Orson Welles is probably lauded more as a director than actor, though he started out as an actor and performed in movies and TV all his life. His company, the Mercury Theatre, moved from stage to radio to the big screen in the 1930s-40s, and Welles’ October 30, 1938, radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds may have sent people into a panic about Martians invading the U.S. While that has been exaggerated over the years, the publicity helped get Orson Welles into Hollywood. The first movie he made, Citizen Kane, is considered one of the best films ever made. He went on to direct and write over a dozen films, plus a handful of TV projects. Orson Welles was frequently a narrator for films and TV shows, tapping into his radio experience. He married three times (including to Rita Hayworth; they had a daughter) and was romantically linked to actresses like Dolores del Río. With such a prolific career, of course there’s bound to be some frock flicks in Welles’ resume, so let’s take a look!
Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941)
Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre (1943)
Macbeth in Macbeth (1948)
Cagliostro in Black Magic (1949)
Cesare Borgia in Prince of Foxes (1949)
Bayan in The Black Rose (1950)
Othello in Othello (1951)
King Lear in “King Lear,” Omnibus (1953)
Benjamin Franklin in Royal Affairs in Versailles aka Si Versailles M’Etait Conté (1954)
Sir Hudson Lowe in Napoleon (1955)
Father Mapple in Moby Dick (1956)
Jonathan Wilk in Compulsion (1959)
King Saul in David and Goliath (1960)
Robert Fulton in The Battle of Austerlitz (1960)
Burundai in The Tartars (1961)
Benjamin Franklin in Lafayette (1962)
Akerman in Marco the Magnificent (1965)
Sir John Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Consul Raoul Nordling in Is Paris Burning? (1966)
Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Mr. Charles Clay in The Immortal Story (1968)
Tiresias in Oedipus the King (1968)
Emperor Justinian in The Last Roman (1968)
Colonel Cascorro in Tepepa (1969)
Plankett in The Southern Star (1969)
Chetnik senator in The Battle of Neretva (1969)
General Dreedle in Catch-22 (1970)
Louis XVIII in Waterloo (1970)
Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1972)
Jose Estedes in Voyage of the Damned (1976)
J.P. Morgan in The Secret Life of Nikola Tesla (1980)
Judge Rauch in Butterfly (1981)
How do you remember Orson Welles?
Such a great actor in so many poor movies. “Tepepa is excellent in pictures and music (by Morricone). I would prefer him here.
“We will sell no wine before its time.” – Paul Masson Burgundy wine commercial.
…now that’s interesting, because in Transformers: The Movie, where Welles had his last role, the Junkion robots speak in advertising slogans, and their theme song is “Dare To Be Stupid” by Weird Al Yankovic…which features the line “you better sell some wine before its time”.
(Insert that meme of the wild-eyed guy gesticulating in front of a big board of evidence)
Wine commercials …
And citizen Kane.
What’s with that dress on Lady Macbeth??
All I could think of when I saw that photo was, “oh hey, I know what decade is attempting this”
I loved him as Edmund Rochester, so dashing and dramatic! The wind-whipped capes and sour disposition!
I agree!
I’m shocked at the top image. He had a babyface at one point?!
You should see him in his Mercury Theater days, he was a handsome young devil
Mr Orson Welles as Long John Silver … dubbed?
Presumably because he sounded too darned posh for a pup landlord, but STILL (Any road, I’d call Mr Welles one of several excellent actors miscast as Old ‘Barbecue’, because they’re so very obviously Distinguished Thespians, rather than because they look like the sort of pirate snake-in-the-grass who dies old and comfortable.
Deucedly-good Falstaff though (and it’s fun to wonder how he and the cast of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS might have performed in WOLF HALL).
Your idea of the “Man for All Seasons” cast in “Wolf Hall” is brilliant. I’m not a fan of the former–Thomas More was hardly a saint–but I remember enjoying Welles as Wolsey. (The physical casting–of equally skilled actors–in MfAS was also more accurate.)
Charles Foster Kane is certainly his most iconic role for me, but let’s not forget his final performance in 1986 non-frock flick Transformers: The Movie, where he voices planet-devouring villain Unicron! (Welles reportedly wasn’t a fan, but the movie has gone on to be something of a cult classic – I saw it very young and continue to enjoy its off-the-wall animation and music video-like musical interludes.)
As the sweating Police Captain Hank Quinlan in “Touch of Evil”.