Orson Welles
Birthday:
6 May 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA
Birth Name:
George Orson Welles
Height:
187 cm
His father was a well-to-do inventor, his mother a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died (he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. When his father died (he was fifteen) he became the ward of Chicago's Dr. Maurice Bernstein. In 1931, he graduated from...
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His father was a well-to-do inventor, his mother a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died (he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. When his father died (he was fifteen) he became the ward of Chicago's Dr. Maurice Bernstein. In 1931, he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois; he turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain (where he fought in the bullring). Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katherine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938, they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his next films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948. In 1956, he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the United States but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984, the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a filmmaker has climbed steadily ever since. Show less «
Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit.
Even if the good old days never existed, the fact that we can conceive such a world is, in fact, an affirmation of the human spirit.
[on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh's ear for music.
[on pop idol Donny Osmond] He has Van Gogh's ear for music.
I'm not very fond of movies. I don't go to them much.
I'm not very fond of movies. I don't go to them much.
I started at the top and worked down.
I started at the top and worked down.
I'm not bitter about Hollywood's treatment of me, but over its treatment of D.W. Griffith, Josef von Sternberg, Erich von Stroheim, Buster K...Show more »
I'm not bitter about Hollywood's treatment of me, but over its treatment of D.W. Griffith, Josef von Sternberg, Erich von Stroheim, Buster Keaton and a hundred others. Show less «
Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre.
Movie directing is the perfect refuge for the mediocre.
[on Hollywood in the 1980s] We live in a snake pit here... I hate it but I just don't allow myself to face the fact that I hold it in contem...Show more »
[on Hollywood in the 1980s] We live in a snake pit here... I hate it but I just don't allow myself to face the fact that I hold it in contempt because it keeps on turning out to be the only place to go. Show less «
I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.
I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts.
If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfrien...Show more »
If there hadn't been women we'd still be squatting in a cave eating raw meat, because we made civilization in order to impress our girlfriends. And they tolerated it and let us go ahead and play with our toys. Show less «
I hate it when people pray on the screen. It's not because I hate praying, but whenever I see an actor fold his hands and look up in the spo...Show more »
I hate it when people pray on the screen. It's not because I hate praying, but whenever I see an actor fold his hands and look up in the spotlight, I'm lost. There's only one other thing in the movies I hate as much, and that's sex. You just can't get in bed or pray to God and convince me on the screen. Show less «
[on Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie.
[on Citizen Kane (1941) being colorized] Keep Ted Turner and his goddamned Crayolas away from my movie.
[At RKO Radio Pictures working on "Heart of Darkness", a film he later abandoned] This is the biggest electric train set any boy ever had!
[At RKO Radio Pictures working on "Heart of Darkness", a film he later abandoned] This is the biggest electric train set any boy ever had!
For thirty years, people have been asking me how I reconcile X with Y! The truthful answer is that I don't. Everything about me is a contrad...Show more »
For thirty years, people have been asking me how I reconcile X with Y! The truthful answer is that I don't. Everything about me is a contradiction and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There is a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them. Show less «
My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.
I think I'm... I made essentially a mistake staying in movies, because I... but it... it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like sayi...Show more »
I think I'm... I made essentially a mistake staying in movies, because I... but it... it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like saying, "I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I love her." I would have been more successful if I'd left movies immediately. Stayed in the theater, gone into politics, written--anything. I've wasted the greater part of my life looking for money, and trying to get along... trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paint box which is an... a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with a movie. It's about 2% movie making and 98% hustling. It's no way to spend a life. Show less «
I think it is always a tremendously good formula in any art form to admit the limitations of the form.
I think it is always a tremendously good formula in any art form to admit the limitations of the form.
I don't pray because I don't want to bore God.
I don't pray because I don't want to bore God.
A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.
A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.
I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theater, you expect me to tell you th...Show more »
I have the terrible feeling that, because I am wearing a white beard and am sitting in the back of the theater, you expect me to tell you the truth about something. These are the cheap seats, not Mount Sinai. Show less «
The word "genius" was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to me ...Show more »
The word "genius" was whispered into my ear, the first thing I ever heard, while I was still mewling in my crib. So it never occurred to me that I wasn't until middle age. Show less «
I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
I passionately hate the idea of being with it; I think an artist has always to be out of step with his time.
