Orson Welles

Orson Wells first married actress Virginia Nicolson on November 14, 1934. The couple had a daughter named, Christopher Welles Feder, born in 1938. However, the marriage ended in a divorce in February 1940 because Virginia came to known that Welles was secretly having an affair with Dolores Del Rio since 1938.

Welles affair with Dolores ended in 1941. By then, he had started having an affair with Rita Hayworth. Subsequently, the two married in September 1943. Their daughter Rebecca Welles Manning was born in December 1944. Although he had great regards for her till his end the couple divorced in 1947.

In 1955, Welles married Italian actress Paola Mori. They had a daughter, Beatrice Welles, born in November 1955. Although they remained married till his death, from 1966, Croatian-born artist and actress, Oja Kodar, became Welles' longtime companion and they lived together.

Orson Welles was born on May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father, Richard Head Welles, made money by inventing carbide lamp for bicycles. His mother, Beatrice Ives Welles, was a pianist. He had an elder brother named Richard Ives (Dickie) Wells.

Orson had a very troubled childhood. Although they were quite rich in the beginning, his father’s business began to falter soon after his birth and they moved to Chicago in 1919. His parents separated sometime after this and he was brought up by his mother, who supported him by playing piano.

After his mother’s death in 1924 Orson was put under the custody of his alcoholic father. Initially he was admitted to a public school; but later in 1926 he was enrolled at Todd Seminary for Boys. Here his latent talents were nurtured by his teacher Roger Hill.

In 1927, Welles became a member of the Todd Troupers and began to stage both classical and modern plays. Soon he became the director of productions at Todd and produced around thirty plays in three years.

Welles’ father died in the end of 1930 and Chicago doctor Maurice Bernstein, who was also a family friend, became his guardian. Welles continued his studies at Todd and passed out in 1931.

Although Orson Welles received a scholarship from Harvard he did not join the institute. Instead he travelled to Dublin. Here he claimed to be a Broadway star and walked into Gate Theatre for an audition.

Although the manager did not believe him, he was impressed by his impassionate audition. Thus Wells made his stage debut in 1931 appearing as the Duke of Württemberg in a stage adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel ‘Jew Süss’.

Welles spent a year in Dublin acting both for Gate Theatre and Abbey Theatre. At the same time he wrote newspaper columns, designed sets and directed plays.

In 1932, he went to London, but could not get the required work permit. Therefore, he travelled to Morocco and Spain before reaching United States in 1933. He used the time to write books on Shakespeare, which remained in print for several decades.

In New York, he met Katherine Cornell, who hired put him for her repertory theatre. Beginning November 1933, Welles toured with them enacting ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘The Barretts of Wimpole Street’ and ‘Candida’.

According to Welles, ‘The Trial’, made in 1962, was his best film. However, critics consider ‘Citizen Kane’, based on the life of American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, to be the greatest film of all time. It has been ranked No. 1 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies list twice; first in 1998 and then in 2007.