Trivia

He was George Lucas' first choice as the voice for Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), but he thought the voice would be too recognizable. However, Welles did narrate the trailers for the film.

He died only two hours after being interviewed on The Merv Griffin Show (1962) on October 10, 1985. Reportedly, Welles died working with a typewriter in his lap.

When execs at RKO could not decide to greenlight Citizen Kane (1941), Welles asked the studio for film equipment and a small crew so he could spend the midway time doing test shots. Not wanting its new import from New York to sour on his deal with RKO, the studio granted the request. Welles proceeded to shoot actual scenes of the movie. By the time execs realized what he had done, Welles had many key scenes completed. RKO greenlit the movie, having already--albeit unknowingly--financed the picture.

H.G. Wells was driving through San Antonio, Texas, and stopped to ask the way. The person he happened to ask was none other than Orson Welles, who had recently broadcast "The War of the Worlds" on the radio. They got on well and spent the day together.

In the 1930s, he worked at various radio stations in New York City, at different times of the day. He found this difficult to be on time for his live shows because he had to use taxicabs and the heavy New York City traffic meant that he was often late. He soon found a loophole in the law that said you didn't have to be sick to hire an ambulance, so he did just that and had the drivers blast their sirens as he traveled from one station to the next, and that way he was on time.

Considered black and white to be "the actor's best friend", feeling that it focused more on the actor's expressions and feelings than on hair, eye or wardrobe color.

Frank Sinatra was the godfather of his and Rita Hayworth's daughter, Rebecca Welles.

He and John Huston were good friends from the 1940s to Welles' death in 1985. Both men coincidentally made their spectacular debut as directors in 1941 (Welles with Citizen Kane (1941) and Huston with The Maltese Falcon (1941)). Both would eventually be directed by the other: Welles' had a cameo in Huston's adaptation of Moby Dick (1956) and Huston played the lead in Welles' unfinished The Other Side of the Wind (2018).

Hated working on The Transformers: The Movie (1986), where he voiced Unicron. When asked about the film, he not only could not remember the name of his character, but he described the film as being "I play a big toy who attacks a bunch of smaller toys.".

Despite his reputation as an actor and master filmmaker, he maintained his memberships in the International Brotherhood of Magicians and the Society of American Magicians (neither of which are unions, but fraternal organizations), and regularly practiced sleight-of-hand magic in case his career came to an abrupt end. Welles occasionally performed at the annual conventions of each organization, and was considered by fellow magicians to be extremely accomplished.

His performance as Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane (1941) is ranked #12 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

The Last Picture Show (1971) was filmed in black and white because of Welles' famous remark to Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt, when director and crew were uncertain on how to film the locations without using too many colors. Welles, who was on the set, replied: "Of course you'll film it in black and white!" The advice proved to be helpful because the film was praised for (among other qualities) its cinematography, which earned Robert Surtees an Oscar nomination.

Became a father for the fourth time at age 40 when his third wife Paola Mori gave birth to their daughter Beatrice Welles on November 13, 1955.

Once referred to the audience as "the big, many-headed beast crouching out there in the darkness".

Lord Laurence Olivier had wanted to cast him as the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III (1955), his film version of William Shakespeare's play, but gave the role to his close friend Sir Ralph Richardson, because Richardson wanted this. In his autobiography, Olivier says he wishes he had disappointed Richardson and cast Welles instead, as he would have brought an extra element to the screen, an intelligence that would have gone well with the plot element of conspiracy.

One of only six actors to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his first starring role. The other five actors are: Paul Muni, Lawrence Tibbett, Alan Arkin, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.

Merv Griffin claimed in his DVD collection "Merv Griffin: Interesting People" that Welles died two hours after giving Merv an interview in which he had said to ask him anything, "For this interview, there are no subjects about which I won't speak". In the past, Welles refused to speak about the past.

Was voted the Second Greatest Film Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

He was a passionate painter.

Before deciding on adapting the life of William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane (1941), Welles intended his first film to be an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Coincidentally, he was Francis Ford Coppola's first choice for the role of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979), itself an adaptation of "Heart of Darkness".

Was friends with Josip Broz Tito, a partisan guerrilla leader who fought the Nazis in World War II Yugoslavia, and who later became president of the country.

ABC-TV wanted him to play Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island (1977), but the series' producer, Aaron Spelling, insisted on Ricardo Montalban.

Was the narrator for many of the trailers for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).

Once ate 18 hot dogs in one sitting at Pink's, a Los Angeles hot dog stand.

Was suggested as a possible suspect by author Mary Pacios, in the mutilation murder of actress Elizabeth Short, known as "The Black Dahlia" case, in Los Angeles, California in 1947. Among other reasons, Pacios suggested Welles as a suspect because Welles' artwork for the surreal bizarre funhouse set in The Lady from Shanghai (1947) was similar in many ways to the mutilation and bisection of Elizabeth Short. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures--the studio that produced The Lady from Shanghai (1947)--ordered the footage deleted before release because of its disturbing resemblance to the murder.

