Orson Welles
Biography
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Welles is widely acknowledged as one of the most accomplished dramatic artists of the twentieth century, especially for his significant and influential early work—despite his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood. His distinctive directorial style featured layered, nonlinear narrative forms, innovative uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unique camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots, and long takes. Welles's long career in film is noted for his struggle for artistic control in the face of pressure from studios. Many of his films were heavily edited and others left unreleased. He has been praised as a major creative force and as "the ultimate auteur."
After directing a number of high-profile theatrical productions in his early twenties, including an innovative adaptation of Macbeth and The Cradle Will Rock, Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds performed for the radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was reported to have caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was occurring. Although these reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to instant notoriety.
Citizen Kane (1941), his first film with RKO, in which he starred in the role of Charles Foster Kane, is often considered the greatest film ever made. Several of his other films, including The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1965), and F for Fake (1974), are also widely considered to be masterpieces.
In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two separate British Film Institute polls among directors and critics, and a wide survey of critical consensus, best-of lists, and historical retrospectives calls him the most acclaimed director of all time. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States. Well known for his baritone voice, Welles was also an extremely well regarded actor and was voted number 16 in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list of the greatest American film actors of all time. He was also a celebrated Shakespearean stage actor and an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety shows in the war years.
Personal info
Gender
Male
Birthday
1915-05-06
Place of birth
Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Images
Cast
Citizen Kane
1941
8.00
A Man for All Seasons
1966
7.34
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942
7.32
Chimes at Midnight
1965
7.10
The Third Man
1949
7.90
Touch of Evil
1958
7.75
History of the World: Part I
1981
6.78
Twelve Plus One
1969
5.30
The Trial
1962
7.40
The Transformers: The Movie
1986
7.12
Moby Dick
1956
7.06
Catch-22
1970
6.68
The Lady from Shanghai
1947
7.35
Is Paris Burning?
1966
7.17
The Stranger
1946
7.23
And Then There Were None
1974
5.72
House of Cards
1968
4.90
Journey into Fear
1943
6.00
Treasure Island
1972
5.60
The Deep
2007
0.00
Jane Eyre
1943
6.90
Don Quixote
1992
6.10
According to Occam's Razor
1999
0.00
Welles' Language
1990
6.00
Casino Royale
1967
5.30
Waterloo
1970
7.15
Follow the Boys
1944
5.30
The Battle of Neretva
1969
6.80
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
1975
6.40
Macbeth
1948
7.30
Butterfly
1982
5.00
The Long, Hot Summer
1958
7.10
Compulsion
1959
7.10
Necromancy
1972
4.50
The Vikings
1958
7.05
F for Fake
1973
7.40
Napoleon
1955
6.30
The V.I.P.s
1963
6.10
American: An Odyssey to 1947
2022
0.00
The Black Rose
1950
6.50
The Southern Star
1969
6.90
Prince of Foxes
1949
6.00
Mr. Arkadin
1955
6.90
Tomorrow Is Forever
1946
6.10
Three Cases of Murder
1955
5.70
The Kremlin Letter
1970
6.10
Malpertuis
1971
6.46
Othello
1951
7.34
The Man Who Saw Tomorrow
1981
7.00
Royal Affairs in Versailles
1954
6.80
Orson Welles: The One-Man Band
1995
6.40
The Biggest Battle
1978
4.70
Tepepa
1969
6.60
The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla
1980
6.10
Slapstick of Another Kind
1982
2.71
A Safe Place
1971
5.30
Hot Tomorrows
1977
6.00
Trent's Last Case
1952
5.40
Ten Days' Wonder
1971
6.30
The Immortal Story
1968
7.10
The Late Great Planet Earth
1978
3.70
Voyage of the Damned
1976
5.90
David and Goliath
1960
3.60
Black Magic
1949
6.30
It's All True
1993
7.60
Ferry to Hong Kong
1959
5.50
Ro.Go.Pa.G.
1963
7.21
Future Shock
1972
4.70
Get to Know Your Rabbit
1972
5.10
The Fountain of Youth
1958
6.20
The Force Beyond
1977
4.30
The Spanish Earth
1937
6.50
The Witching
1983
0.00
Marco the Magnificent
1965
5.30
It Happened One Christmas
1977
3.70
Filming Othello
1978
7.30
Mysterious Castles of Clay
1978
5.80
I'll Never Forget What's'isname
1967
5.60
Trouble in the Glen
1954
5.70
Where Is Parsifal?
1984
3.50
Return to Glennascaul
1953
6.42
It's All Brazil
1997
6.20
Parkinson at 50
2021
10.00
The Road to Bresson
1984
6.80
Too Much Johnson
1938
5.30
The Tartars
1961
5.50
Is It Always Right to Be Right?
