Trivia of Orson Welles

 Trivia of Orson Welles (6 May 1915 - 10 October 1985)

*He got his first job before turning 10 to dress as Peter Rabbit.His breakthrough came while travelling through Europe aged 16. At the Gate theatre in Dublin, he proclaimed that he was a big Theater Guild star from New York. Welles landed a lead role and spent the entire season acting in Dublin’s biggest theatres.

*Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katharine Cornell's road company, with which he made his Broadway debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short (Macbeth), and appeared on radio for the first time.What a busy year for him.

*Welles developed a strong interest in magic, having been taught his first magic tricks when he was a young boy by Harry Houdini.He performed his magic tricks in numeral films and TV programs like Follow the Boys show in 1944, Magic Trick in 1953, and Casino Royale in 1967. Welles had an unfinished television special the Orson Welles’ Magic show filmed between 1976 and 1985.

*Welles’ best movie, Citizen Kane (1941), was quite successful as it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and received numerous accolades. In 1941, Citizen Kane won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.However, Welles did not keep his Oscar for long. While filming another show in 1971, The Other side of the Wind, Welles could not afford to pay his cinematographer Gary Graver. He decided to give up his only Oscar as a means of payment to Gary, but the film was never finished.

*Welles was a fan of black and white filmmaking. He believed the viewer could appreciate more of the feelings and emotions the actor was experiencing, without being distracted by their looks or what they were wearing.

*Welles considered “The Trial” (1962) his greatest work.He is quoted saying, “But The Trial is the best film I ever made … I have never been so happy as when I made this film.” The film was an adaptation of Kafka’s novel about a prosecuted man awaiting trial, but he refused to call it so. He argued that it was a Wellesian project. He claimed the book inspired him but, the film was a separate genuine work of art.

*After his demise in 1985 aged 70, Welles had completed 13 feature films in his career and had 15 more projects that were incomplete. Some projects date back to the 1930s and 1940s.All of his unfinished projects were handed down to his long-term partner Oja Kodar. She donated some films to the Munich music museum for preservation.The Munich Film Museum edited together the complete footage to a 27-minute cut, which was screened at many film festivals.