I'm not rich. Never have been. When you see me in a bad movie as an actor (I hope not as a director), it is because a good movie has not bee...Show more »
I'm not rich. Never have been. When you see me in a bad movie as an actor (I hope not as a director), it is because a good movie has not been offered to me. I often make bad films in order to live. Show less «
Everybody denies that I am genius - but nobody ever called me one.
Everybody denies that I am genius - but nobody ever called me one.
A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.
A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.
Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation.
Hollywood is the only industry, even taking in soup companies, which does not have laboratories for the purpose of experimentation.
I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sa...Show more »
I do not suppose I shall be remembered for anything. But I don't think about my work in those terms. It is just as vulgar to work for the sake of posterity as to work for the sake of money. Show less «
Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
Race hate isn't human nature; race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except you never know when luxury is going to stand up.
Living in the lap of luxury isn't bad, except you never know when luxury is going to stand up.
I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give the...Show more »
I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That's what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act. Show less «
If spiritually you're part of the cat family, you can't bear to be laughed at. You have to pretend when you fall down that you really wanted...Show more »
If spiritually you're part of the cat family, you can't bear to be laughed at. You have to pretend when you fall down that you really wanted to be down there to see what's under the sofa. The rest of us don't at all mind being laughed at. Show less «
[on his favorite directors] I prefer the old masters; by which I mean: John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.
[on his favorite directors] I prefer the old masters; by which I mean: John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.
[on James Cagney] No one was more unreal and stylized, yet there is no moment when he was not true.
[on James Cagney] No one was more unreal and stylized, yet there is no moment when he was not true.
[on René Clair] A real master: he invented his own Paris, which is better than recording it.
[on René Clair] A real master: he invented his own Paris, which is better than recording it.
[on Federico Fellini] His films are a small-town boy's dream of a big city. His sophistication works because it is the creation of someone w...Show more »
[on Federico Fellini] His films are a small-town boy's dream of a big city. His sophistication works because it is the creation of someone who doesn't have it. But he shows dangerous signs of being a superlative artist with little to say. Show less «
[on Edward G. Robinson] An immensely effective actor.
[on Edward G. Robinson] An immensely effective actor.
The optimists are incapable of understanding what it means to adore the impossible.
The optimists are incapable of understanding what it means to adore the impossible.
[on Stanley Kubrick] Among the young generation, Kubrick strikes me as a giant.
[on Stanley Kubrick] Among the young generation, Kubrick strikes me as a giant.
[to Dick Cavett] I'm always sorry to hear that anybody I admire has been an actor... When did you go straight?
[to Dick Cavett] I'm always sorry to hear that anybody I admire has been an actor... When did you go straight?
I don't think history can possibly be true. Possibly! I'll tell you why. We all know people who get things written about, and we know that t...Show more »
I don't think history can possibly be true. Possibly! I'll tell you why. We all know people who get things written about, and we know that they're lies written. I told a story to Buck Henry, last year in Weymouth, and he told the story that he thought I told him to a newspaper that I read the other day, and it bears not the *slightest* resemblance to what I said! Now, that's an intelligent man, a year later, meaning me well, and that's the gospel according to Buck Henry, and it's totally apocryphal. Imagine what nonsense everything else is! Show less «
[on Nostradamus' ability to predict the future] One might as well make predictions based on random passages from the phone book.
[on Nostradamus' ability to predict the future] One might as well make predictions based on random passages from the phone book.
[on Jean-Luc Godard] His gifts as a director are enormous. I just can't take him very seriously as a thinker - and that's where we seem to d...Show more »
[on Jean-Luc Godard] His gifts as a director are enormous. I just can't take him very seriously as a thinker - and that's where we seem to differ, because he does. His message is what he cares about these days, and, like most movie messages, it could be written on the head of a pin. Show less «
The only good artists are feminine. I don't believe an artist exists whose dominant characteristic is not feminine. It's nothing to do with ...Show more »
The only good artists are feminine. I don't believe an artist exists whose dominant characteristic is not feminine. It's nothing to do with homosexuality, but intellectually an artist must be a man with feminine aptitudes. Show less «
I know that in theory the word is secondary in cinema, but the secret of my work is that everything is based on the word. I always begin wit...Show more »
I know that in theory the word is secondary in cinema, but the secret of my work is that everything is based on the word. I always begin with the dialogue. And I do not understand how one dares to write action before dialogue. I must begin with what the characters say. I must know what they say before seeing them do what they do. Show less «
A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a director an army.