1970
6.10
Hot Money
1983
2.00
Man, Beast and Virtue
1953
6.70
Someone to Love
1987
5.30
The Fight for Rome
1968
6.00
Magic with the Stars
1982
0.00
King Lear
1953
8.00
Sentinels of Silence
1971
6.70
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
1977
6.00
Notre Dame de la Croisette
1983
6.00
Othelo The Great
2024
0.00
Edge of Outside
2006
5.80
The Sailor from Gibraltar
1967
5.70
The Dreamers
1985
5.00
The Roots of Heaven
1958
6.20
Crack in the Mirror
1960
7.50
To Build a Fire
1969
7.60
Orson Welles in Spain
1966
5.00
Man in the Shadow
1957
6.80
The Muppet Movie
1979
7.21
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
2012
7.50
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
1996
7.30
Looking Back Before You Leap
2023
0.00
Ten Days That Shook the World
1967
6.20
It's Pretty, but is it Art?
2023
0.00
Flame of Persia
1971
0.00
The Other Side of the Wind
2018
6.70
The Paranormal Peter Sellers
2001
0.00
A King's Story
1965
5.70
The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh
1984
5.90
Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend
2022
7.36
Upon This Rock
1970
0.00
Tut: The Boy King
1978
0.00
This Is Orson Welles
2015
7.10
The Hearts of Age
1934
5.34
Jodorowsky's Dune
2013
7.82
Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues
2022
6.56
Twelfth Night
1933
6.00
The Shadow Knows
2012
0.00
Vienna
1968
6.00
Lucifer et moi
2009
0.00
Swiss Family Robinson
1940
5.40
The Merchant of Venice
1969
8.00
On the tracks of a filmmaker
1988
0.00
Who's Out There?
1975
6.30
Jim Henson Idea Man
2024
7.65
The Battle of Grovers Mill
2024
0.00
A Step Away
1980
0.00
Moby Dick
2000
0.00
Orson Welles' Magic Show
1985
6.30
Lafayette
1962
5.20
Filming 'The Trial'
1981
7.00
The Finest Hours
1964
6.30
Portrait: Orson Welles
1968
5.80
Directed by John Ford
1971
6.80
Oedipus the King
1968
5.50
King of Kings
1961
7.10
Start the Revolution Without Me
1970
5.90
Freedom River
1971
6.30
London
1971
0.00
A Huey P. Newton Story
2001
5.20
The Well
2005
0.00
Lost in La Mancha
2002
7.05
Show-Business at War
1943
7.00
NASA: A Space Odyssey Vol. 3
2001
0.00
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
1975
5.70
Duel in the Sun
1946
6.30
Rita
2003
8.50
A Horse Called Nijinsky
1970
10.00
The Orson Welles Show
1979
0.00
Disorder
1950
5.00
The Greenstone
1980
1.50
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2018
7.13
The Quest for Fire Adventure
1982
6.00
Working with Orson Welles
1993
5.50
Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
2005
6.20
Bugs Bunny Superstar
1975
7.20
Enchanted Journey
1981
7.80
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
2000
6.50
The Eyes of Orson Welles
2018
7.00
The Hitch Hiker
2004
0.00
The Battle of Sutjeska
1973
6.30
The Welles Raft
2022
0.00
High Journey
1959
6.00
Around the World of Mike Todd
1968
6.00
La Classe américaine
1993
7.64
Battle for Survival
1946
0.00
The Other Side of Welles
2005
0.00
Hopper/Welles
2020
5.90
The Cave
1973
0.00
Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit
2018
7.00
Something Else
0.00
Genocide
1982
7.40
Orson Welles' Sketch Book
1955
6.50
The Psychic Connection
1983
0.00
Baryshnikov in Hollywood
1982
0.00
Doug Henning's World of Magic
1982
0.00
Let Poland Be Poland
1982
0.00
Out of Darkness
1956
0.00
Disorder Is 20 Years Old
1967
0.00
The Battle of Austerlitz
1960
6.64
The Great Buster: A Celebration
2018
7.20
The Magic History of Cinema
2017
0.00
Embers & Dust
2016
6.70
Know Your Ally: Britain
1944
4.60
Mexico City, Old and New
1945
0.00
South Seas Adventure
1958
5.70
Lords of the Forest
1958
8.00
River of the Ocean
1962
0.00
An Arabian Night
1960
0.00
It's Not All True
1986
6.60
Kelly Country
1973
0.00
Power and Corruption
1973
0.00
The Double McGuffin
1979
5.30
The Enemy Before Us
1970
0.00
The Man Who Came to Dinner
1972
0.00
To Try Again... and Succeed
1979
0.00
Search for the Titanic
1981
0.00
A Gift of Harvest
1981
0.00
In Our Hands
1984
0.00
Almonds and Raisins
1985
0.00
Wagner e Venezia
1982
0.00
The New Deal for Artists
1981
0.00
NBC: The First Fifty Years
1976
0.00
Magnificent Monsters of the Deep
1975
0.00
Jeanne Moreau : Vive le cinéma !
1972
0.00
Brasil
1981
7.50
The Land of the Basques
1955
0.00
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
2021
0.00
Beggars Would Ride
1967
0.00
Who Is Henry Jaglom?
1997
6.60
Night of 100 Stars
1982
6.50
Magic Mirror Maze
2012
0.00
The Scorpion and the Frog
2025
5.00
Lost in "The Thinking"
2005
0.00
Human Nature in Eleven Parts
2025
0.00
Americans on Everest
1965
0.00
Hi-Fi
1999
5.00
The UFO Conspiracy
2004
4.50