George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Current Biography, May 1941, says of him: “From an early age Orson moved in a welter of talented personalities: he met painters, musicians, actors, cartoonists, who treated him as if he were an adult.” Until he was ten years old, his education was quite informal. However, by this time he had read all of Shakespeare. He attended Todd High School, Woodstock, Illinois, largely because it specialized in dramatics. After graduating, he did not wish to attend college. For a short time he was engaged in painting and also was a news correspondent. Then, at the age of sixteen he made his first appearance on the stage at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, as the Duke of Wurtemburg in Jew Süss.
In 1932, when he returned to New York, he toured with Katharine Cornell, 1933-1934, as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Eugene Marchbanks in Candida and Octavius Barrett in The Barretts of Wimpole Street. He made his first appearance on the New York stage at the Martin Beck Theatre, December 20, 1934, as Chorus and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. In 1935 he began to make money on radio, for he was in great demand, particularly in his characterization of The Shadow. He became director of the Negro People's Theatre in 1936 and produced a version of Macbeth, staged in Haiti, with an all-Negro cast. He was appointed a director of the Federal Theatre Project in New York in 1937. During this time he produced Horse Eats Hat, Dr. Faustus and The Cradle Will Rock. The latter became a landmark in the history of the Federal Theatre.
With John Houseman he founded the Mercury Theatre in 1937; Julius Caesar was their first production. It was played in modern dress, against the background of bare red brick theatre walls. Caesar wore a Fascist uniform; Welles, as Brutus, wore the conservative suit and wide shabby coat of an intellectual.
The Mercury Theatre of the Air went on Columbia Broadcasting System in 1938, with Welles writing, editing and directing the sketches and often playing in them. It was his War of the Worlds in October, 1938 that created some panic in the United States.
After a series of failures with Mercury Theatre, he signed a four-way contract with RKO, as writer, actor, director and producer. He got a poor press in Hollywood. His first two scripts were turned down: Heart of Darkness and Smiler With a Knife. Citizen Kane, in which Welles himself played the lead, was approved. “It is the story of an egomaniac newspaper tycoon, the tragedy of a modern Midas who changes all he touches into gold and dies hungry for humanity.” Because it somewhat paralleled the life of William Randolph Hearst, Hearst objected to the picture. For a while RKO withheld its circulation. Welles threatened legal action and the picture was released.
Other films in which he appeared were The Magnificent Ambersons, Jane Eyre, Journey Into Fear, The Stranger, The Lady from Shanghai, Macbeth, Cagliostro, The Third Man, Three Cases of Murder, Confidential Report.
He also produced for CBS's Free Company a noncommercial series of plays on a program called His Honor, the Mayor.
Orson Welles dies October 10, 1985 in his Hollywood home following a heart attack.