A poet needs a pen, a painter a brush, and a director an army.
I liked the cinema better before I began to do it. Now I can't stop myself from hearing the clappers at the beginning of each shot. All the ...Show more »
I liked the cinema better before I began to do it. Now I can't stop myself from hearing the clappers at the beginning of each shot. All the magic is destroyed. Show less «
I think it's very harmful to see movies for movie makers because you either imitate them or worry about not imitating them and you should do...Show more »
I think it's very harmful to see movies for movie makers because you either imitate them or worry about not imitating them and you should do movies innocently and i lost my innocence. Every time i see a picture i lose something i don't gain. I never understand what directors mean when they compliment me and say they've learned from my pictures because i don't believe in learning from other people's pictures. You should learn from your own interior vision and discover innocently as though there had never been D.W. Griffith or [Sergei M. Eisenstein] or [John Ford] or [Jean Renoir] or anybody. Show less «
[on a lunch encounter with Richard Burton] Richard Burton had great talent. He's ruined his great gifts. He's become a joke with a celebrity...Show more »
[on a lunch encounter with Richard Burton] Richard Burton had great talent. He's ruined his great gifts. He's become a joke with a celebrity wife. Now he just works for money, does the worst shit. And I wasn't rude. To quote Carl Laemmle, "I gave him an evasive answer. I told him, 'Go fuck yourself'.". Show less «
I never could stand looking at Bette Davis, so I don't want to see her act, you see. I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of m...Show more »
I never could stand looking at Bette Davis, so I don't want to see her act, you see. I hate Woody Allen physically, I dislike that kind of man. [Henry Jaglom], I've never understood why. Have you met him? Oh, yes. I can hardly bear to talk to him. He has the [Charles Chaplin] disease. That particular combination of arrogance and timidity sets my teeth on edge... Like all people with timid personalities, his arrogance is unlimited. Anybody who speaks quietly and shrivels up in company is unbelievably arrogant. He acts shy, but he's not. He's scared. He hates himself, and he loves himself, a very tense situation. It's people like me who have to carry on and pretend to be modest. To me, it's the most embarrassing thing in the world-a man who presents himself at his worst to get laughs, in order to free himself from his hang-ups. Everything he does on the screen is therapeutic. Show less «
After [Irving Thalberg] died, Norma Shearer--one of the most minimally Âtalented ladies ever to appear on the Âsilver screen and who looke...Show more »
After [Irving Thalberg] died, Norma Shearer--one of the most minimally Âtalented ladies ever to appear on the Âsilver screen and who looked like Ânothing, with one eye crossed over the other--went right on being the queen of Hollywood. Everybody used to say, "Mrs. Thalberg is coming", "Miss Shearer is arriving", as though they were talking about Sarah Bernhardt. Show less «
In his time, Samuel Goldwyn was considered a classy producer because he never deliberately did anything that wasn't his idea of the best-qua...Show more »
In his time, Samuel Goldwyn was considered a classy producer because he never deliberately did anything that wasn't his idea of the best-quality goods. I respected him for that. He was an honest merchant. He may have made a bad picture, but he didn't know it was a bad picture. And he was funny. He actually once said to me, in that high voice of his, "Orson, for you I'd write a blanket check." He said, "With Warner Brothers, a verbal commitment isn't worth the paper it's written on.". Show less «
[Louis B. Mayer] offered me his studio! He was madly in love with me, because I wouldn't have anything to do with him, you know? Twice he br...Show more »
[Louis B. Mayer] offered me his studio! He was madly in love with me, because I wouldn't have anything to do with him, you know? Twice he brought me over--spent all day wooing me. He called me "Orse". Whenever he sent for me, he burst into tears, and once he fainted. To get his way. It was fake, Âabsolutely fake. The deal was, I'd have the studio, but I'd have to stop acting, directing and writing--making pictures. But Mayer was self-righteous, smarmy, waving the American flag, doing deals with The Purple Gang [a violent gang of hijackers and killers] in Detroit... before the unions, it was all Mafia. But no one called it the Mafia. Just said "the mob". Show less «
