George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, screenwriter and producer who is remembered for his innovative work in radio, theatre and film. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. In the latter part of his career, he excelled as a raconteur, and a bon vivant became synonymous with 'the good life', fond of fine food, wines and cigars.
His commercials for same, and growing girth often making him the object of fun, by Mork included.
About Orson Welles[]
George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a son of Richard Head Welles (1872–1930) and Beatrice Ives Welles (née Beatrice Lucy Ives; 1883–1924). He was named after one of his great-grandfathers, influential Kenosha attorney Orson S. Head, and his brother George Head. In 1928, at age 13, Welles was already more than six feet tall (1.83 meters) and weighed over 180 pounds (81.6 kg). His passport recorded his height as six feet three inches (192 cm), with brown hair and green eyes. Welles said that a voice specialist once told him he was born to be a heldentenor, a heroic tenor, but that when he was young and working at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, he forced his voice down into a bass-baritone.[1]
Welles briefly attended public school in Madison, Wisconsin, enrolled in the fourth grade. On September 15, 1926, he entered the Todd Seminary for Boys, an expensive independent school in Woodstock, Illinois, At Todd School, Welles came under the influence of Roger Hill, a teacher who was later Todd's headmaster. Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to concentrate on subjects that interested him. Welles performed and staged theatrical experiments and productions there. Following graduation from Todd in May 1931, Welles was awarded a scholarship to Harvard University, while his mentor Roger Hill advocated he attend Cornell College in Iowa. Rather than enrolling, he chose travel. He studied for a few weeks at the Art Institute of Chicago with Boris Anisfeld, who encouraged him to pursue painting.
After his father's death, Welles traveled to Europe using a small portion of his inheritance. Welles said that while on a walking and painting trip through Ireland, he strode into the Gate Theatre in Dublin and claimed he was a Broadway star. The manager of the Gate, Hilton Edwards, later said he had not believed him but was impressed by his brashness and an impassioned audition he gave. Welles made his stage debut at the Gate Theatre on October 13, 1931, appearing in Ashley Dukes's adaptation of Jew Suss as Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. He performed small supporting roles in subsequent Gate productions, and he produced and designed productions of his own in Dublin. In March 1932, Welles performed in W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle at Dublin's famed Abbey Theatre, before returning to the U.S. [1]
John Houseman, director of the Negro Theatre Unit in New York, and future teacher and Mentor to Robin Williams, invited Welles to join the Federal Theatre Project in 1935. Breaking with the Federal Theatre Project in 1937, Welles and Houseman founded their own repertory company, which they called the Mercury Theatre.
In 1938, his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air gave Welles the platform to find international fame as the director and narrator of a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds, which caused some listeners to believe that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was in fact occurring. Although reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety.
His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which is consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made and which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. Welles released twelve other features, the most acclaimed of which include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Touch of Evil (1958), The Trial (1962), Chimes at Midnight (1965) and F for Fake (1973). His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots and long takes. He has been praised as "the ultimate auteur".
Welles was an outsider to the studio system and struggled for creative control on his projects early on with the major film studios in Hollywood and later in life with a variety of independent financiers across Europe, where he spent most of his career. Many of his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased. Some, like Touch of Evil, have been painstakingly re-edited from his notes. With a development spanning almost 50 years, Welles's final film, The Other Side of the Wind, was released in 2018.
Welles had three marriages, including one with Rita Hayworth, and three children. Known for his baritone voice, Welles performed extensively across theatre, radio, and film. He was a lifelong magician, noted for presenting troop variety shows in the war years. In 2002, he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics. In 2018, he was included in the list of the 50 greatest Hollywood actors of all time by The Daily Telegraph.[1]
On a less highbrow (relatively) level, in the latter part of his career Welles, with his resonant voice and classical demeanor, became almost as well known to the general public on both sides of the Atlantic as the face of several products including: Findus Frozen Peas (1970); Jim Beam Whiskey (1972); Carlsberg (1975); Domecq Sherry (1975); Vivitar Compact Camera (1978); Caesars Palace (1978); Nikka Japanese Whiskey (1979); Perrier (1979); Stove Top Stuffing (1982), and perhaps most famously Paul Masson Wines (1978 - 1981) the slogan of which "We will sell no wine before its time" became a much-parodied cultural trope of the late twentieth century. Welles himself took none of these seriously declaring them the most innocent form of whoring.[2]
His large strong frame and height, coupled with a healthy appetite, and these kinds of ads, helped form the idea of him as a bon vivant, something added to by his being perceived as significantly overweight. Which led to much fun poking. However after his death noted film critic Xavier Poulis, said that Welles was not actually fat but wearing a fat suit. Something that he took to doing as he enjoyed being recognized, and most people recognized him from his 'heavier' roles in Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. Pouils stated his weight became so solidified in people's minds, that the undertakers buried him in his fat suit. [3]
Welles died sometime on the morning of October 10, 1985, following a heart attack. He was found by his chauffeur at around 10 a.m.; the first of Welles's friends to arrive was Paul Stewart. Welles was 70 years old at his death.
Mork's Multiple References[]
- Twelve Angry Appliances - At the Day Care Center Mork is about to play the Orson Welles version of War of the Worlds, the radio play from 1938, based on H.G. Wells novel, that apocryphal stories have it causing widespread panic at the time.
- Mindy, Mindy, Mindy - Mork's line "I will drink from no slipper before it's time' to the Sexy Mindy Clone is a direct spoof of Orson Welles line "We sell no wine before its time." for the Paul Masson wines Ads he did.
- Drive, She Said - An overdressed Mearth comments that he's overheating like Orson Welles chasing a frisbee.
- Mork's New Look - Mork wonders of Fred, whether Orson Welles should be made into a National Park, combining the famed writer/director's cultural impact with his increased size.