnings into his failing stage play. ''Commentaries'' was a political vehicle, continuing the themes from his ''New York Post'' column. Again, Welles lacked a clear focus, until the [[NAACP]] brought to his attention the case of [[Isaac Woodard]]. Welles brought significant attention to Woodard's cause.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-sought-justice-for-isaac-woodard-70-years-ago/ |title=Orson Welles Sought Justice for Issaac Woodard 70 years ago |last=Teal |first=Mike |date=July 28, 2016 |newspaper=Wellesnet &#124; Orson Welles Web Resource |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409043226/http://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-sought-justice-for-isaac-woodard-70-years-ago/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The last broadcast of ''Orson Welles Commentaries'' on October 6, 1946, marked the end of Welles's own radio shows.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|401}}

=== ''The Lady from Shanghai'' ===
{{Main|The Lady from Shanghai}}

[[File:Welles-Wilson-Hayworth-Lady-from-Shanghai.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|Welles, associate producer [[Richard Wilson (director)|Richard Wilson]] and Rita Hayworth confer on the set of ''[[The Lady from Shanghai]]'' (1947)]]

The film that Welles was obliged to make in exchange for [[Harry Cohn]]'s help in financing the stage production ''[[Around the World (musical)|Around the World]]'' was ''[[The Lady from Shanghai]]'', filmed in 1947 for [[Columbia Pictures]]. Welles intended it to be a modest thriller, but the budget skyrocketed after Cohn suggested that Welles's then-estranged wife [[Rita Hayworth]] star.

Cohn disliked Welles's [[rough cut]], particularly the confusing plot and lack of close-ups, and was not in sympathy with Welles's [[Brechtian]] use of irony and [[black comedy]], especially in a farcical courtroom scene. Cohn ordered extensive editing and re-shoots. After heavy editing by the studio, approximately one hour of Welles's first cut was removed, including much of a climactic confrontation scene in an amusement park funhouse. While expressing displeasure at the cuts, Welles was particularly appalled with the score. The film was considered a disaster in America when released, though the closing shootout in a hall of mirrors (the use of mirrors being a recurrent motif of Welles's, starting with ''Kane'') has become a touchstone of [[film noir]]. Not long after release, Welles and Hayworth finalized their divorce.

Although ''The Lady from Shanghai'' was acclaimed in Europe, it was not embraced until decades later in the U.S., where it is now regarded as a classic of film noir.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-lady-from-shanghai/Film?oid=2552830|title=The Lady From Shanghai|last=Kehr|first=Dave|website=Chicago Reader|date=November 22, 1985 |access-date=March 16, 2018|archive-date=March 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316151825/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-lady-from-shanghai/Film?oid=2552830|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== ''Macbeth'' ===
{{Main|Macbeth (1948 film)}}
[[File:Orson Welles as Macbeth.jpg|thumb|Welles and [[Jeanette Nolan]] in ''Macbeth'']]
Prior to 1948, Welles convinced [[Republic Pictures]] to let him direct a [[Macbeth (1948 film)|low-budget version]] of ''[[Macbeth]]'', featuring highly stylized sets and costumes, and a cast of actors lip-syncing to a pre-recorded soundtrack, one of many innovative cost-cutting techniques Welles deployed in an attempt to make an epic film from [[B-movie]] resources. The script, adapted by Welles, is a violent reworking of Shakespeare's original, freely cutting and pasting lines into new contexts via a [[collage]] technique and recasting ''Macbeth'' as a clash of pagan and proto-Christian ideologies. Some voodoo trappings of the famous [[Voodoo Macbeth|Welles/Houseman Negro Theatre stage adaptation]] are visible, especially in the film's characterization of the [[Weird Sisters]], who create an effigy of Macbeth as a charm to enchant him. Of all Welles's post-''Kane'' Hollywood productions, ''Macbeth'' is stylistically closest to ''Kane'' in its long takes and deep focus photography.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work but decided it did not care for the Scottish accents and held up general release for a year after early negative press reaction, including ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]''{{'}}s comment that Welles's film "doth foully slaughter Shakespeare."<ref>{{cite web|title=Orson Welles doth foully slaughter Shakespeare in a dialect version of his "Tragedy of Macbeth"—or so sayeth Life magazine|url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=729|work=Wellesnet|access-date=September 1, 2011|date=June 19, 2009|archive-date=January 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107192608/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=729|url-status=live}}</ref> Welles left for Europe, while co-producer and lifelong supporter [[Richard Wilson (producer)|Richard Wilson]] reworked the soundtrack. Welles returned and cut 20 minutes from the film at Republic's request and recorded narration to cover gaps. The film was decried as a disaster. ''Macbeth'' had influential fans in Europe, especially the French poet and filmmaker [[Jean Cocteau]], who hailed the film's "crude, irreverent power" and careful shot design, and described the characters as haunting "the corridors of some dreamlike subway, an abandoned coal mine, and ruined cellars oozing with water."<ref>{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Tony|title=Macbeth|url=http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/macbeth-2/|work=[[Senses of Cinema]]|access-date=September 1, 2011|date=February 6, 2006|archive-date=January 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114135546/http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/cteq/macbeth-2/|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Europe (1948–56) ==
In Italy he starred as [[Cagliostro]] in the 1949 film ''[[Black Magic (1949 film)|Black Magic]]''. His co-star, [[Akim Tamiroff]], impressed Welles so much that Tamiroff would appear in four of Welles's productions during the 1950s and 60s.

The following year, Welles starred as Harry Lime in [[Carol Reed]]'s ''[[The Third Man]]'', alongside Cotten, his friend and co-star from ''Citizen Kane'', with a script by [[Graham Greene]] and a memorable score by [[Anton Karas]]. In it, Welles makes what [[Roger Ebert]] called "the most famous entrance in the movies, and one of the most famous speeches." Greene credited the speech to Welles.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=December 8, 1996 |title=The Third Man |work=[[Chicago Sun Times]] |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-third-man-1949 |archive-date=August 6, 2020 |access-date=January 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806194219/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-third-man-1949 |url-status=live }}</ref> Radio producer [[Harry Alan Towers]] would resurrect Lime in the radio series ''[[The Adventures of Harry Lime]]''.

Welles appeared as [[Cesare Borgia]] in the 1949 Italian film ''[[Prince of Foxes (film)|Prince of Foxes]]'', with [[Tyrone Power]] and Mercury Theatre alumnus [[Everett Sloane]], and as the Mongol warrior Bayan in the 1950 film version of the novel ''[[The Black Rose]]''.
<ref>Carol Reed biography</ref>

=== ''Othello'' ===

{{Main|Othello (1951 film)}}
[[File:Othello-Welles-Cloutier.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and [[Suzanne Cloutier]] in ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'' (1951)]]

During this time, Welles was channeling his money from acting jobs into a self-financed film version of Shakespeare's ''[[Othello]]''. From 1949 to 1951, Welles worked on ''[[Othello (1951 film)|Othello]]'', filming on location in Italy and Morocco. The film featured Welles's friends [[Micheál Mac Liammóir]] as [[Iago]] and [[Hilton Edwards]] as [[Desdemona (Othello)|Desdemona]]'s father [[Brabantio]]. [[Suzanne Cloutier]] starred as Desdemona and [[The Campbell Playhouse (TV series)|Campbell Playhouse]] alumnus [[Robert Coote]] appeared as Iago's associate Roderigo.

Filming was suspended several times as Welles ran out of funds and left for acting jobs, accounted in detail in MacLiammóir's memoir ''Put Money in Thy Purse''. The American release prints had a technically flawed soundtrack, suffering from a dropout of sound at every quiet moment. Welles's daughter, Beatrice Welles-Smith, restored ''Othello'' in 1992 for a re-release. The restoration included reconstructing [[Angelo Francesco Lavagnino]]'s original score, which was originally inaudible, and adding ambient stereo sound effects, which were not in the original. The restoration went on a successful theatrical run in America. [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] writes of Welles's ''Othello'', "the poetry hangs in the air, like sea mist or incense." [[Anthony Lane]] writes that "Some of the action was shot in Venice, and I occasionally wonder what crept into the camera casing; the movie looks blackened and silvery, like an aged mirror, or as if the emulsion of the print were already poised to decay. You can't tell what is or isn't Shakespeare, where his influence begins and ends."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lane |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Lane |title=Nobody's Perfect |year=2002 |pages=585–586}}</ref> The movie premiered at the [[Cannes Film Festival]], where it won the ''Grand Prix'' (precursor of the [[Palme d'Or]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |first=Peter |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |page=411}}</ref>

In 1952, Welles continued finding work in England after the success of the ''Harry Lime'' radio show. Harry Alan Towers offered Welles another series, ''[[The Black Museum (radio series)|The Black Museum]]'', which ran a year with Welles as host and narrator. Director Herbert Wilcox offered Welles the part of the victim in ''[[Trent's Last Case (1952 film)|Trent's Last Case]]'', based on [[Edmund Clerihew Bentley]]'s [[Trent's Last Case (novel)|novel]]. In 1953, the [[BBC]] hired Welles to read an hour of selections from [[Walt Whitman]]'s ''[[Song of Myself]]''. Towers hired Welles again, to play [[Professor Moriarty]] in the radio series ''[[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1954 radio series)|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]]'' starring [[John Gielgud]] and [[Ralph Richardson]].

Welles briefly returned to America to make his first appearance on television, starring in the ''[[Omnibus (US TV series)|Omnibus]]'' presentation of ''[[King Lear (1953 TV drama)|King Lear]]'', broadcast live on [[CBS]] October 18, 1953. Directed by [[Peter Brook]], the production costarred [[Natasha Parry]], [[Beatrice Straight]] and [[Arnold Moss]].<ref>[https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40866/king-lear/ DVD Talk review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803081939/https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40866/king-lear/ |date=August 3, 2020 }} February 9, 2010 (Retrieved December 29, 2011)</ref>

In 1954, director George More O'Ferrall offered Welles the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of ''[[Three Cases of Murder]]'', co-starring [[Alan Badel]]. [[Herbert Wilcox]] cast Welles as the antagonist in ''[[Trouble in the Glen]]'' opposite [[Margaret Lockwood]], [[Forrest Tucker]] and [[Victor McLaglen]]. Old friend [[John Huston]] cast him as Father Mapple in his [[Moby Dick (1956 film)|1956 film adaptation]] of [[Herman Melville]]'s ''[[Moby-Dick]]'', starring [[Gregory Peck]].

=== ''Mr. Arkadin'' ===

{{Main|Mr. Arkadin}}
[[File:Orson Welles.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles in Madrid during filming of ''Mr. Arkadin'' in 1954]]
Welles's next turn as director was ''[[Mr. Arkadin]]'' (1955), which was produced by his political mentor from the 1940s, [[Louis Dolivet]]. It was filmed in France, Germany, Spain and Italy on a limited budget. Based loosely on episodes of the Harry Lime radio show, it stars Welles as a billionaire who hires a man to delve into the secrets of his past. The film stars [[Robert Arden]], who had worked on the Lime series; Welles's third wife, [[Paola Mori]], whose voice was dubbed by actress [[Billie Whitelaw]]; and guest stars [[Akim Tamiroff]], [[Michael Redgrave]], [[Katina Paxinou]] and [[Mischa Auer]]. Frustrated by his slow progress in the editing room, producer Dolivet removed Welles from the project and finished it without him. Eventually, five different versions of the film would be released, two in Spanish and three in English. The version that Dolivet completed was retitled ''Confidential Report''. In 2005 Stefan Droessler of the [[Munich Film Museum]] oversaw a reconstruction of the surviving film elements.

