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Orson Welles

Known for: Directing

Biography: 1915-05-06

Deathday: 1985-10-10 (70 years old)

Biography

George Orson Welles, 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.

Filmography

all 375

Movies 322

self 139

TV Shows 53

Narrator 48

Voice 25

Director 18

Producer 15

Writer 6

Screenplay 1

Creator 1

Narrator 'The Scorpion and the Frog' (archive footage)

Orson Welles

Biography

Filmography

all 375

Movies 322

self 139

TV Shows 53

Narrator 48

Voice 25

Director 18

Producer 15

Writer 6

Screenplay 1

Creator 1

Human Nature in Eleven Parts (2025)

The Scorpion and the Frog (2025)

Othelo The Great (2024)

The Battle of Grovers Mill (2024)

Aliens Uncovered: Close Encounters (2024)

Jim Henson Idea Man (2024)

From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight (2023)

It's Pretty, but is it Art? (2023)

Looking Back Before You Leap (2023)

Alien Autopsy: The Search for Answers (2022)

Clint Eastwood: The Last Legend (2022)

Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (2022)

American: An Odyssey to 1947 (2022)

The Lost Print: The Making of Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons (2022)

The Welles Raft (2022)

Tall Tales: The Ireland of Orson Welles (2021)

Parkinson at 50 (2021)

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (2021)

The Blinding of Isaac Woodard (2021)

Hopper/Welles (2020)

Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy (2020)

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (2020)

Cerné par le diable (2019)

Halston (2019)

Emergency: Donald Trump’s "Touch of Evil" (2019)

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

The Great Buster: A Celebration (2018)

Silent Times (2018)

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (2018)

The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)

Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit (2018)

The Brother Side of the Wake (2018)

The Magic History of Cinema (2017)

Embers & Dust (2016)

age to Mars (2016)

This Is Orson Welles (2015)

Orson Welles: Shadows & Light (2015)

Bucket (2015)

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

Tim May Presents Reptile (2014)

Citizen Vader (2014)

Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance (2014)

Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

Talking Pictures (2013)

The Debridement of Rome (2012)

Magic Mirror Maze (2012)

The Shadow Knows (2012)

Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen (2012)

Welcome to the Basement (2012)

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (2011)

Incident at Barstow (2011)

Jucy (2010)

Variations on a High School Romance (2010)

Beer and Board Games (2010)

L'antre du Mea (2010)

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (2010)

Dahmer vs. Gacy (2010)

Orson Welles: The Paris Interview (2010)

A Vermelha Luz do Bandido (2009)

Lucifer et moi (2009)

F for favor (2008)

Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows (2007)

The Deep (2007)

Locked in the Tower: The Men Behind 'Jane Eyre' (2007)

The Hitchhiker (2007)

Searching for Orson (2006)