He became obese in his 40s, weighing over 350 pounds towards the end of his life.

Told David Frost that, as a practicing magician, he became adept at the old carny trick of fortune-telling, but he became so good at this that this scared him. He was worried that he would come to believe he actually did have the power to tell the future, like the self-deluded fortune tellers known as a "shut eye".

Ashes are buried inside an old well covered by flowers, within the rural property of the now-deceased, then-retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez, Ronda, Malaga, Spain.

Most of his movie projects never got finished or released due to financial problems and disputes with studio executives. Some of his unfinished productions are: The Deep (1970) (Laurence Harvey's death made a finished movie impossible), The Merchant of Venice (1969) and Don Quixote (1992).

He died on the same day as his The Battle of Neretva (1969) co-star Yul Brynner: October 10, 1985.

He portrayed the title character on the syndicated radio show "The Lives of Harry Lime" (also known as "The Third Man") (1951-52). This was based on his character from the film The Third Man (1949).

His performance as Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949) is ranked #93 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

He remained good friends with Joseph Cotten until the end of his life, despite a working relationship that was often considered demanding of the older Cotten.

Has the distinction of appearing in both the American Film Institute and British Film Institute's #1 movie. For AFI, it was Citizen Kane (1941). For BFI, it was The Third Man (1949). Welles shares this honor with Joseph Cotten, who also starred in both movies.

Has been played by Vincent D'Onofrio twice: Ed Wood (1994) and Five Minutes, Mr. Welles (2005).

His average dinner famously consisted of two steaks cooked rare and a pint of scotch whiskey. This contributed to his obesity in his later life and his eventual death.

Film critics lobbied for him to record an audio commentary for Citizen Kane (1941), but he refused, stating that he was tired of talking about this.

Wrote his novel "Mr. Arkadian" during an extended stay with Sir Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. Welles was appearing at Olivier's St. James Theater in London at the time.

He made The Lady from Shanghai (1947) towards the end of his marriage to Rita Hayworth. They were constantly fighting at the time and (some say as a comeuppance to Hayworth) he made her cut off most of her long, luxurious red hair and dye her hair bright platinum blonde.

He tried to make a film version of Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra's book "Don Quixote". He began working on this (1955) and continued to film through the 1970s with Francisco Reiguera and Akim Tamiroff starring. An incomplete version was released in Spain (1992).

John Ford, whom Welles admired as the greatest American director and who, in turn, admired Welles as a director and actor, wanted to cast him as Mayor Frank Skeffington in his movie adaption of Edwin O'Connor's novel The Last Hurrah (1958). Welles was unable to accept the role due to scheduling conflicts, and Spencer Tracy was cast instead.

Had wanted to make films of two literary masterpieces, Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" and Joseph Heller's "Catch-22", but had to be satisfied in having supporting roles in the films made of the two books by John Huston (Moby Dick (1956)) and Mike Nichols (Catch-22 (1970)).

In spite of being a highly regarded artist of cinema, Welles only had one box-office hit during his lifetime with The Stranger (1946). Most of his films were box-office failures upon release.

When he signed on to direct Touch of Evil (1958), instead of reading the book on which this was based--a pulp novel named "Badge of Evil"--Welles completely changed an early draft of the script.

His Broadway stage production of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" (1937)--in which the setting was changed to a modern Fascist Rome to reflect the Benito Mussolini era, but in which Shakespeare's language was completely retained--became, and still remains, the longest-running Broadway production of the play. Welles played Brutus. This production was never filmed, but years later Welles' former working partner John Houseman produced a traditional film version of the play for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring James Mason as Brutus, Marlon Brando as Marc Antony, and John Gielgud as Cassius.

CBS wanted him to host the television series The Twilight Zone (1959) but the producers felt that he requested too much money. He was ultimately ruled out in favor of the series' creator, Rod Serling.

He was of German, Irish and Scottish heritage. He spoke French fluently.

Along with Lord Laurence Olivier, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood and Roberto Benigni, he is one of only eight men to receive Academy Award nominations for both Best Actor and Best Director for the same film: Welles for Citizen Kane (1941), Olivier for Hamlet (1948), Allen for Annie Hall (1977), Beatty for both Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981), Branagh for Henry V (1989), Costner for Dances with Wolves (1990), Eastwood for both Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997).

Made a Hollywood satire, The Other Side of the Wind (2018), starring John Huston and Peter Bogdanovich. Though it was completed, the post-production process was not and the film also ran into legal problems.

He died in the middle of typing notes for a shooting session with his cameraman, Gary Graver, scheduled for the following day.