=== Television projects ===

In 1955, Welles directed two television series for the BBC. The first was ''[[Orson Welles' Sketch Book]]'', six 15-minute shows featuring Welles drawing in a sketchbook to illustrate his reminiscences including the filming of ''It's All True'' and the Isaac Woodard case. The second was ''[[Around the World with Orson Welles]]'', six travelogues set in locations around Europe (such as [[Vienna]], the [[Basque Country (historical territory)|Basque Country]], and England). Welles served as host and interviewer, his commentary including documentary facts and his observations (a technique he would continue to explore in later works).

During Episode 3 of ''Sketchbook'', Welles attacks abuse of police powers around the world. The episode starts with him telling the story of [[Isaac Woodard]], an African-American veteran during World War II being falsely accused by a bus driver of being drunk and disorderly, who has a policeman remove the man from the bus. Woodard is not arrested right away, but beaten unconscious nearly to death and permanently blinded. Welles assures the audience that he saw to it that justice was served to the policeman though he does not mention what justice was delivered. Welles goes on to give other examples of police being given more power and authority than is necessary. The episode is titled "The Police".

In 1956, Welles completed ''[[Portrait of Gina]]''. He left the only copy of it in his room at the [[Hôtel Ritz Paris|Hôtel Ritz]] in Paris. The film cans would remain in a lost-and-found locker at the hotel for decades, where they were discovered in 1986, after his death.

== Return to Hollywood (1956–59) ==
[[File:Lucille Ball Orson Welles I Love Lucy 1956.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles the magician with Lucille Ball in ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' (October 15, 1956)]]
In 1956, Welles returned to Hollywood.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theibtaurisblog.com/2012/08/30/orson-welles-and-pan-europeanism-1947-1970/ |title=Orson Welles and pan-Europeanism 1957–1970 |last=Thevoz |first=Seth |publisher=I.B. Tauris |date=August 30, 2012 |website=ibtaurisblog |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=December 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181219000937/https://theibtaurisblog.com/2012/08/30/orson-welles-and-pan-europeanism-1947-1970/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He began filming a projected pilot for [[Desilu]], owned by [[Lucille Ball]] and her husband [[Desi Arnaz]], who had purchased the former RKO studios. The film was ''[[The Fountain of Youth (film)|The Fountain of Youth]]'', based on a story by [[John Collier (fiction writer)|John Collier]]. Originally deemed not viable as a pilot, the film was not aired until 1958—and won the [[Peabody Award]] for excellence.

Welles guest-starred on television shows including ''[[I Love Lucy]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ctva.biz/US/Comedy/Lucy1_ILoveLucy_06_%281956-57%29.htm |title=I Love Lucy (1956–57), 'Lucy Meets Orson Welles' |publisher=The Classic TV Archive |access-date=April 9, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304111153/http://ctva.biz/US/Comedy/Lucy1_ILoveLucy_06_(1956-57).htm |url-status=live }}</ref> On radio, he was narrator of ''Tomorrow'' (October 17, 1956), a [[nuclear holocaust]] drama produced and syndicated by ABC and the [[Federal Civil Defense Administration]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://radiogoldin.library.umkc.edu/Home/RadioGoldin_Records?searchString=Tomorrow&type=Programs |title=Tomorrow |publisher=RadioGOLDINdex |access-date=September 3, 2014 |archive-date=April 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429191604/http://radiogoldindex.com/cgi-local/p2.cgi?ProgramName=Tomorrow |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/otr_civildefensewithorsonwelles |title=Tomorrow |publisher=Internet Archive |access-date=September 3, 2014|date=October 17, 1956 }}</ref> Welles's next feature role was in ''[[Man in the Shadow (American film)|Man in the Shadow]]'' for [[Universal Pictures]] in 1957, starring [[Jeff Chandler (actor)|Jeff Chandler]].

=== ''Touch of Evil'' ===
{{Main|Touch of Evil}}

[[File:Touch-of-Evil-1851-26.jpg|thumb|left|Welles, [[Victor Millan]], [[Joseph Calleia]] and [[Charlton Heston]] in ''[[Touch of Evil]]'' (1958)]]

Welles stayed on at Universal to co-star with [[Charlton Heston]] in ''[[Touch of Evil]]'', based on [[Whit Masterson]]'s novel ''[[Badge of Evil]]''. Originally hired as an actor, Welles was promoted to director by [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] at the insistence of Heston.<ref name="Heston">[[Charlton Heston|Heston, Charlton]], ''In the Arena: An Autobiography''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-684-80394-4}}</ref>{{Rp|154|date=April 2014}} The film reunited actors and technicians with whom Welles had worked in Hollywood in the 1940s, including cameraman [[Russell Metty]] (''The Stranger''), makeup artist Maurice Seiderman (''Citizen Kane''), and actors Cotten, [[Marlene Dietrich]] and [[Akim Tamiroff]]. Filming proceeded smoothly, with Welles finishing on schedule and budget, and the studio bosses praising the daily rushes. Nevertheless, after production, the studio re-edited the film, re-shot scenes, and shot new exposition scenes to clarify the plot.<ref name="Heston" />{{Rp|175–176|date=April 2014}} Welles wrote a 58-page memo outlining suggestions and objections, stating that the film was no longer his version—it was the studio's, but as such, he was still prepared to help with it.<ref name="Heston" />{{Rp|175–176|date=April 2014}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Welles |first=Orson |editor-last=Rosenbaum |editor-first=Jonathan |title=Memo to Universal: Touch of Evil |url=https://www.sabzian.be/article/memo-to-universal-touch-of-evil |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119162743/https://www.sabzian.be/article/memo-to-universal-touch-of-evil |url-status=dead }}</ref> The movie was shown at the [[Expo 58|1958 Brussels World's Fair]], where it won the grand prize.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bogdanovich |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |edition=Revised |page=424}}</ref> [[François Truffaut]] saw the film in Brussels, and it influenced his debut ''[[The 400 Blows]]'', one of the seminal films of the [[French New Wave]].

In 1978, a longer preview version of the film was discovered and released. In 1998, [[Walter Murch]] reedited the film according to Welles's specifications in his memo. Murch said "I'm just flabbergasted when I read his memos, thinking that he was writing these ideas forty years ago, because, if I was working on a film now and a director came up with ideas like these, I'd be amazed—pleased but amazed—to realize that someone was thinking that hard about sound—which is all too rare".<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last1=Murch |first1=Walter |last2=Axmaker |first2=Sean |date=1998 |title='A tremendous piece of filmmaking' - Walter Murch on 'Touch of Evil' |url=https://parallax-view.org/2008/10/07/walter-murch-on-touch-of-evil/ |website=Parallax View |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119162734/https://parallax-view.org/2008/10/07/walter-murch-on-touch-of-evil/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The film was influential in its use of a handheld camera, notably in the scene in the elevator. Murch says that "I'm sure Godard and Truffaut, who were big fans of ''Touch of Evil'', learned from that scene how they could achieve exactly what they wanted—at once both a fresh sense of reality and ingenuity."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ondaatje |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ondaatje|title=[[The Conversations]] |year=2002 |page=190}}</ref>

As Universal reworked ''Touch of Evil'', Welles began filming his [[Don Quixote (unfinished film)|adaptation]] of [[Miguel de Cervantes]]'s ''[[Don Quixote]]'' in Mexico, starring [[Mischa Auer]] as Quixote and Akim Tamiroff as [[Sancho Panza]].

== Return to Europe (1959–1970) ==

[[File:Orson Welles - 1960.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles in ''[[Crack in the Mirror]]'' (1960)]]
He continued shooting ''Don Quixote'' in Spain and Italy, but replaced Mischa Auer with Francisco Reiguera, and resumed acting jobs.
In Italy in 1959, Welles directed his scenes as [[King Saul]] in Richard Pottier's film ''[[David and Goliath (1960 film)|David and Goliath]]''. In Hong Kong, he co-starred with [[Curt Jürgens]] in [[Lewis Gilbert]]'s film ''[[Ferry to Hong Kong]]''. In 1960, in Paris he co-starred in [[Richard Fleischer]]'s film ''[[Crack in the Mirror]]''. In [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] he starred in [[Richard Thorpe]]'s film ''[[The Tartars]]'' and [[Veljko Bulajić]]'s ''[[Battle of Neretva (film)|Battle of Neretva]]''.

Throughout the 1960s, filming continued on ''Quixote'' on-and-off, as Welles evolved the concept, tone and ending several times. Although he had a complete version shot and edited at least once, he would continue toying with the editing well into the 1980s; he never completed a version he was fully satisfied with and would junk existing footage and shoot new footage. In one case, he had a complete cut ready in which Quixote and Sancho Panza end up going to the Moon, but felt the ending was rendered obsolete by the 1969 Moon landings and burned 10 reels of this version. As the process went on, Welles gradually voiced all the characters and provided narration. In 1992, the director [[Jesús Franco]] constructed a film out of the portions of ''Quixote'' left by Welles. Some of the film stock had decayed badly. While the Welles footage was greeted with interest, the post-production by Franco was met with criticism.

In 1961, Welles directed ''In the Land of Don Quixote'', eight half-hour episodes for the Italian television network [[RAI]]. Similar to ''Around the World with Orson Welles'', they presented travelogues of Spain and included Welles's wife, Paola, and their daughter, Beatrice. Though Welles was fluent in Italian, the network was not interested in him providing narration because of his accent, and the series sat unreleased until 1964, by when the network had added its own Italian narration. Ultimately, versions of the episodes were released with the original musical score Welles had approved, but without the narration.

=== ''The Trial'' ===
{{Main|The Trial (1962 film)}}
In 1962, Welles directed his adaptation of ''[[The Trial (1962 film)|The Trial]]'', based on [[The Trial|the novel]] by [[Franz Kafka]] and produced by Michael and [[Alexander Salkind]]. The cast included [[Jeanne Moreau]], [[Romy Schneider]], [[Paola Mori]], [[Akim Tamiroff]] and [[Anthony Perkins]] as Josef K. While filming exteriors in [[Zagreb]], Welles was informed that the Salkinds had run out of money, meaning there could be no set construction. No stranger to shooting on found locations, Welles soon filmed the interiors in the [[Gare d'Orsay]], then an abandoned station in Paris. Welles thought the location possessed a "[[Jules Verne]] modernism" and a melancholy sense of "waiting", both suitable for Kafka. To remain in the spirit of Kafka, Welles set up the cutting room with the editor, Frederick Muller (as Fritz Muller), in the old unused, cold, depressing, station master office. The film failed at the box-office. [[Peter Bogdanovich]] observed that Welles found it riotously funny. Welles told a BBC interviewer that it was his best film.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/trial%20bbc%20interview.htm |title=Welles BBC interview |publisher=Wellesnet.com |access-date=March 30, 2010 |archive-date=November 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117061211/http://www.wellesnet.com/trial%20bbc%20interview.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> While filming ''The Trial'' Welles met [[Oja Kodar]], who became his partner and collaborator for the last 20 years of his life.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|428}}

Welles played a film director in ''[[La ricotta]]'' (1963), [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]'s segment of the ''[[Ro.Go.Pa.G.]]'' movie, although his renowned voice was dubbed by writer [[Giorgio Bassani]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|516|date=May 2012}} He continued taking what work he could find acting, narrating or hosting other people's work, and began filming ''[[Chimes at Midnight]]'', which was completed in 1965.

