George Orson Welles May 6, β October 10, was an American director, actor, writer, and producer who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. At age 21, Welles was directing high-profile stage productions for the Federal Theatre Project in New York Cityβstarting with a celebrated adaptation of Macbeth with an African-American cast, and ending with the controversial labor opera The Cradle Will Rock in He and John Houseman then founded the Mercury Theatre , an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through , including a modern, politically charged Caesar In , 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.
Wells 's novel The War of the Worlds , which caused some listeners to believe that a Martian invasion was in fact occurring. The event rocketed the year-old Welles to notoriety. His first film was Citizen Kane , which he co-wrote , produced, directed and starred in as the title character, Charles Foster Kane.
His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, dramatic lighting, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots and long takes. He has been praised as "the ultimate auteur ". Many of his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased.
In , he was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics.
Head , and his brother George Head. Despite his family's affluence, Welles encountered hardship in childhood when his parents separated and moved to Chicago in His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a popular bicycle lamp, [ 18 ] became an alcoholic and stopped working. Welles's mother was a concert pianist who had studied with the Lithuanian-born pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky.
