"I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act." - Orson Welles
1915-85 American Actor, Movie Director, Writer, Producer, Editor, Cinematographer, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Art Director and master of voice acting
Early in his career, he was the personification of the auteur theory which holds that the Director should be given absolute power in the making of a film. That was how he wanted his contracts written.
He and John Houseman opened Phoenix Theatre Group and the Federal Theater Project. The two of them then founded the Mercury Theatre. He was the voice during the broadcast of a dramatization of H G Wells's The War of the Worlds, radio version, so realistic in conveying a Martian invasion that it led to actual panic throughout America.
His greatest film was no doubt Citizen Kane. It was made with the funding of RKO Pictures. It made use of radical lighting and camera angles. The lighting was stark with some characters, particularly the reporters in silhouette. They went so far as to cut through the wood floor so they could position the cameras at mouse eye perspective. It was the story of millionaire William Randolph Hearst the yellow journalism magnate.
The film (also known as RKO 281) was vehemently opposed by Hearst who did everything he could to block its release. Hollywood moguls, such as Louis B. Mayer allied themselves with Hearst, fearing his media empire's wrath on their industry. First they attempted to buy the film outright, so they could destroy it. After that failed they booked all the theatres in the country with other films to block its showing. In some cities the film had to be shown in a tent, outside. However all this effort couldn't stop it from being critically acclaimed, and ultimately becoming "the greatest movie of all time". The campaign did end up causing great financial hardship to RKO who never returned to the level of success they had before the Hearst attack.
Films he made include:
Other important nodes on Welles:
He was married to Rita Hayworth from 1943 -1948
He received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award.
He ultimately Ended Career Doing TV Commercials for Gallo Wine and Jolly Green Giant Frozen Peas...
Sources:
http://www.bway.net/~nipper/home.html
http://www.transparencynow.com/welles.htm
Last Updated 04.15.04