=== ''Chimes at Midnight'' ===

{{Main|Chimes at Midnight}}
[[File:Orson-Welles-Falstaff.jpg|thumb|Welles as Falstaff in ''[[Chimes at Midnight]]'' (1965)]]
Filmed in Spain, ''Chimes at Midnight'' was based on Welles's play, ''[[Chimes at Midnight#Five Kings (1939)|Five Kings]]'', in which he drew material from six Shakespeare plays to tell the story of [[Falstaff|Sir John Falstaff]] (Welles) and his relationship with [[Henry V of England|Prince Hal]] ([[Keith Baxter (actor)|Keith Baxter]]). The cast includes [[John Gielgud]], [[Jeanne Moreau]], [[Fernando Rey]] and [[Margaret Rutherford]]; the film's narration, spoken by [[Ralph Richardson]], is taken from the chronicler [[Raphael Holinshed]].<ref name="Bret Wood" />{{Rp|249}} Welles held the film in high regard: "It's my favorite picture, yes. If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I would offer up."<ref name="Estrin" />{{Rp|203}} [[Anthony Lane]] writes that "what Welles means to conjure up is not just historical continuity—the very best of Sir John—but a sense that the Complete Works of Shakespeare constitute, as it were, one vast poem, from which his devoted and audacious interpreters are free to quote... the picture both honors Shakespeare and spurns the industry, academic and theatrical, that has encrusted him over time."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lane |first=Anthony |date=November 25, 1996 |title=Tights! Camera! Action! |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/11/25/tights-camera-action |access-date=May 7, 2024 |archive-date=February 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203010308/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/11/25/tights-camera-action |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1966, Welles directed a film for French television, an adaptation of ''[[The Immortal Story]]'', by [[Karen Blixen]]. Released in 1968, it stars Jeanne Moreau, [[Roger Coggio]] and [[Norman Eshley]]. The film had a successful run in French theaters. At this time Welles met Oja Kodar again, and gave her a letter he had written to her and been keeping for four years; they would not be parted again. They immediately began a collaboration both personal and professional. The first of these was an adaptation of Blixen's ''The Heroine'', meant to be a companion piece to ''The Immortal Story'' and starring Kodar. Unfortunately, funding disappeared after one day's shooting. After completing this film, he appeared in a cameo as [[Cardinal Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Wolsey]] in [[Fred Zinnemann]]'s adaptation of ''[[A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)|A Man for All Seasons]]''—a role for which he won acclaim.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

[[File:Stevan Kragujevic, Sergei Bondarchuk and Orson Welles, Sarajevo, 29. november 1969. Movie premier Battle of Neretva.JPG|thumb|[[Sergei Bondarchuk]] and Welles at the ''[[Battle of Neretva (film)|Battle of Neretva]]'' premiere in [[Sarajevo]] (November 1969)]]
In 1967, Welles began directing ''[[The Deep (1970 film)|The Deep]]'', based on the novel ''[[Dead Calm (novel)|Dead Calm]]'' by [[Charles Williams (U.S. author)|Charles Williams]] and filmed off the shore of [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]. The cast included Moreau, Kodar and [[Laurence Harvey]]. Personally financed by Welles and Kodar, they could not obtain the funds to complete the project, and it was abandoned a few years later after the death of Harvey. The surviving footage was eventually edited and released by the Filmmuseum München. In 1968 Welles began filming a TV special for CBS under the title ''Orson's Bag'', combining travelogue, comedy skits and a condensation of Shakespeare's ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' with Welles as [[Shylock]]. In 1969 Welles asked editor Frederick Muller to work with him re-editing the material and they set up cutting rooms at the Safa Palatino Studios in Rome. Funding for the show sent by CBS to Welles in Switzerland was seized by the IRS. Without funding, the show was not completed. The surviving [[The Merchant of Venice (unfinished film)|film]] clips portions were eventually released by the Filmmuseum München.

In 1969, Welles authorized the use of his name for a cinema in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. The [[Orson Welles Cinema]] remained in operation until 1986, with Welles making a personal appearance there in 1977. Also in 1969, he played a supporting role in [[John Huston]]'s ''[[The Kremlin Letter]]''. Drawn by the offers he received to work in television and films, and upset by a tabloid scandal reporting his affair with Kodar, Welles abandoned the editing of ''Don Quixote'' and moved back to America in 1970.

== Later career (1970–1985) ==

Welles returned to Hollywood, where he continued to self-finance his film and television projects. While offers to act, narrate and host continued, Welles found himself in demand on talk shows. In 1967, he played [[Le Chiffre]] in the [[James Bond]] spoof ''[[Casino Royale (1967 film)|Casino Royale]]''. Due to a feud between Welles and co-star [[Peter Sellers]], the two refused to be on set with each other, meaning their scenes had to be shot separately with body stand-ins.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/casino-royale-calamity-peter-sellers-turned-bond-laughing-stock/ | title=The Casino Royale calamity: How Peter Sellers turned Bond into a laughing stock | work=The Telegraph | date=September 24, 2021 | last1=Larman | first1=Alexander }}</ref> Welles made appearances for [[The Dick Cavett Show|Dick Cavett]], [[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson|Johnny Carson]], [[The Dean Martin Show|Dean Martin]], [[The Jackie Gleason Show|Jackie Gleason]] and [[The Merv Griffin Show|Merv Griffin]]. Welles's focus during his final years was ''[[The Other Side of the Wind]]'', a project that was filmed intermittently between 1970–76. Co-written by Welles and Oja Kodar, it is the story of an aging film director ([[John Huston]]) looking for funds to complete his final film. The cast includes [[Peter Bogdanovich]], [[Susan Strasberg]], [[Norman Foster (director)|Norman Foster]], [[Edmond O'Brien]], [[Cameron Mitchell (actor)|Cameron Mitchell]] and [[Dennis Hopper]]. Financed by Iranian backers, ownership fell into a legal quagmire after the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah of Iran]] was deposed. The legal disputes kept the film in its unfinished state until 2017 and it was finally released in 2018.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/movies/orson-welles-last-film-debut-other-side-of-the-wind.html|title=48 Years Later, Orson Welles's Last Film Makes Its Debut|work=New York Times|date=September 2, 2025|accessdate=October 24, 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Who's Out There (1973).ogv|thumb|thumbtime=21|Welles often invokes "The War of the Worlds" as host of ''[[c:File:Who's Out There (1973).ogv|Who's Out There?]]'' (1973), an [[CINE|award-winning]] [[NASA]] documentary short film by [[Robert Drew]] about the likelihood of [[extraterrestrial life|life on other planets]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.drewassociates.com/films/whos-out-there/ |title=Who's Out There? |last1=Drew |first1=Robert |date=1973 |publisher=Drew Associates |access-date=August 19, 2016 |archive-date=September 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903022852/http://www.drewassociates.com/films/whos-out-there/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/whos-out-there-orson-welles-narrates-a-nasa-show-on-intelligent-life-in-the-universe/ |title=Who's Out There – Orson Welles narrates a NASA show on intelligent life in the Universe |date=February 10, 2008 |publisher=Wellesnet |access-date=August 19, 2016 |archive-date=September 28, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160928013422/http://www.wellesnet.com/whos-out-there-orson-welles-narrates-a-nasa-show-on-intelligent-life-in-the-universe/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]] Welles portrayed King [[Louis XVIII]] in the 1970 film ''[[Waterloo (1970 film)|Waterloo]]'', and narrated the beginning and ending scenes of the historical comedy ''[[Start the Revolution Without Me]]'' (1970).

In 1971, Welles directed a short adaptation of ''[[Moby-Dick]]'', a one-man performance on a bare stage, reminiscent of his 1955 stage production ''[[Moby Dick—Rehearsed|Moby Dick – Rehearsed]]''. Never completed, it was released by the Filmmuseum München. He appeared in ''[[Ten Days' Wonder (film)|Ten Days' Wonder]]'', co-starring with [[Anthony Perkins]] and directed by [[Claude Chabrol]], based on a detective novel by [[Ellery Queen]]. That same year, the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] gave him an [[Academy Honorary Award]] "for superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures." Welles pretended to be out of town and sent Huston to claim it, thanking the Academy on film. In his speech, Huston criticized the Academy for presenting the award while refusing to support Welles's projects. In 1972, Welles acted as on-screen narrator for the documentary version of [[Alvin Toffler]]'s 1970 book ''[[Future Shock]]''. Working again for a British producer, Welles played [[Long John Silver]] in director [[John Hough (director)|John Hough]]'s ''[[Treasure Island (1972 live-action film)|Treasure Island]]'' (1972), an adaptation of [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s [[Treasure Island|novel]], which had been the second story broadcast by ''The Mercury Theatre on the Air'' in 1938. This was the last time he played the lead role in a major film. Welles contributed to the script, although his writing credit was attributed to the pseudonym 'O. W. Jeeves'. In some versions of the film Welles's original recorded dialog was redubbed by [[Robert Rietty]].

[[File:F for Fake (1973 poster).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Poster for ''[[F for Fake]]'' (1974), a [[film essay]] and the last film he completed]]

In 1973, Welles completed ''[[F for Fake]]'', a personal essay film about art forger [[Elmyr de Hory]] and biographer [[Clifford Irving]]. Based on an existing documentary by [[François Reichenbach]], it included new material with Oja Kodar, Joseph Cotten, [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] and [[William Alland]]. An excerpt of Welles's 1930s ''War of the Worlds'' broadcast was recreated for this film; however, none of the dialogue heard in the film actually matches what was originally broadcast. Welles filmed a five-minute trailer, rejected in the U.S., that featured shots of a topless Kodar. Welles hosted a British syndicated anthology series, ''[[Orson Welles Great Mysteries]]'', during the 1973–74 television season. His introductions to the 26 half-hour episodes were shot in July 1973 by Gary Graver.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|443}} 1974 saw Welles lending his voice to ''[[And Then There Were None (1974 film)|And Then There Were None]]'' produced by his former associate, Harry Alan Towers and starring an international cast that included [[Oliver Reed]], [[Elke Sommer]] and [[Herbert Lom]]. In 1975, Welles narrated the documentary ''[[Bugs Bunny: Superstar]]'', focusing on [[Warner Bros.]] cartoons from the 1940s. The [[American Film Institute]] presented Welles with its third Lifetime Achievement Award. At the ceremony, Welles screened scenes from the nearly finished ''[[The Other Side of the Wind]]''.

