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Orson Welles: Rise And Fall Of An American Genius
Orson Welles is probably known as the creator of Citizen Kane, the controversial masterpiece against which all other movies are compared. As an actor he will also be remembered for his part in The Third Man, and for Shakespearean roles in his own productions, including an astonishing Macbeth. But Orson Welles led one of the most unusual lives ever documented.
A teenage prodigy, Welles earned fame quickly when he made the radio broadcast America has never forgotten - the notorious War of the Worlds. A restless, maniacally driven innovator, he had revolutionised the theatre, films and radio before he was thirty.
But life was troublesome for this witty, bold, ruthlessly ambitious young man. He opposed and satirised the powerful and rich on stage and screen and was otracised from their world. He drove himself and his casts and crew mercilessly. He married several beautiful women, including Rita Hayworth, but his marriages failed.
With Orson Welles' death in 1985, cinema and stage lost a superstar of seemingly limitless talent. Charles Higham's biography, painstakingly researched from thousands of documents and sources, tells the story of this remarkable man accurately and completely for the first time, contradicting everything that Welles ever said about himself in print!
This complete look at America's greatest actor/writer/director is bound to take its rightful place among the classic biographies and books on film and theatre.
A teenage prodigy, Welles earned fame quickly when he made the radio broadcast America has never forgotten - the notorious War of the Worlds. A restless, maniacally driven innovator, he had revolutionised the theatre, films and radio before he was thirty.
But life was troublesome for this witty, bold, ruthlessly ambitious young man. He opposed and satirised the powerful and rich on stage and screen and was otracised from their world. He drove himself and his casts and crew mercilessly. He married several beautiful women, including Rita Hayworth, but his marriages failed.
With Orson Welles' death in 1985, cinema and stage lost a superstar of seemingly limitless talent. Charles Higham's biography, painstakingly researched from thousands of documents and sources, tells the story of this remarkable man accurately and completely for the first time, contradicting everything that Welles ever said about himself in print!
This complete look at America's greatest actor/writer/director is bound to take its rightful place among the classic biographies and books on film and theatre.
- GenresBiography
392 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1985
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About the author
Charles Higham
78 books22 followersCharles Higham was an author and poet. Higham was a recipient of the Prix des Créateurs of the Académie Française and the Poetry Society of London Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 29, 2009
The Welles sycophants who like to take the "poor victimized artist" line hate this bio. It's juicy and highly critical of Welles: his ego, his tendency to bite off more than he could chew (project-wise), his suckiness as a parent, etc. etc. In other words, something to provide balance to all the other fawning stuff out there about the once "boy genius." Having said that, the decidedly pro-Welles "This is Orson Welles" is still my fave.
July 26, 2019
I loves me some Orson and this is a good overview of his life, the choices he made in film and the resons for htose choices.
September 3, 2019
Rich in details, many celebs mentioned.
August 12, 2017
This biography gives us lots of detail about the life and work of Orson Welles, but I am little the wiser regarding his status as a cinematic genius.
Orson Welles is considered a towering figure in the history of celluloid because he made Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the greatest film ever (not by me - despite its startling technical and narrative devices I find the story cold and the characters unmoving - my favourite Welles’ film is The Magnificent Ambersons).
Apart from these two, Welles made several other remarkable features including, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight. But that is about it. Welles completed 12 features but left more unfinished including, tantalisingly, versions of Don Quixote and King Lear, preparing the latter at the time of his death, at 70, in 1985.
Welles is as well known for his failures as his successes, projects begun but never completed, a lavish lifestyle (staying at the best hotels while his loyal actors remained unpaid) and his personal life which was usually anything but- featuring marriages to Rita Hayworth and Countess Paola Mori, and relationships with, among others, Delores Del Rio and sculptor Oja Kodar.
He was also a prodigy in the theatre and on radio before even getting to the cinema. He completed two of the best films ever made before he had turned 27. His last effective work as a filmmaker was over by the time he was in his early fifties, with the release of The Immortal Story.
This biography by Charles Higham, provides an exhaustive account of Welles life and work and by showing us the oft repeated pattern of his habits and approach we learn that it was not so remarkable that Welles completed so few projects - it was remarkable that he completed any at all, although he got worse as he got older (or as potential or previous collaborators got wise to him). Welles was always working on two, three or four projects at once - cinema, radio, writing, campaigning for political causes, clocking up flying miles and relocating within cities and between countries. His work methods were chaotic and demanding. The people, who suffered most, were his collaborators especially the performers. The case of John Houseman is well known, his partner from the Mercury Theatre days, but Welles wore him out and after a public spat in London in the mid-1950s, they did not speak for 25 years. Welles treated Michael MacLiammoir and his partner Hilton Edwards, from the Gate Theatre in Dublin, abominably, sending the pair to the edge of bankruptcy and testing their sanity.
And yet...there are moments when we get the exhilaration of Welles creative brilliance in staging of some of his theatrical productions and the designing of some of his films. But the story is mainly tribulation and the constant search of funds to continue his work. I was, however, intrigued by one possibility that never eventuated. Before he developed Citizen Kane, Welles was working on an film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – nearly forty years before Francis Ford Coppola. Now that would have been something.
Orson Welles is considered a towering figure in the history of celluloid because he made Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the greatest film ever (not by me - despite its startling technical and narrative devices I find the story cold and the characters unmoving - my favourite Welles’ film is The Magnificent Ambersons).
Apart from these two, Welles made several other remarkable features including, The Lady from Shanghai, Touch of Evil and Chimes at Midnight. But that is about it. Welles completed 12 features but left more unfinished including, tantalisingly, versions of Don Quixote and King Lear, preparing the latter at the time of his death, at 70, in 1985.
Welles is as well known for his failures as his successes, projects begun but never completed, a lavish lifestyle (staying at the best hotels while his loyal actors remained unpaid) and his personal life which was usually anything but- featuring marriages to Rita Hayworth and Countess Paola Mori, and relationships with, among others, Delores Del Rio and sculptor Oja Kodar.
He was also a prodigy in the theatre and on radio before even getting to the cinema. He completed two of the best films ever made before he had turned 27. His last effective work as a filmmaker was over by the time he was in his early fifties, with the release of The Immortal Story.
This biography by Charles Higham, provides an exhaustive account of Welles life and work and by showing us the oft repeated pattern of his habits and approach we learn that it was not so remarkable that Welles completed so few projects - it was remarkable that he completed any at all, although he got worse as he got older (or as potential or previous collaborators got wise to him). Welles was always working on two, three or four projects at once - cinema, radio, writing, campaigning for political causes, clocking up flying miles and relocating within cities and between countries. His work methods were chaotic and demanding. The people, who suffered most, were his collaborators especially the performers. The case of John Houseman is well known, his partner from the Mercury Theatre days, but Welles wore him out and after a public spat in London in the mid-1950s, they did not speak for 25 years. Welles treated Michael MacLiammoir and his partner Hilton Edwards, from the Gate Theatre in Dublin, abominably, sending the pair to the edge of bankruptcy and testing their sanity.
And yet...there are moments when we get the exhilaration of Welles creative brilliance in staging of some of his theatrical productions and the designing of some of his films. But the story is mainly tribulation and the constant search of funds to continue his work. I was, however, intrigued by one possibility that never eventuated. Before he developed Citizen Kane, Welles was working on an film adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness – nearly forty years before Francis Ford Coppola. Now that would have been something.
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April 14, 2008Never back down from your true vision no matter how uncommercial it may be.
July 8, 2009
Fantastic subject/life and great writing. My envy and admiration for Mr. Welles climbed even higher, despite his blubbery fall.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews