60 Fun Facts About Orson Welles

In which Wisconsin city was Orson Welles born on May 6, 1915?

He was named after a great-grandfather, Kenosha attorney Orson S. Head.

Welles's father made his fortune as the inventor of what?

He became an alcoholic and stopped working after the parents separated in 1919.

Welles's mother Beatrice was a concert pianist who died of what when he was nine?

After her death in 1924 he abandoned any musical career.

At which Illinois boarding school did Welles come under the influence of teacher Roger Hill?

Its radio station hosted his first broadcast, his own adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.

Which town did Welles name as 'home' in a 1960 interview?

He returned there occasionally all his life.

At which Dublin playhouse did the 16-year-old Welles debut in 1931 by claiming to be a Broadway star?

Manager Hilton Edwards did not believe him but was impressed by his brashness.

What was Welles's early-1930s series of educational books on the Bard's plays titled?

Later renamed The Mercury Shakespeare, it stayed in print for decades; he drew thousands of illustrations for it in Morocco.

Which actress's touring repertory company gave Welles his first American stage work in 1933?

Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott arranged the introduction.

What was Welles's first film, an eight-minute short shot in Woodstock in 1934?

He was 19 and married Chicago socialite Virginia Nicolson that November.

What nickname did Welles's 1936 all-Black production of the Scottish play get?

He moved the setting to a Haitian-style island court; the play opened at Harlem's Lafayette Theatre.

How large was the cast and company for that Harlem production?

At 20, Welles was hailed as a prodigy; the tour included two weeks in Texas that defied segregation laws.

Which Marc Blitzstein opera did Welles's company perform impromptu after the government locked the theatre in 1937?

Blitzstein played piano on stage while cast members sang from the audience at the Venice Theatre.

With whom did Welles found the Mercury Theatre in 1937?

The name was inspired by the iconoclastic magazine The American Mercury.

The Mercury Theatre's opening production in November 1937 was staged as what?

Lights set beneath the risers evoked the 'cathedral of light' of the Nuremberg rallies.

Which radio character, alias Lamont Cranston, did Welles play on Mutual from 1937 to 1938?

He was already earning up to $2,000 a week in radio.

Which composer wrote and conducted the original music for The Mercury Theatre on the Air?

He went on to score Citizen Kane and later Hitchcock's Psycho.

Which sponsor picked up The Mercury Theatre on the Air after War of the Worlds, renaming it?

The Campbell Playhouse began five days after the last Mercury broadcast in December 1938.

Which dictator disparagingly mentioned the War of the Worlds panic in a speech?

The scale of the panic is now questioned, but the myth was reported as fact worldwide.

Which studio gave Welles the famous 1939 contract with final cut?

RKO president George Schaefer engaged him to write, produce, direct and star in two pictures.

Welles appeared on the cover of Time three days after his 23rd birthday in makeup as which character?

The Mercury Theatre's success had made him a star.

Which newspaper baron's papers barred all mention of Citizen Kane and pressured RKO to shelve it?

Herman Mankiewicz based the outline on Hearst, whom he knew and came to hate.

Of its nine Academy Award nominations, Citizen Kane won only which award?

Welles shared it with Mankiewicz; Variety reported that block voting by extras cost the film Best Picture.

Over Welles's opposition, RKO cut The Magnificent Ambersons from 131 minutes down to what running time?

He had assembled a rough cut in Miami with editor Robert Wise before flying to Brazil.

What was Welles's unfinished Latin American omnibus film for the Good Neighbor policy titled?

It incorporated Robert Flaherty's story 'My Friend Bonito'.

Which star did Welles marry on September 7, 1943, the day of a Mercury Wonder Show performance?

On the eve of his death he called her 'one of the dearest and sweetest women that ever lived'.

Welles played Rochester in which 1943 film, earning $100,000?

The fee helped fund his lifelong dream, the Mercury Wonder Show magic act.

Which 1946 Welles film about a Nazi war criminal was his only bona fide box office hit on release?

He finished it a day ahead of schedule and under budget.

Welles made The Lady from Shanghai in exchange for Harry Cohn financing which Broadway musical?

The stage adaptation of Jules Verne opened in 1946.

The famous closing shootout of The Lady from Shanghai takes place where?

Mirrors were a recurring Welles motif going back to Kane.

Which studio let Welles direct a low-budget Macbeth in 1948?