In 1976, [[Paramount Television]] purchased the rights for the entire [[Rex Stout bibliography#Nero Wolfe corpus|corpus]] of [[Nero Wolfe]] stories for Welles.{{efn|Pre-production materials for ''Nero Wolfe'' (1976) are contained in the Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers at the University of Michigan.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umich-scl-welleskodar?byte=6167578;focusrgn=C01;subview=standard;view=reslist |title=Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers 1910–1998 (Box 17) |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] Special Collections Library |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=January 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108154420/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umich-scl-welleskodar?byte=6167578;focusrgn=C01;subview=standard;view=reslist |url-status=live }}</ref>}}<ref name="Kleiner">{{cite news |last=Kleiner |first=Dick |author-link=Dick Kleiner |date=December 30, 1976 |title=No title |newspaper=[[Oakland Tribune]] }}</ref><ref name="Lochte">{{cite news |last=Lochte |first=Dick |date=January 30, 1977 |title=TV finally tunes in Nero Wolfe |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Liz |author-link=Liz Smith (journalist) |date=March 14, 1977 |title=People |newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |quote=Paramount bought the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles, who is enjoying a renaissance of popularity in Hollywood and the world. }}</ref> Welles had once wanted to make a series of Nero Wolfe movies, but author [[Rex Stout]]—who was leery of Hollywood adaptations after two disappointing 1930s films—turned him down.<ref name="Lochte" /> Paramount planned to begin with an [[Nero Wolfe (film)|ABC-TV movie]] and hoped to persuade Welles to continue the role in a miniseries.<ref name="Kleiner" /> [[Frank D. Gilroy]] was signed to write the television script and direct the TV movie on the assurance that Welles would star, but by April 1977 Welles had bowed out.<ref>[[Frank Gilroy|Gilroy, Frank D.]], ''I Wake Up Screening''. Carbondale: [[Southern Illinois University Press]], 1993, {{ISBN|0-8093-1856-3}}. p. 147.</ref> In 1980 the [[Associated Press]] reported "the distinct possibility" that Welles would star in a [[Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)|Nero Wolfe TV series]] for [[NBC]] television.<ref>Boyer, Peter J., "NBC Fall Schedule," [[Associated Press]], March 24, 1980</ref> Again, Welles left the project due to creative differences with Paramount. [[William Conrad]] was cast in the role.<ref name="Beck">{{cite news |last=Beck |first=Marilyn |author-link=Marilyn Beck |date=November 24, 1980 |title=Marilyn Beck's Hollywood |newspaper=[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|Milwaukee Journal]] |publisher=[[Tribune Media Services|Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate]] }}</ref><ref name="Jaffe">{{cite book |last=Jaffe |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Jaffe |date=December 2001 |chapter=A Labor of Love: The Nero Wolfe Television Series |editor-last=Kaye |editor-first=Marvin |title=The Nero Wolfe Files |location=Maryland |publisher=[[Wildside Press]] |publication-date=2005 |pages=86–91 |isbn=978-0-8095-4494-3 }}</ref>{{Rp|87–88}}

In 1979, Welles completed his documentary ''[[Filming Othello]]'', featuring Michael MacLiammoir and Hilton Edwards. Made for West German television, it was also released in theaters. Welles completed his self-produced pilot for ''[[The Orson Welles Show (TV pilot)|The Orson Welles Show]]'', featuring interviews with [[Burt Reynolds]], [[Jim Henson]] and [[Frank Oz]] and guest-starring [[the Muppets]] and [[Angie Dickinson]]. Unable to find network interest, the pilot was never broadcast. Welles appeared in the biopic ''[[The Secret of Nikola Tesla]]'', and made a cameo in ''[[The Muppet Movie]]''. Beginning in the late 1970s, Welles participated in a series of famous television advertisements. For two years he was on-camera spokesman for the [[Paul Masson]] Vineyards,{{efn|Paul Masson's spokesman since 1979, Welles parted company with Paul Masson in 1981, and in 1982 he was replaced by [[John Gielgud]].<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=October 26, 1982 |title=People in the News }}</ref>}} and sales grew by one third during the time Welles intoned what became a popular catchphrase: "We will sell no wine before its time."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bronson|first= Gail|title=In Advertising, Big Names Mean Big Money|magazine=[[U.S. News & World Report]]|date= July 4, 1983}}</ref> Years later, the [[Orson Welles Paul Masson advertisements|commercials]] regained notoriety when a bootleg recording of out-takes was distributed, showing an apparently [[alcohol intoxication|inebriated]] Welles on set.<ref name="Outtakes1">{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s|title=Original Takes for Orson Welles Wine Commercial|date=1980|website=YouTube|publisher=grimscribe126|access-date=February 12, 2017|archive-date=February 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170213201045/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFevH5vP32s|url-status=live}}</ref> He was the voice behind the long-running [[Carlsberg Group|Carlsberg]] "Probably the best lager in the world" campaign,<ref>The "probably" tag is still in use today.</ref> promoted Domecq sherry on British television<ref>{{cite news|last=Salmans|first= Sandra|title=Many Stars Are Playing Pitchmen – with No Regrets|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= May 3, 1981}}</ref> and provided narration on adverts for [[Findus]], though they have been overshadowed by a [[blooper reel]] of voice recordings, known as the [[Frozen Peas]] reel. He did commercials for the Preview Subscription Television Service seen on stations around the country.

In 1981, Welles hosted the documentary ''[[The Man Who Saw Tomorrow]]'', about [[Nostradamus]]. In 1982, the BBC broadcast ''The Orson Welles Story'' in the ''[[Arena (UK TV series)|Arena]]'' series. Interviewed by Leslie Megahey, Welles examined his past in detail, and people from his professional past were interviewed. It was reissued in 1990 as ''With Orson Welles: Stories of a Life in Film''. Welles provided narration for a 1982 documentary on American public television,<ref>"A Dream Called Public Television", 1982-01-09, Oregon Public Broadcasting, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 8, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-153-03qv9v9k</ref> the tracks "Defender" from [[Manowar]]'s 1987 album ''[[Fighting the World]]'' and "Dark Avenger" on their 1982 album, ''[[Battle Hymns (Manowar album)|Battle Hymns]]''. He recorded the concert introduction for the live performances of Manowar that says, "Ladies and gentlemen, from the United States of America, all hail Manowar." Manowar have used this introduction for all their concerts since. During the 1980s, Welles worked on such film projects as ''[[The Dreamers (unfinished film)|The Dreamers]]'', based on two stories by [[Isak Dinesen]] and starring Oja Kodar, and ''[[Orson Welles' Magic Show]]'', which reused material from his failed TV pilot. Another project was ''[[Filming the Trial]]'', the second in a proposed series of documentaries examining his feature films. While much was shot, none was completed. All were eventually released by the Filmmuseum München.

In the mid-1980s, [[Henry Jaglom]] taped lunch conversations with Welles at Los Angeles's Ma Maison, and in New York. Recordings were edited by [[Peter Biskind]] and published in the 2013 book ''My Lunches With Orson''.<ref name=Biskind>{{cite web|last=Biskind|first=Peter|title=Three Courses of Orson Welles|url=https://www.vulture.com/2013/06/orson-welles-lunch-with-henry-jaglom.html|work=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|date=June 16, 2013 |access-date=June 28, 2013|archive-date=June 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130630110658/http://www.vulture.com/2013/06/orson-welles-lunch-with-henry-jaglom.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1984, Welles narrated the short-lived television series ''[[Scene of the Crime (1984 TV series)|Scene of the Crime]]''. During the early years of ''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'', Welles was the voice of the unseen character Robin Masters, a writer and [[Playboy (lifestyle)|playboy]]. Welles's death forced this character to be written out of the series. In an oblique homage to Welles, the ''Magnum, P.I.'' producers ambiguously concluded that story arc by having a character accuse another of having hired an actor to portray Robin Masters.<ref>''[[Magnum, P.I.]]'', episode "Paper War", 1986.</ref> He also released a music single, titled "I Know What It Is to Be Young (But You Don't Know What It Is to Be Old)", which he recorded under Italian label [[Compagnia Generale del Disco]]. The song was performed with the [[Nick Perito]] Orchestra and the [[Ray Charles Singers]] and produced by [[Jerry Abbott]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discogs.com/Orson-Welles-I-Know-What-It-Is-To-Be-Young-But-You-Dont-Know-What-It-Is-To-Be-Old/release/1428788 |title=Orson Welles – I Know What It Is To Be Young (But You Don't Know What It Is To Be Old) (CD) at Discogs |publisher=Discogs.com |date=June 25, 1996 |access-date=December 21, 2012 |archive-date=April 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150427091042/http://www.discogs.com/Orson-Welles-I-Know-What-It-Is-To-Be-Young-But-You-Dont-Know-What-It-Is-To-Be-Old/release/1428788 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The last film roles before Welles's death included voice work in the animated films ''[[Enchanted Journey]]'' (1984) and ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'' (1986), in which he provided the voice for the planet-eating supervillain [[Unicron]]. His last film appearance was in [[Henry Jaglom]]'s 1987 independent film ''[[Someone to Love (1987 film)|Someone to Love]]'', released two years after his death but produced before his voice-over in ''Transformers: The Movie''. His last television appearance was on ''[[Moonlighting (TV series)|Moonlighting]]''. He recorded an introduction to an episode entitled "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice", which was partially filmed in black and white. The episode aired five days after his death and was dedicated to his memory.

== Personal life ==

=== Relationships and family ===
[[File:Orson-Virginia-Christopher-Welles-1938.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and Virginia Nicolson Welles with their daughter Christopher Marlowe Welles (1938)]]
Welles and Chicago-born actress and socialite Virginia Nicolson were married on November 14, 1934.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|332|date=April 2014}} "Regardless of his later comments, the two were very much in love," wrote biographer Patrick McGilligan, "and she was his salvation."<ref>{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |date=2015 |title=Young Orson |location=New York |publisher=Harper |page=following page 310 |isbn=978-0-06-211248-4 }}</ref>{{efn|Virginia Welles is a sympathetically written key character in one of Welles's last important pieces of writing, the unproduced screenplay about the 1937 staging of ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' that he completed a year before his death.<ref name="McGilligan"/>{{Rp|384}}}} The couple separated in December 1939<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|226}} and divorced in February 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=942|title=A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles: A talk with Chris Welles Feder on her new book, ''In My Father's Shadow'' – Part One|publisher=Lawrence French, Wellesnet, November 8, 2009|access-date=November 10, 2013|date=November 8, 2009|archive-date=May 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522100012/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=942|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19400201&id=2-BPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6555,8524 |title=Orson Welles is Divorced by Wife |publisher=Associated Press |work=[[Evening Independent]]|date= February 1, 1940 |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164510/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19400201&id=2-BPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6555%2C8524 |url-status=live }}</ref> A few months later, on May 18, 1940, Virginia married [[Marion Davies]]'s nephew [[Charles Lederer]].

