December 6, 2004 (IX:15) ORSON WELLES (George Orson Welles, 6 May 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin— 10 October 1985, Hollywood, sometimes credited as O.W. Jeeves and G.O. Spelvin) did it all: actor, director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer , shill for Gallo Wines. His 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" panicked thousands of listeners. His made Citizen Kane 1941, which tops nearly all lists of the world's greatest films, SIGHT AND SOUND, published by when he was 25; it was his first film. In his later years he played himself, the British Film Institute, but he got to do that only because the self he created was so interesting. His bio lists more than 160 surveys directors and critics acting credits, beginning as Death in the 1934 film Hearts of Death. Many of those credits were as every year for their favorite “narrator”: he was the offscreen voices of the narrator in “Shogun” and Robin Masters in “Magnum films. Here are the top ten from P.I.” He played some of history’s great characters: Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons 1966, each group in 2002: Falstaff in Chimes at Midnight 1965, Harry Lime in The Third Man 1949, Cesare Borgia in Prince Critics of Foxes 1949, and Macbeth 1948. Not one of the 14 films he completed is uninteresting and 1 Citizen Kane (Welles) several are masterpieces. The films are:Citizen Kane 1941, The Magnificent Ambersons 1942, The 2 Vertigo (Hitchcock) Stranger 1946, The Lady from Shanghai 1948, Macbeth 1948, Othello 1952, Mr. Arkadin 1955, 3 La Règle du jeu (Renoir) Touch of Evil 1958, The Trial 1962, Chimes at Midnight 1965, The Immortal Story 1968, F for 4 The Godfather and The Godfather part II (Coppola) Fake 1973, and Filming 'Othello' 1978, He won a lifetime achievement Academy Award 1971, was 5 Tokyo Story (Ozu) nominated for The Magnificent Ambersons and Citizen Kane in 1941 and 1942, won for best 6 2001: A Space Odyssey writing original screenplay for Citizen Kane. The American Film Institute gave him its Life (Kubrick) Achievement Award in 1975. 7 Battleship Potemkin JOSEPH COTTEN (15 May 1905, Petersburg, Virginia—6 February 1994, Westwood, California, (Eisenstein) pneumonia) acted in a lot of awful Italian films toward the end of his career (e.g. Il Giustiziere sfida 7 Sunrise (Murnau) la città/Syndicate Sadists/Rambo's Revenge 1975 and Gli Orrori del castello di Norimberga/The 9 8½ (Fellini) 10 Singin' In the Rain (Kelly, Torture Chamber of Baron Blood 1972 and he did a lot of TV series work from the mid-50s Donen) through the mid-70s on such series as "The Love Boat," "HardyBoys/Nancy Drew Mysteries," "The Rockford Files," "The Streets of San Francisco," "The Virginian," "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," Directors "It Takes a Thief," "Wagon Train," and "General Electric Theater." He was in nearly 100 theatrical 1 Citizen Kane (Welles) films, the most famous of which are probably are The Third Man 1949 and two films directed by 2 The Godfather and The Orson Welles, The Magnificent Ambersons 1942 and Citizen Kane 1941. Some of his other films Godfather part II (Coppola) are Heaven's Gate 1980, Airport '77 1977, Twilight's Last Gleaming 1977, Soylent Green 1973, 3 8½ (Fellini) Tora! Tora! Tora! 1970, Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte 1964, Touch of Evil 1958, Niagara 1953, 4 Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) Portrait of Jennie 1948, Duel in the Sun 1946 and Gaslight 1944. 5 Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) 6 Bicycle Thieves (De Sica) HERMAN J. MANKIEWICZ (7 November 1897, NYC—5 March 1953, Hollywood, uremic 6 Raging Bull (Scorsese) poisoning) wrote 75 screenplays, some of which were The Pride of St. Louis 1952, The Pride of the 6 Vertigo (Hitchcock) Yankees 1942, Dinner at Eight 1933, and Girl Crazy 1932. 9 Rashomon (Kurosawa) GREGG TOLAND (29 May 1904, Charleston, Illinois—26 September 1948, Hollywood, coronary 9 La Règle du jeu (Renoir) 9 Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) thrombosis) was one of the great cinematographers. Nearly all of his successors credit his work and his imagination. Some of his films were The Bishop's Wife 1947, The Best Years of Our Lives 1946, December 7th 1943, The Outlaw 1943, The Little Foxes 1941, The Long Voyage Home 1940, The Westerner 1940, The Grapes of Wrath 1940, Raffles 1940, Wuthering Heights 1939, Intermezzo: A Love Story 1939, Come and Get It 1936, Les Misérables 1935, Nana 1934, Tugboat Annie 1933, Indiscreet 1931, Raffles 1930, Bulldog Drummond 1929, and Bat 1926. He was nominated for six Oscars: Citizen Kane, The Long Voyage Home, Wuthering Heights (won), Intermezzzo: A Love Story, Dead End, and Les Misérables, ROBERT WISE (10 September 1914, Winchester, Indiana) edited 12 films and directed 40. Some of the films he directed are Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979, The Hindenburg 1975, The Andromeda Strain 1971, Star! 1968, The Sand Pebbles 1966, The Sound of Music 1965, CITIZEN KANE (1941) 119 min Two for the Seesaw 1962, I Want to Live! 