Jean Cocteau hailed its 'crude, irreverent power'.

In The Third Man, Welles's Harry Lime delivers his 'cuckoo clock' speech on which Vienna landmark?

Anton Karas's zither theme topped charts around the world in 1950.

Who wrote the script for The Third Man?

Welles co-starred with Joseph Cotten, his friend from Citizen Kane, under Carol Reed's direction.

Welles's Othello won which prize at Cannes in 1952?

Anthony Lane wrote that the film 'looks blackened and silvery, like an aged mirror'.

Welles's third wife, Paola Mori, appeared in Mr. Arkadin with her voice dubbed by whom?

They married in 1955.

Welles's 1958 border noir with Charlton Heston was based on which Whit Masterson novel?

It was made at Universal, which reworked the film against his wishes.

How long was the memo Welles wrote asking Universal to restore his version of Touch of Evil?

Walter Murch re-edited the film to the memo in 1998.

Who played Josef K. in Welles's 1962 adaptation of Kafka's The Trial?

Interiors were shot in the abandoned Gare d'Orsay in Paris.

Whom did Welles meet filming The Trial, later his partner and collaborator for 20 years?

He gave her a letter he had written and kept for four years when they met again.

Chimes at Midnight, in which Welles plays Falstaff, drew on material from how many Shakespeare plays?

It was based on his stage play Five Kings and shot in Spain; Bogdanovich called it his own favourite.

Welles's 1973 essay film F for Fake concerns which two men?

Irving was famous for his fake Howard Hughes autobiography.

Welles's long-unfinished The Other Side of the Wind was finally released in what year?

Netflix released it after a Venice premiere, with the documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.

Which director stars in The Other Side of the Wind as the ageing filmmaker Jake Hannaford?

Bogdanovich also appears; it was shot intermittently between 1970 and 1976.

What catchphrase did Welles intone as spokesman for Paul Masson Vineyards?

Sales grew by a third; a bootleg reel later showed him apparently drunk during the shoot.

The notorious 'Frozen Peas' blooper reel captured Welles recording adverts for which brand?

He also voiced Carlsberg's 'Probably the best lager in the world' campaign.

Welles voiced which unseen character in the early years of Magnum, P.I.?

The producers later hinted the character might be an actor hired to play the writer.

In The Transformers: The Movie (1986), Welles voiced which planet-eating villain?

It was recorded shortly before his death; his last on-screen appearance was in Henry Jaglom's Someone to Love.

On whose talk show did Welles record his last interview, the evening before he died?

He died of a heart attack the next morning, October 10, 1985, aged 70.

Where were Welles's ashes buried in 1987?

The estate belonged to his longtime friend, the bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez.

Which civil rights case did Welles champion on his 1946 radio commentaries after the NAACP raised it?

He brought national attention to the blinded Black veteran's cause.

How many Grammy Awards did Welles win?

He also received the Golden Lion in 1947, the Academy Honorary Award in 1970 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1975.

Which BFI honour did Welles receive in 1983?

BFI polls in 2002 voted him the greatest film director ever.

Welles played Cardinal Wolsey in which 1966 film?

His acting for other directors also included Rochester and Harry Lime.

Welles claimed Roosevelt called him the only man who ever illegally did what?

He poured his $1,500-a-week radio earnings into his Federal Theatre productions.

Which 1937 radio serial was Welles's first job as writer-director?

Mutual gave him seven weeks; it was also the debut of the Mercury Theatre name.

Which actor had his first starring role in Welles's 1936 farce Horse Eats Hat?

The farce adapted the 1851 French play The Italian Straw Hat.

Which of these actors was NOT among the original Mercury Theatre company?

Geraldine Fitzgerald, Arlene Francis, Martin Gabel and Norman Lloyd were also members.

What was the Federal Theatre Project, under which Welles staged his early hits?

Under Hallie Flanagan it let millions of Americans see live theatre for the first time.

Which French poet-filmmaker was among the influential European fans of Welles's Macbeth?

He praised its 'crude, irreverent power' and dreamlike settings.

Welles was presented with which French decoration in 1982?

His Othello had won at Cannes thirty years earlier.

Which cinematographer shot Citizen Kane, pioneering its deep-focus photography with Welles?

Welles's reasoning: 'in life you see everything in focus at the same time, so why not in the movies?'