After bearing with Welles's romances in New York, Virginia had learned that Welles had fallen in love with Mexican actress [[Dolores del Río]].<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|227}} Infatuated with her since adolescence, Welles met del Río at Darryl Zanuck's ranch<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|206}} soon after he moved to Hollywood in 1939.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|227}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|168}} Their relationship was kept secret until 1941, when del Río filed for divorce from her second husband. They openly appeared together in New York while Welles was directing the Mercury stage production ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]''.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|212}} They acted together in the movie ''[[Journey into Fear (1943 film)|Journey into Fear]]'' (1943). Their relationship came to an end due, among other things, to Welles's infidelities. Del Río returned to Mexico in 1943, shortly before Welles married [[Rita Hayworth]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ramón|first1=David|title=Dolores del Río|date=1997|publisher=Clío|location=México|isbn=978-968-6932-35-5|page=11}}</ref> [[File:Orson Welles & Dolores del Rio, 1941.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and [[Dolores del Río]] (1941)]] [[File:Rebecca-Welles-Rita-Hayworth-1946.jpg|thumb|upright|Daughter Rebecca Welles and Rita Hayworth (December 23, 1946)]]
Welles married Hayworth on September 7, 1943.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|278}} They were divorced on November 10, 1947.<ref name="Leaming Hayworth" />{{Rp|142}} During his last interview, recorded for ''[[The Merv Griffin Show]]'' on the evening before his death, Welles called Hayworth "one of the dearest and sweetest women that ever lived ... and we were a long time together—I was lucky enough to have been with her longer than any of the other men in her life."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEWy--VsBQ&list=UUaxAJybXd-1ahQ9OV1J2WaA |title=Orson Welles' Last Interview (excerpt) |work=The Merv Griffin Show|date= October 10, 1985 |access-date=September 11, 2014 |archive-date=May 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517174345/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEWy--VsBQ&list=UUaxAJybXd-1ahQ9OV1J2WaA |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Mori-Welles-1955.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Paola Mori]] and Welles, days before their marriage (May 1955)]]
In 1955, Welles married actress [[Paola Mori]], an Italian aristocrat who starred as Raina Arkadin in his film ''[[Mr. Arkadin]]''. The couple began an affair, and were married at her parents' insistence.<ref name="Feder">{{cite book |last=Feder |first=Chris Welles |date=2009 |title=In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781565125995 |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |publisher=Algonquin Books |isbn=978-1-56512-599-5 }}</ref>{{Rp|168}} They were wed in London on May 8, 1955,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|417, 419|date=May 2012}} and never divorced.

Croatian-born artist and actress [[Oja Kodar]] became Welles's longtime companion and mistress both personally and professionally from 1966 onward. They lived together for some of the last 20 years of his life.<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|255–258}}

Welles had three daughters from his marriages: Christopher Welles Feder (born 1938, with Virginia Nicolson);{{efn|"On March 27, 1938," biographer Barbara Leaming wrote, "Orson's close friends received a most peculiar telegram: 'Christopher, she is born.' It was no joke"<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|148}} Her full name was given to be [[Christopher Marlowe]] in a January 1940 magazine profile of Welles by [[Lucille Fletcher]].}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|148}} Rebecca Welles Manning (1944–2004,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tribnet/obituary.aspx?pid=2737245 |title=Rebecca Manning Obituary |newspaper=[[The News Tribune]]|location=Tacoma, Washington|date= October 21–22, 2004 |access-date=May 11, 2014 |archive-date=September 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926124819/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tribnet/obituary.aspx?pid=2737245 |url-status=live }}</ref> with Rita Hayworth); and [[Beatrice Welles]] (born 1955, with Paola Mori).<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|419}}

Welles has been thought to have had a son, British director [[Michael Lindsay-Hogg]] (born 1940), with Irish actress [[Geraldine Fitzgerald]], then the wife of [[Lindsay-Hogg baronets|Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th baronet]].<ref name="Bright Lights" /><ref name="Alex Witchell">{{cite news |title=Are You My Father, Orson Welles? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/books/review/luck-and-circumstance-by-michael-lindsay-hogg-book-review.html |newspaper=The New York Times |last=Witchel |first=Alex |date=September 30, 2011 |access-date=April 27, 2014 |archive-date=July 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701035015/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/books/review/luck-and-circumstance-by-michael-lindsay-hogg-book-review.html |url-status=live }}</ref> When Lindsay-Hogg was 16, his mother reluctantly divulged pervasive rumors that his father was Welles, and she denied them—but in such detail that he doubted her veracity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hodgson |first=Moira |date=September 30, 2011 |title=A Director Casts About for Clues |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903791504576587093413119166 |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |access-date=August 31, 2015 |archive-date=July 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710035339/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903791504576587093413119166 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Luck">{{cite book |last=Lindsay-Hogg |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Lindsay-Hogg |date=2011 |title=Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond |url=https://archive.org/details/luckcircumstance00lind |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-59468-6 }}</ref>{{Rp|15}} Fitzgerald evaded the subject for the rest of her life. Lindsay-Hogg knew Welles, worked with him in the theatre and met him at intervals throughout Welles's life.<ref name="Alex Witchell" /> After learning that Welles's oldest daughter, Chris, his childhood playmate, had long suspected that he was her brother,<ref>{{cite news |last=Thorpe |first=Vanessa |date=January 30, 2010 |title=The 'only son' of Orson Welles to take DNA test |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/31/orson-welles-son |access-date=August 31, 2015 |archive-date=October 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019223334/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/31/orson-welles-son |url-status=live }}</ref> Lindsay-Hogg initiated a DNA test that proved inconclusive. In his 2011 autobiography, Lindsay-Hogg reported that his questions were resolved by his mother's close friend [[Gloria Vanderbilt]], who wrote that Fitzgerald had told her that Welles was his father.<ref name="Luck" />{{Rp|265–267}} A 2015 Welles biography by [[Patrick McGilligan (biographer)|Patrick McGilligan]], however, reports the impossibility of Welles's paternity: Fitzgerald left the U.S. for Ireland in May 1939, and her son was conceived before her return in late October, whereas Welles did not travel overseas during that period.<ref name="McGilligan">{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick McGilligan (biographer) |date=2015 |title=Young Orson |location=New York |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper]] |isbn=978-0-06-211248-4}}</ref>{{Rp|602}}

After the death of Rebecca Welles Manning, a man named Marc McKerrow was revealed to be her son—and therefore a direct descendant of Welles and Hayworth—after he requested his adoption records unsealed. While McKerrow and Rebecca were never able to meet due to her cancer, they were in touch before her death, and he attended her funeral. McKerrow's reactions to the revelation and his meeting with Kodar are documented in the 2008 ''[[Prodigal Sons (film)|Prodigal Sons]]'', produced and directed by his sister [[Kimberly Reed]].<ref name="SF Chronicle March 2010">{{cite news |title=Twists, turns in 'Prodigal Sons' documentary |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Twists-turns-in-Prodigal-Sons-documentary-3197738.php |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |last=Weigand |first=David |date=March 5, 2010 |access-date=November 17, 2012 |archive-date=May 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515153853/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Twists-turns-in-Prodigal-Sons-documentary-3197738.php |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2010, McKerrow, 44, died in his sleep. His death was related to injuries he received in a car accident when younger.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://helenair.com/news/local/obituaries/article_b2081642-7e92-11df-81a9-001cc4c03286.html |url-access=subscription |title=Marc McKerrow |newspaper=Independent Record |date=June 23, 2010 |access-date=July 20, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Marc McKerrow Foundation Home">{{cite web |title=In beloved memory of Marc McKerrow |url=http://www.marcmckerrowfoundation.org/Home.html |publisher=Marc McKerrow Foundation |year=2010 |access-date=November 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117094526/http://www.marcmckerrowfoundation.org/Home.html |archive-date=November 17, 2013 }}</ref>

In the 1940s, Welles had a brief relationship with [[Maila Nurmi]]. According to the biography ''Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi'', she became pregnant; since Welles was then married to Hayworth, Nurmi gave the child up for adoption.<ref name=Nurmi>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-01-12/vampira-hollywoods-original-goth-emerges-in-new-biography|title=Vampira, Hollywood's original Goth, emerges from the shadows in a new biography|first=Scott|last=Bradfield|author-link=Scott Bradfield|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=January 12, 2021|access-date=January 17, 2021|archive-date=January 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118034755/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-01-12/vampira-hollywoods-original-goth-emerges-in-new-biography|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- the Los Angeles Times piece doesn't say 'in the 40s', but does say that by the time Nurmi gave birth, Welles was married to Hayworth, so that's an indicator.--> However, the child mentioned in the book was born in 1944. Nurmi revealed in an interview weeks before her death in 2008 that she met Welles in a New York casting office in spring 1946.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 19, 2021|title=Retired lawyer is the son of Vampira but is Orson Welles the father?|url=https://www.wellesnet.com/vampira-orson-welles-son/|access-date=February 20, 2021|website=Wellesnet|archive-date=March 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319005238/https://www.wellesnet.com/vampira-orson-welles-son/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite an [[urban legend]] promoted by Welles,{{efn|While bantering with [[Lucille Ball]] on a 1944 broadcast of ''[[The Orson Welles Almanac]]'' before an audience of U.S. Navy service members, Welles says: "My great-granduncle was Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln's cabinet." (Lucille Ball AFRS broadcast, May 3, 1944, 2:42.)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart1 |title=The Orson Welles Almanac – Part 1 |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=May 9, 2015 }}</ref>}}{{efn|Welles repeats the claim in a 1970 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.<ref>{{cite web |title=When Orson Welles Crossed Paths With Hitler and Churchill |date=July 27, 1970 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI&t=275 |website=YouTube |publisher=The Dick Cavett Show |access-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164500/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI&t=275 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} he is not related to [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s wartime Secretary of the Navy, [[Gideon Welles]]. The myth dates back to the first newspaper feature ever written about Welles—"Cartoonist, Actor, Poet and only 10"—in the February 19, 1926, issue of ''[[The Capital Times]]''. The article falsely states he was descended from "Gideon Welles, who was a member of President Lincoln's cabinet".<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|47–48}}<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|311}} As presented by Charles Higham in a genealogical chart that introduces his 1985 biography of Welles, Welles's father was Richard Head Welles (born Wells), son of Richard Jones Wells, son of Henry Hill Wells (who had an uncle named Gideon ''Wells''), son of [[William H. Wells|William Hill Wells]], son of Richard Wells (1734–1801).<ref name="Higham" />

=== Physical characteristics ===

Peter Noble's 1956 biography describes Welles as "a magnificent figure of a man, over six feet tall, handsome, with flashing eyes and a gloriously resonant speaking-voice".<ref name="Noble">Noble, Peter, ''The Fabulous Orson Welles''. London: [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson and Co.]], 1956.</ref>{{Rp|19}} Welles said that a voice specialist once told him he was born to be a [[Tenor#Heldentenor|heldentenor]], a heroic tenor, but that when he was young and working at the [[Gate Theatre]] in Dublin, he forced his voice down into a [[bass-baritone]].<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|144}}

Even as a baby, Welles was prone to illness, including [[diphtheria]], [[measles]], [[whooping cough]], and [[malaria]]. From infancy he suffered from [[asthma]], sinus headaches, and backache<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}} later found to result from congenital spinal anomalies. [[Flat feet]] caused him foot and ankle trouble throughout his life.<ref name="Callow Xanadu">{{cite book|first=Simon |last=Callow | title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu | isbn=978-0-09-946251-4|year=1996 |publisher=Vintage }}</ref>{{Rp|560}} "As he grew older", Brady wrote, "his ill health was exacerbated by the late hours he was allowed to keep [and] an early penchant for alcohol and tobacco".<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}}