[on Meyer Lansky] He was probably the #1 gangster in America. I knew them all. You had to. If you lived, as I did, on Broadway during that p...Show more »
[on Meyer Lansky] He was probably the #1 gangster in America. I knew them all. You had to. If you lived, as I did, on Broadway during that period, if you lived in nightclubs, you could not not know them. I liked screwing the chorus girls, and I liked meeting all the different people who would come in, and I liked staying up until five in the morning, and they used to love to go to nightclubs. They would come and sit at your table... [asked how Lee Strasberg did with the Hyman Roth character, who was supposed to be Lansky, in The Godfather: Part II (1974)] Much better than the real thing. Meyer Lansky was a boring man. Hyman Roth is who he should have been! They all should have been like that, and none of them were. "The Godfather" was the glorification of a bunch of bums who never existed. The best of them were the kind of people you'd expect to drive a beer truck. They had no class. The classy gangster is a Hollywood invention. Show less «
[Irving Thalberg] was the biggest single villain in the history of Hollywood. Before him, a producer made the least contribution, by necessi...Show more »
[Irving Thalberg] was the biggest single villain in the history of Hollywood. Before him, a producer made the least contribution, by necessity. The producer didn't direct, he didn't act, he didn't write--so, therefore, all he could do was either (a) mess it up, which he didn't do very often, or (b) tenderly caress it. Support it. Producers would only go to the set to see that you were on budget, and that you didn't burn down the scenery... Once you got the educated producer, he has a desk, he's gotta have a function, he's gotta do something. He's not running the studio and counting the money--he's gotta be creative. That was Thalberg. The director became the fellow whose only job was to say, "Action!" and "Cut!". Suddenly you were "just a director" on a "Thalberg production". A role had been created in the world. Just as there used to be no conductor of symphonies... He convinced [Louis B. Mayer] that without him, his movies wouldn't have any class. Remember that quote Mayer gave? All the other moguls were "dirty kikes making nickelodeon movies". He used to say that to me all the time. Show less «
[on rumors that he, and not Robert Stevenson, directed Jane Eyre (1943)] I invented some of the shots--that's part of being that kind of pro...Show more »
[on rumors that he, and not Robert Stevenson, directed Jane Eyre (1943)] I invented some of the shots--that's part of being that kind of producer. And I collaborated on it, but I didn't come around behind the camera and direct it. Certainly, I did a lot more than a producer ought to, but Stevenson didn't mind that. And I don't want to take credit away from him, all of which he deserves... In fact, we got along very well, and there was no trouble. Show less «
[on Anthony Asquith] One of the nicest, most intelligent people who was ever in films... and my God, he was polite. I saw him, all alone on ...Show more »
[on Anthony Asquith] One of the nicest, most intelligent people who was ever in films... and my God, he was polite. I saw him, all alone on the stage once, trip on an electric cable, turn around, and say, "I beg your pardon" to it. Show less «
[on television] We live in a world of happy endings with audiences who make every show, no matter how doomed it is and ready to be canceled,...Show more »
[on television] We live in a world of happy endings with audiences who make every show, no matter how doomed it is and ready to be canceled, sound like a smash hit. And if not, they have a little black box full of laughter, and they add that to the jokes. And you know that most of the people laughing on that box died long ago. Show less «
I have all the equipment to be a politician. Total shamelessness.
I have all the equipment to be a politician. Total shamelessness.
