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Orson Welles, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937
George Orson Welles ( May 6, 1915 - October 10, 1985) is commonly considered one of Hollywood's greatest directors, as well as a fine actor and screenwriter.
1 Early career
Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He had an unusual childhood: His parents applied enormous pressure on his older brother Dickie to become a great and famous person. Dickie Welles was terribly unsuited to this role and became a homeless drunk. Orson inherited the role of wonder boy and seemed magically adept at it, though his personal relationships surely suffered as a result.
Welles made his stage debut in Dublin, Ireland in 1931, and by 1934 was a radio producer in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in. In that year, he married his first wife, the actress and socialite Virginia Nicolson . Welles drew a great deal of attention in 1937Events January January 1 Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua January 11 The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States. January 19 Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, with a production of ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 ( O. May 3, 1616 ( N. has a reputation as the greatest writer the English language has ever known. Indeed, the English Renaissance has often been called "the age of Shakespe's Julius CaesarJulius Caesar is a tragedy by William Shakespeare probably written in 1599. It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, his assassination and its aftermath. Unlike the other titular characters in Shakespeare's play (e. Hamlet, He set in FascistBenito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler Fascism (in Italian, fascismo , capitalized, refers to the right-wing authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. The name comes from fascia which may mea ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer and a voodooAlternate meaning: Voodoo (album For the military aircraft, see F-101 Voodoo. For the 3D graphics card, see 3dfx (the name of the manufacturer). The term Voodoo ( Vodun in Benin; also Vodou or other phonetically equivalent spellings in Haiti; Vudu in the-themed version of MacbethMacbeth is also a Scottish clan. William Rimmer, depicting the witches' conjuring of an apparition in Act IV, Scene I Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, based loosely on the historical King Macbeth of Scotland. Scholars think it an archetypal Ja featuring a primarily African American cast. Shortly afterward, he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre company.
In the summer of 1938, Welles and the Mercury Theatre began weekly broadcasts of short radio plays based on classic or popular literary works. Their October 30 broadcast of that year was an adaptation of the War of the Worlds. This brought Welles his first public notoriety on a national level—the program created panic among some listeners who found it completely convincing. Welles's adaptation of H. G. Wells's classic novel simulated a news broadcast, cutting into a routine dance music program to describe the landing of Martian spacecraft in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The innovative broadcast was realistic enough to frighten many in the audience into believing that an actual Martian invasion was in progress. Recordings of the broadcast are still available (see old-time radio). The publicity that resulted from this led to the offer of a three-picture Hollywood contract from RKO.