In 1928, aged 13, Welles was already six feet tall (1.83 meters) and weighed over {{convert|180|lb|kg}}.<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|50}} His passport recorded his height as {{convert|6|ft|3|in|cm|spell=in}}, with brown hair and green eyes.<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|229}} "Crash diets, [pharmaceutical] drugs, and corsets had slimmed him for his early film roles", wrote biographer Barton Whaley. "Then always back to gargantuan consumption of high-caloric food and booze. By summer 1949, when he was 34, his weight had crept up to a stout {{convert|230|lb|kg}}. In 1953, he ballooned from {{convert|250|to|275|lb|kg|abbr=off}}. After 1960, he remained permanently obese."<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|329}}

=== Religious beliefs ===

When Peter Bogdanovich once asked him about his religion, Welles gruffly replied that it was none of his business, then misinformed him that he was raised [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|xxx}}<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|12}} Although the Welles family was no longer devout, it was fourth-generation [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] and before that, [[Quaker]] and [[Puritan]].<ref name="Whaley">[http://www.lybrary.com/barton-whaley-m-191.html Whaley, Barton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407122754/http://www.lybrary.com/barton-whaley-m-191.html |date=April 7, 2016 }}, ''Orson Welles: The Man Who Was Magic''. Lybrary.com, 2005,</ref>{{Rp|12}} In 1982, when interviewer [[Merv Griffin]] asked about his religious beliefs, Welles replied, "I try to be a Christian. I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God."<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|576}}

Near the end of his life, Welles was dining at [[Ma Maison]], his favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, when proprietor Patrick Terrail conveyed an invitation from the head of the [[Greek Orthodox Church]], who asked Welles to be his guest of honor at divine liturgy at [[Saint Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles|Saint Sophia Cathedral]]. Welles replied, "Please tell him I really appreciate that offer, but I am an [[Atheism|atheist]]."<ref>Terrail, Patrick, ''A Taste of Hollywood: The Story of Ma Maison''. New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-86730-767-2}}</ref>{{Rp|104–105}}

"Orson never joked or teased about the religious beliefs of others", wrote biographer Barton Whaley. "He accepted it as a cultural artifact, suitable for the births, deaths, and marriages of strangers and even some friends—but without emotional or intellectual meaning for himself."<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|12}}

=== Politics and activism ===

Welles was politically active from the beginning of his career. He remained aligned with [[left-wing politics]] and the [[American Left]],<ref name=Callow>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/may/20/biography.film |title=This Greater Drama |first=Simon |last=Callow |date=May 19, 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=December 4, 2016 |archive-date=April 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406143244/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/may/20/biography.film |url-status=live }}</ref> and always defined his political orientation as "[[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]]". A Democrat, he was an outspoken critic of [[racism in the United States]] and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]]. <ref name="McBride"/>{{Rp|46}} He was a strong supporter of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]] and often spoke out on radio in support of progressive politics.<ref name=Callow/> He campaigned for Roosevelt in the 1944 election.<ref name=Callow/>

In a 1983 conversation with his friend Roger Hill, Welles recalled: "During a White House dinner, when I was campaigning for Roosevelt, in a toast, with considerable tongue in cheek, he said, 'Orson, you and I are the two greatest actors alive today.' In private that evening, and on several other occasions, he urged me to run for a Senate seat in either California or Wisconsin. He wasn't alone."<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|115}} In the 1980s, Welles expressed admiration for Roosevelt but described his presidency as "a [[Hybrid regime|semidictatorship]]".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Biskind |editor-first=Peter |editor-link=Peter Biskind |date=2013 |title=My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles |location=New York |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company|Metropolitan Books]] |page=187 |isbn=978-0-8050-9725-2}}</ref>

During a 1970 appearance on ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', Welles claimed to have met Hitler while hiking in Austria with a teacher who was a "budding [[Nazi]]". He said that Hitler made no impression on him and that he could not remember anything of him from the encounter. He said that he had no personality at all: "He was invisible. There was nothing there until there were 5,000 people yelling sieg heil."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI|title=When Orson Welles Crossed Paths With Hitler and Churchill|date=July 27, 1970|people=Orson Welles, Dick Cavett|via=YouTube|access-date=August 30, 2019|archive-date=March 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321025340/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1946, Welles took to the airwaves in a series of radio broadcasts demanding justice for a decorated black veteran, [[Isaac Woodard]], who had been beaten and blinded by white police officers. Welles devoted his July 28, 1946, program to reading Woodard's affidavit and vowing to bring&nbsp;the officer responsible to justice.&nbsp;He continued his crusade over subsequent Sunday afternoon broadcasts on ABC Radio. "The [[NAACP]] felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case," the Museum of Broadcasting stated in its 1988 retrospective ''Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=wellesnet |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Orson Welles pursued justice for black veteran Isaac Woodard; beaten, blinded by police in 1946 |url=https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-isaac-woodard/ |access-date=November 11, 2022 |website=Wellesnet {{!}} Orson Welles Web Resource |language=en-US |archive-date=January 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116102236/https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-isaac-woodard/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

For several years, he wrote a newspaper column on political issues and considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1946, representing his home state of Wisconsin—a seat ultimately won by [[Joseph McCarthy]].<ref name=Callow />

Welles's political activities were reported on pages 155–157 of ''[[Red Channels]]'', the [[anti-Communist]] publication that, in part, fueled the already flourishing [[Hollywood Blacklist]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/Red_Channels/index.html | title=Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television (1950) | date=July 18, 2012 | work=AuthenticHistory.com | access-date=May 30, 2015 | archive-date=May 3, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503083656/http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/Red_Channels/index.html | url-status=live }}</ref> He was in Europe during the height of the [[Red Scare]], thereby adding another reason for the Hollywood establishment to ostracize him.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/06/mcb1-j16.html |title=Orson Welles, the blacklist and Hollywood filmmaking – Part 1 |last1=Walsh |first1=David |last2=Laurier |first2=Joanne |date=June 16, 2009 |website=World Socialist Website |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408205823/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/06/mcb1-j16.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1970, Welles narrated (but did not write) a satirical political record on the rise of President [[Richard Nixon]] titled ''[[The Begatting of the President]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Presidents We Imagine: Two Centuries of White House Fictions on the Page, on the Stage, Onscreen, and Online.|url=https://archive.org/details/presidentsweimag00smit|url-access=limited|last=Smith|first=Jeff|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-299-23184-2|location=Madison|pages=[https://archive.org/details/presidentsweimag00smit/page/n335 321]|id={{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here --> }}}}}</ref> In the late 1970s, Welles referred to [[Josip Broz Tito]] as "the greatest man in the world today" on Yugoslav television.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asprey Gear |first1=Matthew |title=At the End of the Street in the Shadow Orson Welles and the City |date=2016 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=198}}</ref>

Welles spoke before a crowd of 700,000 at a [[nuclear disarmament]] rally in Central Park on June 12, 1982, and attacked the policies of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orson Welles at 1982 anti-nuke rally |website=[[YouTube]] |date=December 14, 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPff-EdXCg |language=en |access-date=November 11, 2022 |archive-date=November 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111120102/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPff-EdXCg&gl=US&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[American: An Odyssey to 1947]]'', a documentary by [[Danny Wu]] that looks at Welles's life against the political landscape of the 1930s and 40s, had its premiere at the [[Newport Beach Film Festival]] in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=wellesnet |date=September 12, 2022 |title='American' director talks Orson Welles, politics |url=https://www.wellesnet.com/american-director-talks-orson-welles-politics/ |access-date=November 11, 2022 |website=Wellesnet {{!}} Orson Welles Web Resource |language=en-US |archive-date=September 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928114546/https://www.wellesnet.com/american-director-talks-orson-welles-politics/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Death and tributes ==

On the evening of October 9, 1985, Welles recorded his final interview on the syndicated TV program ''[[The Merv Griffin Show]]'', appearing with biographer Barbara Leaming. "Both Welles and Leaming talked of Welles's life, and the segment was a nostalgic interlude," wrote biographer Frank Brady.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|590–591|date=May 2014}} Welles returned to his house in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] and worked into the early hours typing stage directions for [[Orson Welles' Magic Show|the project]] he and Gary Graver were planning to shoot at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] the following day. Welles died on the morning of October 10, following a [[heart attack]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|453|date=May 2014}} He was found by his chauffeur at around 10 a.m.<ref name="McBride">[[Joseph McBride (writer)|McBride, Joseph]], ''What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career''. Lexington, Kentucky: [[University Press of Kentucky]], 2006, {{ISBN|0-8131-2410-7}}</ref>{{Rp|295–297|May 2014}}

He was [[cremated]] by prior agreement with the executor of his estate, [[Greg Garrison (television producer)|Greg Garrison]],<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|592}} whose advice about making lucrative TV appearances in the 1970s made it possible for Welles to pay off a portion of the taxes he owed the [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]].<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|549–550}} A private funeral was attended by Paola Mori and Welles's three daughters—the first time they had been together. Only close friends were invited: Garrison, Graver, Roger Hill<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|298}} and Prince Alessandro Tasca di Cuto.<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|1–9}}

A public memorial tribute<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|593}} took place November 2, 1985, at the [[Directors Guild of America]] Theater in LA. Host [[Peter Bogdanovich]] introduced speakers including [[Charles Champlin]], [[Geraldine Fitzgerald]], Greg Garrison, [[Charlton Heston]], [[Roger Hill (actor)|Roger Hill]], [[Henry Jaglom]], [[Arthur Knight (film critic)|Arthur Knight]], [[Oja Kodar]], [[Barbara Leaming]], [[Janet Leigh]], [[Norman Lloyd]], [[Dan O'Herlihy]], Patrick Terrail and Robert Wise.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|594}}<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|299–300}}

Joseph Cotten later wrote, "He did not want a funeral; he wanted to be buried quietly in a little place in Spain." Cotten declined to attend the memorial program; instead, he sent a short message, ending with the last two lines of a [[Sonnet 30|Shakespeare sonnet]] that Welles had sent him on his most recent birthday:<ref name="Vanity" />{{Rp|216}}
<blockquote>But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,<br />All losses are restored and sorrows end.<ref name="Vanity" />{{Rp|217}}</blockquote>

In 1987, Welles's ashes were taken to [[Ronda]], Spain, and buried in an old well on the rural estate of a longtime friend, [[bullfighter]] [[Antonio Ordóñez]].<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|298–299|date=May 2014}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/spanish-film-association-places-flowers-on-orson-welles-grave/ |title=Spanish film association places flowers on Orson Welles grave |date=May 7, 2015 |publisher=Wellesnet |access-date=May 9, 2015 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518063803/http://www.wellesnet.com/spanish-film-association-places-flowers-on-orson-welles-grave/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{efn|A photograph of the grave site appears opposite the title page of ''Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts'', edited by [[Richard France (writer)|Richard France]]. France notes the inscription on the plaque: "Ronda. Al Maestro de Maestros."<ref name="OW on Shakespeare">{{cite book |last=France |first=Richard |author-link=Richard France (writer) |date=2001 |title=Orson Welles on Shakespeare: The W.P.A. and Mercury Theatre Playscripts |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesonsha0000well |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93726-9 |url-access=registration }}</ref>{{Rp|ii}}}}{{efn|The gravesite is not accessible to the public but can be seen in Kristian Petri's 2005 documentary, ''Brunnen (The Well)'',<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|298–299}} which is about Welles's time in Spain.}}

