Orson Welles

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Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten in Citizen Kane

Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai

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Orson Welles

American actor, director, and writer

Also known as: George Orson Welles

Written by Michael Barson

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Mar 3, 2024 • Article History

Orson Welles

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Category: Arts & Culture

In full:: George Orson Welles

Born:: May 6, 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.

Died:: October 10, 1985, Los Angeles, California (aged 70)

Founder:: Mercury Theatre

Awards And Honors:: Grammy Award (1981); Grammy Award (1978); Grammy Award (1976); Academy Award (1971); Academy Award (1942); Academy Award (1942): Writing (Original Screenplay); Honorary Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (1971); Grammy Award (1982): Best Spoken Word, Documentary or Drama Recording; Grammy Award (1979): Best Spoken Word Recording; Grammy Award (1977): Best Spoken Word Recording

Notable Works:: “Citizen Kane”; “The Lady from Shanghai”; “The Magnificent Ambersons”; “The Other Side of the Wind”; “The Third Man”; “Touch of Evil”

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Orson Welles (born May 6, 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.—died October 10, 1985, Los Angeles, California) American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer. His innovative narrative techniques and use of photography, dramatic lighting, and music to further the dramatic line and to create mood made his Citizen Kane (1941)—which he wrote, directed, produced, and acted in—one of the most-influential films in the history of the art. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) Welles was born to a mother, Beatrice Ives, who was a concert pianist and a crack rifle shot, and a father, Richard Welles, who was an inventor ...(100 of 3462 words)

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