[on Gary Cooper] You'd see him working on the set and you'd think, "My God, they're going to have to retake that one!". He almost didn't see...Show more »
[on Gary Cooper] You'd see him working on the set and you'd think, "My God, they're going to have to retake that one!". He almost didn't seem to BE there. And then you'd see the rushes, and he'd fill the screen. Show less «
We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not...Show more »
We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. Show less «
Hollywood died on me as soon as I got there. I wish to God I'd gone there sooner. It was the rise of the independents that was my ruin as a ...Show more »
Hollywood died on me as soon as I got there. I wish to God I'd gone there sooner. It was the rise of the independents that was my ruin as a director. Show less «
[on shooting Macbeth (1948)] Our best crowd scene was a shot where all the massed forces of Macduff's army are charging the castle. There wa...Show more »
[on shooting Macbeth (1948)] Our best crowd scene was a shot where all the massed forces of Macduff's army are charging the castle. There was a very vivid sense of urgency to it, because what was happening, really, was that we'd just called noon break, and all those extras were rushing off to lunch. Show less «
[on making I tartari (1961)] Victor Mature and I had an extended sword fight, on which I worked day after day. And in no shots--full, long, ...Show more »
[on making I tartari (1961)] Victor Mature and I had an extended sword fight, on which I worked day after day. And in no shots--full, long, medium--at any moment is Victor Mature EVER involved! Not even to hold the sword and look menacing... He said, "Oh, I don't want to do any of that stuff.". Show less «
[on the many documentary films he had narrated] I never saw the movies. That's always been a condition of mine in narrating a film--that I d...Show more »
[on the many documentary films he had narrated] I never saw the movies. That's always been a condition of mine in narrating a film--that I don't have to see any footage. Otherwise, I won't accept the job. Show less «
[on Luis Buñuel] He's a deeply Christian man who hates God as only a Christian can and, of course, he's very Spanish.
[on Luis Buñuel] He's a deeply Christian man who hates God as only a Christian can and, of course, he's very Spanish.
[on working with Charlton Heston] All you have to do is point and Chuck can go in any direction. He's spent a lot of years being a movie sta...Show more »
[on working with Charlton Heston] All you have to do is point and Chuck can go in any direction. He's spent a lot of years being a movie star. Show less «
[asked about the rumor that he directed part of Compulsion (1959), credited to Richard Fleischer] Dick Fleischer is a director who doesn't n...Show more »
[asked about the rumor that he directed part of Compulsion (1959), credited to Richard Fleischer] Dick Fleischer is a director who doesn't need and wouldn't welcome any help from me. Show less «
[on his friend William Faulkner] I never saw him anything but wildly drunk through the years. He must have been sober to produce that great ...Show more »
[on his friend William Faulkner] I never saw him anything but wildly drunk through the years. He must have been sober to produce that great body of work. Show less «
[on finding work to Hollywood in the late 1950s after spending several years in Europe] I went a year without almost nothing, just sitting a...Show more »
[on finding work to Hollywood in the late 1950s after spending several years in Europe] I went a year without almost nothing, just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. And then I got a couple of jobs. The Long, Hot Summer (1958), which I hated making--I've seldom been as unhappy in a picture. Show less «
[on his famous "cuckoo clock" speech in The Third Man (1949) ("In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and ...Show more »
[on his famous "cuckoo clock" speech in The Third Man (1949) ("In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.] When the picture came out, the Swiss very nicely pointed out that they've never made any cuckoo clocks--they all come from the Schwarzwald [Black Forest] in Bavaria. Show less «
[on director W.S. Van Dyke, aka "Woody"] Woody made some very good comedies. And what a system he had!... His retakes sometimes took longer ...Show more »
[on director W.S. Van Dyke, aka "Woody"] Woody made some very good comedies. And what a system he had!... His retakes sometimes took longer than his original shooting schedule... He'd shoot a "Thin Man" or something like that in about 20 days. Then he'd preview it and come back to the studio for 30 days of retakes. For comedy, when you're worried about the laughs, that makes a lot of sense. Show less «
[on why he hired Fortunio Bonanova for Citizen Kane (1941)] I saw him as the leading man with Katharine Cornell in "The Green Hat" when I wa...Show more »
[on why he hired Fortunio Bonanova for Citizen Kane (1941)] I saw him as the leading man with Katharine Cornell in "The Green Hat" when I was about eight years old. I never forgot him. He looked to me like a leading man in a dirty movie. Sent for him the minute I wrote that part. He was a great romantic leading man. When he was prompting her [Dorothy Comingore] in the opera, he was so marvelous. God, he was funny. Show less «
[on Tim Holt, with whom he worked in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)] One of the most interesting actors that's ever been in American movie...Show more »
[on Tim Holt, with whom he worked in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)] One of the most interesting actors that's ever been in American movies, and he decided to be just a cowboy actor. Made two or three important pictures in his career, but was very careful not to follow them up--went straight back to bread-and-butter Westerns... he was the most marvelous fellow to work with you can imagine. Show less «
You know, I always loved Hollywood. It was just never reciprocated.
You know, I always loved Hollywood. It was just never reciprocated.
Orson Welles's Photos
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