== Legacy and reception ==

Writing for ''[[The Guardian]]'', actor and biographer [[Simon Callow]] stated of Welles:<blockquote>His successes and his failures were equally titanic; he created some of the most memorable films and striking theatre of the 20th century. His tiny body of TV work pointed to possibilities for the medium that nobody bothered to take up. He was fearless in his experiments, and he never did any of it for the money, just for the sheer joy of making films. Because of this, he has inspired more directors than any other film-maker, but he leaves no legacy: he really was a one-off.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Callow |first1=Simon |title=Why Orson Welles lived a life like no other |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/28/orson-welles-simon-callow |website=The Guardian |access-date=26 December 2025}}</ref></blockquote>

''[[The New York Times]]'' eulogized Welles as an "innovator of film and stage" and noted that "few denied his genius" by the end of his life, stating that "in film, his innovations in deep-focus technology and his use of theater esthetics - long takes without close-ups, making the viewer's eye search the screen as if it were a stage - created a new vocabulary for the cinema."<ref>{{cite web |title=Orson Welles Is Dead at 70; Innovator of Film and Stage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/11/arts/orson-welles-is-dead-at-70-innovator-of-film-and-stage.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=26 December 2025}}</ref> According to the [[American Film Institute]], "perhaps one of [Welles's] most significant contributions to film was his pioneering effort as what we now call an [[independent film]]maker. In the Forties, when almost all production was still studio-based, Welles began making films entirely on location as a maverick independent, putting them together with spit, string, and chutzpah, blazing the trail for many filmmakers to follow."<ref name="afi3">{{cite web |title=Orson Welles 3rd AFI Life Achievement Award Honoree |url=https://www.afi.com/laa/orson-welles/ |website=American Film Institute |access-date=26 December 2025}}</ref> [[Micheál Mac Liammóir]] wrote that "Orson's courage, like everything else about him, imagination, egotism, generosity, ruthlessness, forbearance, impatience, sensitivity, grossness and vision is magnificently out of proportion."<ref name="My Orson">{{cite book |last1=Welles |first1=Orson |author-link1=Orson Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author-link2=Peter Bogdanovich |last3=Rosenbaum |first3=Jonathan |author-link3=Jonathan Rosenbaum |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |date=1998 |pages=vii–xxxix |chapter=My Orson [new introduction by Peter Bogdanovich] |isbn=9780306808340}}</ref> Critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] credits Welles with "the creation of a visual style that is simultaneously baroque and precise, overwhelmingly emotional, and unerringly founded in reality."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomson |first=David |title=[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]] |year=2010 |edition=5th |page=1031}}</ref> [[Peter Bogdanovich]], who was directed by Welles in ''The Other Side of the Wind'', wrote: <blockquote>being directed by Welles was like breathing pure oxygen all day long. He was so totally in control that he never had to prove a point out of any kind. I never saw him get angry or impatient, or raise his voice in any way but hilarity... Sometimes Orson was holding the camera himself, but wherever the camera was, he had put it there, and all the lights were placed exactly where he said they were to be put. There wasn't anything seen or heard in any scene that wasn't there because Orson wanted it that way, but he was never dictatorial.<ref name="bogdanovich-1998" />{{rp|viii}}</blockquote> Welles was a lifelong lover of Shakespeare, and Bogdanovich writes that ''Chimes at Midnight'', in which Welles plays [[John Falstaff]], is "arguably his best film, and his own personal favorite";<ref name="bogdanovich-1998">{{Cite book |first1=Orson |last1=Welles |last2=Bogdanovich |first2=Peter |author2-link=Peter Bogdanovich |title=[[This is Orson Welles]] |publisher=[[Da Capo Press]] |year=1998 |edition=Revised |location=New York |isbn=030680834X}}</ref>{{rp|xiv}} [[Joseph McBride (writer)|Joseph McBride]] and [[Jonathan Rosenbaum]] have called it Welles's masterpiece, and [[Vincent Canby]] wrote "it may be the greatest Shakespearean film ever made."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=March 2, 1975 |title=The Undiminished Chutzpah of Orson Welles |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

After Welles went to South America to film the documentary ''[[It's All True (film)|It's All True]]'', RKO cut more than forty minutes from ''Ambersons'' and added a happier ending, against his wishes. The missing footage has been called a "holy grail" of cinema.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kubincanek |first=Emily |date=May 6, 2021 |title=The Quest to Find the Lost Print of The Magnificent Ambersons |url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/orson-welles-magnificent-ambersons-lost-print/ |access-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-date=January 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124022132/https://filmschoolrejects.com/orson-welles-magnificent-ambersons-lost-print/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Welles wrote a 58-page memo to Universal about the editing of ''Touch of Evil'', which they disregarded.<ref name=":0" /> In 1998, [[Walter Murch]] reedited the film according to Welles's specifications.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ondaatje |first=Michael |title=[[The Conversations]] |year=2002 |pages=181–193}}</ref>

Known for his [[baritone]] voice,<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Orson Welles |last=Christley |first=Jaime N. |magazine=[[Senses of Cinema]] |url=http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/welles/ |url-status=live |year=2003 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120914000935/http://sensesofcinema.com/2003/great-directors/welles/ |archive-date=September 14, 2012 }}</ref> Welles performed extensively across theatre, radio, and film. He was a lifelong [[magic (illusion)|magician]], presenting [[The Mercury Wonder Show|troop variety shows]] in the war years.

== Accolades ==

{{Main|List of awards and nominations received by Orson Welles}}

[[File:Citizen-Kane-Welles-Coulouris.jpg|thumb|The [[National Board of Review]] recognized both Welles and [[George Coulouris]] for their performances in ''[[Citizen Kane]]'' (1941), which was also voted the year's best film.]]

Welles received numerous accolades including an [[Academy Award]], [[Peabody Award]] and [[Grammy Award]] as well as nominations for a [[BAFTA Award]] and [[Golden Globe Award]]. In 1972 he was in the first set of members elected to the [[American Theater Hall of Fame]].<ref name="THOF">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/10/27/archives/uris-hall-of-fame-names-first-group.html| title=Uris Hall of Fame Names First Group| work=The New York Times|date=October 27, 1972 |access-date=July 21, 2025}}</ref>{{efn|The others in the inaugural group of members in the Theater Hall of Fame were [[Walter Huston]], [[Rudolf Friml]], [[Lee Shubert|Lee]] and [[Jacob J. Shubert|J. J. Shubert]], [[Norman Bel Geddes]], [[Jeanne Eagels]], [[Ferenc Molnár]], [[P. G. Wodehouse]], [[Clyde Fitch]], [[Lillian Russell]], [[Arthur Hopkins]], [[Marie Dressler]], [[George S. Kaufman]], [[Brooks Atkinson]], [[George Abbott]], [[Thornton Wilder]], [[Ethel Merman]], [[Bert Lahr]], [[Moss Hart]], [[Robert E. Sherwood]], [[Maxwell Anderson]] and [[Clifford Odets]].<ref name="THOF"/>}} His other honors include the [[AFI Life Achievement Award]] in 1975, the [[British Film Institute Fellowship]] in 1983, and the [[Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award – Feature Film|Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award]] in 1984. He was inducted into both the [[NAB Broadcasting Hall of Fame|National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame]] in 1979, and the [[National Radio Hall of Fame]] in 1988. Welles was presented with France's [[Legion of Honour]] in 1982.

== Filmography ==
{{Main|Orson Welles filmography|Orson Welles's unrealized projects}}