1958, Run Silent Run Deep 1958, Somebody Up There Likes Me 1956, Executive Suite 1954, The Desert Rats 1953, Joseph Cotten...Jedediah Leland The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951, Blood on the Moon 1948, The Body Snatcher Dorothy Comingore...Susan Alexander Kane 1945, The Curse of the Cat People 1944 and Mademoiselle Fifi 1944. He was also Agnes Moorehead...Mary Kane editor on Welles’s Magnificent Ambersons 1942 and The Hunchback of Notre Ruth Warrick...Emily Monroe Norton Kane Dame 1939. He won Best Picture Oscars for The Sound of Music and West Side Ray Collins...James W. Gettys Story 1961, Best Director Oscars for The Sound of Music and West Side Story, and Erskine Sanford...Herbert Carter Best Director Oscar nominations for The Sand Pebbles and I Want to Live!, and Everett Sloane...Mr. Bernstein Best Editor Oscar nomination for Citizen Kane. In 1967 he won the Academy’s William Alland...Jerry Thompson Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. Paul Stewart...Raymond George Coulouris...Walter Parks Thatcher BERNARD HERRMANN 29 June 1911, NYC—24 December 1975, Los Angeles, Fortunio Bonanova...Signor Matiste heart attack) composed music for 117 films. ImdB bio: “The man behind the low Harry Shannon...Kane's Father woodwinds that open Citizen Kane 1941, the shrieking violins of Psycho 1960, Sonny Bupp...Charles Foster Kane III and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver 1976 was one of the most original and Orson Welles...Charles Foster Kane distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a Alan Ladd...Reporter smoking pipe at end composition prize at the age of 13 and founding his own orchestra at the age of 20. Gregg Toland...Interviewer in 1935 Newsreel After writing scores for Orson Welles's radio shows in the 1930s (including the notorious 1938 "The War of the Worlds" broadcast), he was the obvious choice to Directed and produced by Orson Welles score Welles's film debut, Citizen Kane 1941 and subsequently The Magnificent Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Ambersons 1942, although he removed his name from the latter after additional Welles music was added without his or Welles's consent when the film was mutilated by a Original Music by Bernard Herrmann panic-stricken studio. Herrmann was a prolific film composer, producing some of Cinematography by Gregg Toland his most memorable work for Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he wrote nine scores. A Film Editing by Robert Wise notorious perfectionist and demanding (he once said that most directors didn't have Art Direction by Van Nest Polglase a clue about music, and he blithely ignored their instructions--like Hitchcock's Chesley Bonestell...background painter suggestion that Psycho 1960 have a jazz score and no music in the shower scene). Bernard Herrmann...orchestra conductor, He ended his partnership with Hitchcock after the latter rejected his score for Torn orchestrator, music arranger Curtain 1966 on studio advice. He was also an early experimenter in the sounds John Houseman...assistant: Mr. Welles used in film scores, most famously The Day the Earth Stood Still 1951, scored for John Houseman...editorial supervisor two theremins, pianos, and a horn section; and was a consultant on the electronic sounds created by Oskar Sala on the mixtrautonium for The Birds 1963. His last Production Companies: Mercury Productions score was for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver 1976 and died just hours after Inc. and RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Runtime: 119 recording it. He also wrote an opera, ‘Wuthering Heights,’ and a cantata, ‘Moby min Dick.’” Art Pierce: Orson Welles, The Mercury Theatre, and The Campbell Oscar nominations: Playhouse. From the Mercury Theatre website Best Writing, Original Screenplay (won) (http://www.unknown.nu/mercury/ ) Best Actor in a Leading Role Orson Welles The beginnings of The Mercury Theatre on the Air actually go back to the Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, formation of The Mercury Theatre itself. Having successfully produced Marc Black-and-White Perry Ferguson, Blitzstein’s controversial labor union opera, The Cradle Will Rock, for the Federal Van Nest Polglase, Theatre Project in June of 1937, John Houseman and the 21-year-old “boy A. Roland Fields, Darrell Silvera wonder” of the theatre, Orson Welles, decided to form their own theatrical Best Cinematography, Black-and-White producing company. In August of that same year The Mercury Theatre was born, Gregg Toland starting off with total monetary assets of $100 (about $1150 in modern funds). Best Director Orson Welles Their first production, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, adapted by Mr. Welles (and Best Film Editing Robert Wise set in fascist Italy), opened in New York on November 11 and created as much Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture controversy as the young producers had hoped; The Mercury Theatre (along with Bernard Herrmann the widespread public recognition of Orson Welles) was off and running.