“s Shadow , Welles Feder remembers knowing him when they lived next to each other in beachside homes.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles was an American actor and filmmaker. Remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre, he is considered among the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
entertainment · American actor and filmmaker (1915–1985) · film director · actor · screenwriter · film producer · magician · character actor · playwright · radio personality · stage actor · theatrical producer · also Orson Welles, George Welles, Welles
Born 6 May 1915 · Died 10 October 1985 · Q24829
97 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
14 photos · 1 video
Video
The Hearts of Age
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 7 entries
“and wanted to make a film of it all. But they tell me that in the Hollywood version of the film they gave the boy a reason for what he did. That”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“I was guilt-ridden about my civilian status.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
The Guardian: Done Quixote? Film archivists on quest to finish Orson Welles passion project
- #news
- #headline
Public attention spiked: 18,061 Wikipedia readers in one day, 4.4× the usual 4,127, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
Published video “"Something Wicked This Way Comes," narrated by Orson Welles”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
Published video “The Big Brass Ring short (1997)”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
2025· 6 entries
Published video “"We the People" – Orson Welles”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
Published video “Remembering Orson”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
The Guardian: Henry Jaglom, fiercely independent director and friend of Orson Welles, dies aged 87
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: AI firm plans to reconstruct lost footage from Orson Welles’ masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: Orson Welles Can Now Be Your AI-Generated Tour Guide
- #news
- #headline
collider: Need More Proof of Orson Welles' Staggering Brilliance? One Scene From His Iconic Noir Is All It Takes
- #news
- #headline
2024· 3 entries
Published video “The Piper by Cardiac Kids (1998)”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
Published video “TWELFTH NIGHT - Orson Welles (1933)”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
Published video “NEVER KNOW by the Cardiac Kids”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
2023· 4 entries
Published video “Producing the Union-News, Springfield, MA - 1998”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
NPR: A fan is reviving Orson Welles' poorly edited 'lost masterpiece' through animation
- #news
- #headline
NPR: An Orson Welles film was horribly edited — will cinematic justice finally be done?
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: The Magnificent Ambersons: rebirth for ruined Orson Welles masterpiece that rivalled Citizen Kane
- #news
- #headline
2022· 3 entries
Published video “Desiderata - Orson Welles”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
The Guardian: The Magnificent Ambersons at 80: Orson Welles’ powerful but cursed drama
- #news
- #headline
Published video “Orson Welles - "Postscript" to Sketch Book series”.
- #social
- #youtube
- #self-published
2021· 2 entries
The New Yorker: How “Mank” Distorts Orson Welles
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: How Orson Welles Became the Most Infamous Pitchman in Booze History
- #news
- #headline
2020· 1 entry
Released album “Stories for Christmas”.
- #musicbrainz
- #release
- #work
2018· 6 entries
CNN: Orson Welles gets belated respect in twin Netflix tribute
- #news
- #headline
New York Post: Orson Welles’ final film has been in the works for almost 50 years
- #news
- #headline
Marketplace: What Orson Welles and "War of the Worlds" taught us about economic panic
- #news
- #headline
The New Yorker: How Orson Welles’s “The Other Side of the Wind” Was Rescued from Oblivion
- #news
- #headline
JSTOR Daily: Orson Welles in Focus: Texts and Contexts
- #news
- #headline
Was included in the list of the greatest Hollywood actors of all time by The Daily Telegraph
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2016· 1 entry
Snopes rated the claim “Orson Welles' 30 October 1938 radio adaptation of "The War of the Worlds" caused mass hysteria, convincing thousands of panicked listeners across North America that Earth was being attacked by Mars.” Mostly False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
2008· 1 entry
Released album “Orson Welles”.
- #musicbrainz
- #release
- #work
2005· 1 entry
Stefan Droessler of the Munich Film Museum oversaw a reconstruction of the surviving film elements
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2002· 1 entry
Voted him the greatest film director ever
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1998· 1 entry
Walter Murch reedited the film according to Welles's specifications in his memo
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1992· 1 entry
The director Jesús Franco constructed a film out of the portions of Quixote left by Welles
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1988· 1 entry
He continued his crusade over subsequent Sunday afternoon broadcasts on ABC Radio. "The NAACP felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case," the Museum of Broadcasting stated in its 1988 retrospective Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #activism
1985· 2 entries
Died 1985-10-10.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“The ideal American type is perfectly expressed by the Protestant, individualist, anti-conformist, and this is the type that is in the process of disappearing. In reality there are few left.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
1982· 1 entry
Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (1982).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1978· 1 entry
A longer preview version of the film was discovered and released
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1975· 1 entry
Awarded AFI Life Achievement Award (1975).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1974· 1 entry
Awarded honorary doctorate from the University of Paris-VII (1974).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1972· 1 entry
Welles acted as on-screen narrator for the documentary version of Alvin Toffler's 1970 book Future Shock
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1971· 1 entry
Welles directed a short adaptation of Moby-Dick, a one-man performance on a bare stage, reminiscent of his 1955 stage production Moby Dick – Rehearsed
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1970· 2 entries
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (1970).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Won Golden Lion (1970).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #trophy
- #achievement
1969· 4 entries
Released album “The Begatting of The President”.