== Discography ==
{{Main|Orson Welles discography}}

== Cultural references ==
<!-- Listing trivial mentions adds no value to the encyclopedic treatment of this subject. Before adding items, pls read [[MOS:POPCULT]]. Additions that are insignificant or not attributed to a reliable source WILL be removed. If an item you have added has been removed and you wish to contest its removal, pls start a discussion on this article's talk page proposing it be restored. -->
* Director [[Peter Jackson]] cast Montreal actor Jean Guérin as Welles in his 1994 film, ''[[Heavenly Creatures]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Brownstein |first=Bill |date=April 19, 1993 |title=Film buff to star as his hero; Montreal lookalike gets Orson Welles role in N.Z. |newspaper=Montreal Gazette }}</ref>
* [[Vincent D'Onofrio]] portrayed Welles in a cameo in [[Tim Burton]]'s 1994 film, ''[[Ed Wood (film)|Ed Wood]]'', where he encourages [[Edward D. Wood|the eponymous filmmaker]] to fight for making his movies his own way in spite of his producers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ed-wood-1994 |title=Ed Wood |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=October 7, 1994 |website=RogerEbert.com |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=May 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510052709/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ed-wood-1994 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Voice actor [[Maurice LaMarche]] is known for his Welles impression, heard in ''Ed Wood'' (in which he dubbed the dialog of Vincent D'Onofrio); the 1994–95 primetime animated series, ''[[The Critic]]''; a 2006 [[Treehouse of Horror XVII|episode]] of ''[[The Simpsons]]''; and a 2011 [[Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences|episode]] of ''[[Futurama]]'' for which LaMarche won an [[Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance|Emmy Award]]. The voice he created for the character Brain from the animated series ''[[Animaniacs]]'' and ''[[Pinky and the Brain]]'' was largely influenced by Welles.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/article/ubiquitous-voice-actor-maurice-lamarche-on-ifutura-81523 |title=Ubiquitous voice actor Maurice LaMarche on Futurama, Pinky and The Brain, and more |last=Robinson |first=Tasha |date=June 20, 2012 |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=June 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170630234558/http://www.avclub.com/article/ubiquitous-voice-actor-maurice-lamarche-on-ifutura-81523 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The 1996 film ''[[The Battle Over Citizen Kane]]'', which chronicles the conflict between Welles and Hearst, was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Sauter|first=Michael|date=November 17, 2000|title=The Battle Over Citizen Kane|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|volume=569|via=Academic Search Complete}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1996|title=The 68th Academy Awards {{!}} 1996|work=Oscars.org {{!}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|access-date=January 15, 2018|archive-date=June 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602003028/https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1996|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Welles is a recurring character in the [[Anno Dracula series|''Anno Dracula'' series]] by author and critic [[Kim Newman]], appearing in ''[[Dracula Cha Cha Cha (novel)|Dracula Cha Cha Cha]]'' (1998) and ''Johnny Alucard'' (2013).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/by-kim-newman/anno-dracula-series/ |title=Anno Dracula series |date=May 25, 2011 |website=The Kim Newman Web Site |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906044641/http://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/by-kim-newman/anno-dracula-series/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Kim |date=2013 |title=Anno Dracula 1976–1991: Johnny Alucard |url=http://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/by-kim-newman/anno-dracula-series/ |location=London |publisher=Titan Books |isbn=978-0-85768-536-0 |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906044641/http://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/by-kim-newman/anno-dracula-series/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In 1999 Welles appeared on a U.S. postage stamp in a scene from ''Citizen Kane''. The [[United States Postal Service]] was petitioned to honor Welles with a stamp in 2015, the 100th anniversary of his birth, but the effort did not succeed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/charlton-heston-ingrid-bergman-and-elizabeth-taylor-poised-to-be-honored-on-u-s-postage-stamps-but-not-orson-welles/ |title=Charlton Heston, Ingrid Bergman and Elizabeth Taylor poised to be honored on U.S. postage stamps, but not Orson Welles |last=Kelly |first=Ray |date=February 25, 2014 |publisher=Wellesnet |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=September 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926023713/http://www.wellesnet.com/charlton-heston-ingrid-bergman-and-elizabeth-taylor-poised-to-be-honored-on-u-s-postage-stamps-but-not-orson-welles/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The 1999 [[HBO]] docudrama, ''[[RKO 281]]'', tells the story of the making of ''Citizen Kane'', starring [[Liev Schreiber]] as Welles.
* Tim Robbins's 1999 film ''[[Cradle Will Rock]]'' chronicles the process and events surrounding Welles and John Houseman's production of the 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Welles is played by actor [[Angus MacFadyen]].
* [[Austin Pendleton]]'s 2000 play, ''[[Orson's Shadow]]'', concerns the 1960 London production of [[Eugène Ionesco]]'s play ''[[Rhinoceros (play)|Rhinoceros]]'' directed by Welles and starring [[Laurence Olivier]]. First presented by the [[Steppenwolf Theatre Company]] in 2000, the play opened off-Broadway in 2005<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/alls-welles-pendletons-orsons-shadow-opens-off-broadway-march-13-124650 |title=All's Welles: Pendleton's Orson's Shadow Opens Off-Broadway March 13 |author-link1=Robert Simonson |last=Simonson |first=Robert |date=March 13, 2005 |website=Playbill |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924191241/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/alls-welles-pendletons-orsons-shadow-opens-off-broadway-march-13-124650 |url-status=live }}</ref> and had its European premiere in London in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/archives/orsons-shadow/ |title=Orson's Shadow |publisher=[[Southwark Playhouse]] |access-date=August 27, 2015 |date=July 2015 |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912140618/http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/archives/orsons-shadow/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In [[Michael Chabon]]'s 2000 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction|Pulitzer Prize]]-winning novel ''[[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay]]'', the protagonists meet Welles and attend the premiere of ''Citizen Kane''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Yanofsky |first=Joel |author-link=Joel Yanofsky |date=December 9, 2000 |title=Escapist fiction: Old-fashioned storytelling with a Houdini-like hero |newspaper=[[Montreal Gazette]]}}</ref>
* In the film ''[[Fade to Black (2006 film)|Fade to Black]]'' (2006), a fictional thriller set during Welles's 1948 journey to Rome to star in the movie ''[[Black Magic (1949 film)|Black Magic]]'', [[Danny Huston]] stars as Welles.<ref>{{cite news |last=Russell |first=Ken |author-link=Ken Russell |date=March 6, 2008 |title=Fade to Black gives us Orson Welles as a hungry hustler |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/north-america-travel/us-travel/california/fade-to-black-gives-us-orson-welles-as-a-hungry-hustler-5r2l7jw7rjd |newspaper=[[The Times]] |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=May 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160508102554/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/film/article2426813.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''[[Me and Orson Welles]]'' (2009), based on [[Robert Kaplow]]'s 2003 novel,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaplow |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Kaplow |date=2003 |title=Me and Orson Welles |location=San Francisco |publisher=MacAdam Cage Publishing |isbn=978-1-931561-49-5 }}</ref> stars [[Zac Efron]] as a teenager who convinces Welles ([[Christian McKay]]) to cast him in his 1937 production of ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Julius Caesar]]''. McKay received accolades for his performance, including a [[BAFTA]] nomination.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/film-awards-nominations-announced|title=Film Awards Nominations Announced|website=bafta.org|access-date=February 2, 2018|date=January 21, 2010|archive-date=February 3, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203064740/http://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/film-awards-nominations-announced|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Welles is the central character in "Ian, George, and George," a novelette by [[Paul Levinson]] published in 2013 in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1643549|title=Ian, George, and George|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database|access-date=January 19, 2016|archive-date=April 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406132058/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1643549|url-status=live}}</ref>
* In 2014 comedic actor [[Jack Black]] portrayed Welles in the comedy show ''[[Drunk History]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesnet.com/video-jack-black-and-drunk-history-making-citizen-kane/ |title=Video: Jack Black and 'Drunk History – Making Citizen Kane' |date=August 9, 2014 |publisher=Wellesnet |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=July 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710045905/http://www.wellesnet.com/video-jack-black-and-drunk-history-making-citizen-kane/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* A 2014 documentary by [[Chuck Workman]], ''[[Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles]]'', was released to critical acclaim.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cohenmedia.net/films/magician |title=Magician: The Astonishing Life & Work of Orson Welles |publisher=Cohen Media Group |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304071452/http://cohenmedia.net/films/magician |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/magician-astonishing-life-work-orson-733675 |title='Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles': Telluride Review |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |date=September 16, 2014 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=August 27, 2015 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809120633/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/magician-astonishing-life-work-orson-733675 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Tom Burke (actor)|Tom Burke]] portrayed Welles in [[David Fincher]]'s 2020 film, ''[[Mank]]'', which focuses on [[Herman J. Mankiewicz]], the co-writer of ''Citizen Kane''.

==See also==
* [[List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees#Youngest nominees|List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees — Youngest nominees for Best Director]]
==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{further|Orson Welles bibliography}}

==Documentaries==
* [[Jacques Baratier|Baratier, Jacques]], ''Désordre'', 1950.
* [[Albert and David Maysles|Maysles, Albert and David]], ''Orson Welles in Spain'', 1966.
* [[François Reichenbach|Reichenbach, François]], and [[Frédéric Rossif|Rossif, Frédéric]], ''Orson Welles'', 1968 ([[ORTF]], French TV).
* [[Jacques Rozier|Rozier, Jacques]], ''Vive le cinéma !'', 1972 ([[ORTF]], French TV).
* [[Richard Marienstras|Marienstras, Richard]], and Romero, Isidro, ''Shakespeare et Orson Welles'', 1973 (French TV).
* [[Claude-Jean Philippe|Philippe, Claude-Jean]], and Lefebvre, Monique, ''Une légende, une vie : Citizen Welles'', 1974 (French TV).
* ''Orson Welles talks with Roger Hill and Hortense Hill, Sedona, Arizona'', 1978.
* [[Leslie Megahey|Megahey, Leslie]], and [[Alan Yentob|Yentob, Alan]], ''The Orson Welles Story'', 1982 (''[[Arena (British TV series)|⋅Arena]]'', [[BBC]]-TV).
* Boutang, Pierre-André, and Seligmann, Guy, ''Orson Welles à la cinémathèque française'', 1983.
* [[Gary Graver|Graver, Gary]], ''Working with Orson Welles'', 1993.
* Giorgini, Ciro, and Giagni, Gianfranco, ''Rosabella: La Storia italiana di Orson Welles'', 1993.
* Silovic, Vassili, with [[Oja Kodar|Kodar Oja]], ''Orson Welles: The One-Man Band'', 1995.
* Rodriguez, Carlos, ''Orson Welles en el país de Don Quijote'', 2000.
* Petri, Kristian, ''Brunnen'', 2005.
* [[Richard France (writer)|France, Richard]], and Fischer, Robert, ''Citizen America: Orson Welles and the ballad of [[Isaac Woodard]]'', 2005.
* Rafaelic, Daniel, and Rizmaul, Leon, ''Druga strana Wellesa'', 2005.
* Sedlar, Dominik and Sedlar, Jakov, ''Searching for Orson'', 2006.
* Bernard, Jean-Jacques, ''Welles Angels'', 2007.
* [[Chuck Workman|Workman, Chuck]], ''[[Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles]]'', 2014.
* Kuperberg, Julia, and Kuperberg, Clara, ''This is Orson Welles'', 2015.
* Kapnist, Elisabeth, ''Orson Welles: Shadows & Light'', 2015.
* [[Mark Cousins (film critic)|Cousins, Mark]], ''The Eyes of Orson Welles'', 2018.
* Wu, Danny, ''[[American: An Odyssey to 1947]]'', 2022.

===Archival sources===
* [http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/guides/welles/orsonwelles.html Guide to the Orson Welles Materials], Lilly Library, [[Indiana University]]
* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=sclead&idno=umich-scl-welleskodar Finding Aid for the Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers 1910–1998 (bulk 1965–1985)], Special Collections Library, [[University of Michigan]]
* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=sclead&idno=umich-scl-wilsonwelles Finding Aid for the Richard Wilson – Orson Welles Papers 1930–2000 (bulk 1930–1991)], Special Collections Library, [[University of Michigan]]
* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=sclead&idno=umich-scl-wellesfeder Finding Aid for the Orson Welles – Chris Welles Feder Collection 1931–2009], Special Collections Library, University of Michigan
* [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=sclead&idno=umich-scl-wellestasca Finding Aid for the Orson Welles – Alessandro Tasca di Cutò Papers 1947–1995], Special Collections Library, University of Michigan
* [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/sclead/umich-scl-wellesdeep Finding Aid for the Orson Welles Dead Reckoning/The Deep Papers (1966–1975, bulk 1967–1971)], Special Collections Library, University of Michigan

==External links==
{{Sister project links|d=Q24829|commons=category:Orson Welles|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|mw=no|s=yes|m=no|species=no|wikt=no}}
* {{IMDb name}}
* {{Find a Grave}}
* [http://www.wellesnet.com/ Wellesnet – Orson Welles Web Resource]
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/george-orson-welles FBI Records: The Vault&nbsp;– George Orson Welles] at vault.fbi.gov
* [http://www.mercurytheatre.info/ Mercury Theatre on the Air]
* "[http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0121.xml?rskey=pZnQdy&result=103&q= Orson Welles]" annotated bibliography at Oxford Bibliographies Online
* {{cite web |title=Orson Welles: Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Libraries |publisher=The Library, University of California |location=Berkeley |date=April 23, 2000 |url=http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/wellesbib.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825210129/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/wellesbib.html |archive-date=August 25, 2018 |url-status=dead| ref=none}}
* [https://orsonwelles.indiana.edu/ Orson Welles on the Air, 1938–1946] at [[Indiana University Bloomington]]

{{Orson Welles|state=expanded}}
{{Navboxes
|title =Awards for Orson Welles
|list =
{{Academy Award Best Original Screenplay}}
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{{AFI Life Achievement Award}}
{{British Film Institute Fellowship}}
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{{DirectorsGuildofAmericaAwardLifetimeFilm}}
{{Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement}}
{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album}}
{{Academy of Magical Arts Special Fellowship}}}}
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[[Category:Film directors from Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Film producers from California]]
[[Category:Film producers from Illinois]]
[[Category:Film producers from Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients]]
[[Category:Grammy Award winners]]
[[Category:Hollywood blacklist]]
[[Category:Hugo Award–winning writers]]
[[Category:Illinois Democrats]]
[[Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Male actors from Chicago]]
[[Category:Male actors from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Male actors from New York City]]
[[Category:Male actors from Kenosha, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie des beaux-arts]]
[[Category:Male actors from Highland Park, Illinois]]
[[Category:People from Woodstock, Illinois]]
[[Category:Progressivism in the United States]]
[[Category:RKO Pictures contract players]]
[[Category:Columbia Pictures contract players]]
[[Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from California]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Illinois]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Universal Pictures contract players]]
[[Category:Wisconsin Democrats]]
[[Category:Writers from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Writers from New York City]]
[[Category:Shakespearean directors]]