Orson Welles Biography

Dickie failed to live up to their demands, but Orson showed great early promise in many arts – piano, magic, painting, and, especially, acting.

Upon his mother’s death in 1924, he travelled the world with his father, only to lose him in 1928. Turning down the chance of college in 1931, he went on a sketching trip to Ireland.

Unsuccessful in his attempts to break onto the London and Broadway stages, he travelled further in Morocco and Spain, where he fought in the bull-ring.

A big year for him, 1934 marked his first New York appearance, his marriage, the shooting of is first short film and his radio debut. He married actress and socialite Virginia Nicholson. They had one daughter, Christopher, who became known as Chris Welles Feder, an author of educational materials for children. The couple divorced in 1939.

After forming the Mercury Theatre with John Houseman, he produced 'The Mercury Theatre on Air'. The show became famous for the notorious events surrounding their version of 'The War of the Worlds' as a Halloween prank in 1938, in which they changed the action to the US, being so realistic as to provoke mass panic.

'Citizen Kane', his first public release, which he both starred in and directed, was released in 1941. It proved a commercial failure, losing RKO $150,000. Welles’ consolation is that the film is regarded by many as one of the greatest ever made.

In 1943 Welles married Rita Hayworth. They had one child, Rebecca Welles, but divorced five years later in 1948.

His following films, such as 'The Magnificent Ambersons' and 'Chimes at Midnight', won many plaudits, but were also commercial failures. In retaliation for the amount of studio interference, Welles exiled himself to Europe in 1948.

1956 saw Welles direct 'A Touch of Evil', which failed in the US, but won a prize at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958.

He received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1971, the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1975, and, despite his lack of commercial success, the Directors Guild of America awarded him their highest accolade, the D.W. Griffith award.

Spiralling into obesity, Welles suffered a heart attack in Hollywood, on 10th October 1985.