- #musicbrainz
- #release
- #work
Welles asked editor Frederick Muller to work with him re-editing the material and they set up cutting rooms at the Safa Palatino Studios in Rome
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles authorized the use of his name for a cinema in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Played a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1968· 2 entries
It stars Jeanne Moreau, Roger Coggio and Norman Eshley
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles began filming a TV special for CBS under the title Orson's Bag, combining travelogue, comedy skits and a condensation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice with Welles as Shylock
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1967· 2 entries
Played Le Chiffre in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles began directing The Deep, based on the novel Dead Calm by Charles Williams and filmed off the shore of Yugoslavia
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1966· 1 entry
Welles directed a film for French television, an adaptation of The Immortal Story, by Karen Blixen
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1962· 1 entry
Welles directed his adaptation of The Trial, based on the novel by Franz Kafka and produced by Michael and Alexander Salkind
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1961· 1 entry
Welles directed In the Land of Don Quixote, eight half-hour episodes for the Italian television network RAI
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1960· 1 entry
In Paris he co-starred in Richard Fleischer's film Crack in the Mirror
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1959· 1 entry
Welles directed his scenes as King Saul in Richard Pottier's film David and Goliath
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1956· 2 entries
Welles completed Portrait of Gina
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles returned to Hollywood
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1955· 1 entry
Welles directed two television series for the BBC
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1954· 1 entry
Director George More O'Ferrall offered Welles the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of Three Cases of Murder, co-starring Alan Badel
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1953· 1 entry
The BBC hired Welles to read an hour of selections from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1952· 2 entries
Awarded Palme d'Or (1952).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Welles continued finding work in England after the success of the Harry Lime radio show
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1947· 1 entry
The Palme D'Or in 1952, the Academy Honorary Award in 1970, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1975, and the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1983
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1946· 3 entries
Marked the end of Welles's own radio shows
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles began two new radio series—The Mercury Summer Theatre of the Air for CBS, and Orson Welles Commentaries for ABC
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles devoted his July 28, 1946, program to reading Woodard's affidavit and vowing to bring the officer responsible to justice.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #activism
1945· 1 entry
The day Roosevelt died, the Blue-ABC network marshalled its executive staff and national leaders to pay homage to the president
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1944· 2 entries
Welles began his association with This Is My Best, a CBS radio series he would produce, direct, write and host (March 13 – April 24, 1945)
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
As an expert consultant for the duration of the war, with a retainer of $1 a year
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1943· 1 entry
KMPC radio interviewed audience and cast members of The Mercury Wonder Show—including Welles and Rita Hayworth, who were married earlier that day
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1942· 5 entries
Cavalcade of America presented Welles's radio play, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, an entertaining and factual look at the legend of Christopher Columbus
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
After more than six months in South America
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Awarded Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Citizen Kane (1942).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
When RKO Pictures began promoting its new corporate motto, "Showmanship In Place of Genius: A New Deal at RKO", Welles understood it as a reference to him
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
RKO Pictures underwent changes under new management
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1941· 2 entries
To January 22, 1942, with a cast including Cotten, Collins, Moorehead, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter and Tim Holt
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
In a telegram on December 20, 1941, Whitney wrote Welles, "Personally believe you would make great contribution to hemisphere solidarity with this project."
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #activism
1938· 2 entries
And The Campbell Playhouse began five days later
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
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
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1937· 2 entries
Welles and Houseman founded a repertory company, called the Mercury Theatre
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles rehearsed Marc Blitzstein's political opera, The Cradle Will Rock
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1935· 1 entry
Welles made his debut on the CBS Radio series The March of Time, performing a scene from Panic for a news report on the stage production
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1934· 2 entries
Welles married Chicago socialite and actress Virginia Nicolson in a civil ceremony in New York
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Welles got his first job on radio—with The American School of the Air—through actor-director Paul Stewart, who introduced him to director Knowles Entrikin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1933· 1 entry
Hortense and Roger Hill invited Welles to a party in Chicago, where Welles met Thornton Wilder
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1931· 1 entry
Appearing in Ashley Dukes's adaptation of Jud Süß as Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1930· 1 entry
When Welles was 15, his father died of heart and kidney failure in a hotel in Chicago, aged 58
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1926· 1 entry
Entered the Todd Seminary for Boys, an expensive independent school in Woodstock, Illinois, that his older brother had attended until he was expelled
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1924· 1 entry
Just after Welles's ninth birthday
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1915· 1 entry
Born 1915-05-06.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth