Orson Welles filmography

This is the filmography of Orson Welles.

Director

Feature films

Year	Film	Notes
1941	Citizen Kane	Winner of the 1941 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay First in The Greatest Films of All Time decennial poll of critics by the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine in 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002 Second in The Greatest Films of All Time poll of critics by Sight & Sound in 2012 First in the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies poll of film industry artists and leaders in 1998 and 2007
1942	The Magnificent Ambersons	Ninth in The Greatest Films of All Time decennial poll of critics by the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine in 1972 Eighth in The Greatest Films of All Time poll of critics by Sight and Sound in 1982
1946	The Stranger
1947	The Lady from Shanghai
1948	Macbeth
1952	Othello	Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival
1955	Mr. Arkadin
1958	Touch of Evil	Winner of Best Film award at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair Film Festival
1962	The Trial	Winner of Best Film award of the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics in 1964
1965	Chimes at Midnight	Winner of 20th Anniversary Prize and Technical Grand Prize at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival
1968	The Immortal Story	Made for French television in color and released theatrically English and French versions simultaneously shot
1974	F for Fake	Documentary/Essay film. Made in color.
1978	Filming Othello	Documentary Made for German television and released theatrically

Shorts

Year	Film	Notes
1933	Twelfth Night	Color, silent, narration by Welles provided on record Edited highlights filmed by Welles of the dress rehearsal of a stage production he directed at the Todd School for Boys, produced in May 1933 for the Chicago Drama Festival
1934	The Hearts of Age	Often mistakenly identified as Welles's first film
1938	Too Much Johnson	Two-part film intended for use at the beginning and interval of a stage play Believed lost until 2013[1]
1939	The Green Goddess	Use in stage play, now a lost film
1941	Citizen Kane trailer	Instead of a conventional trailer, Welles shot a completely original four-minute "making of" feature as a trailer, which does not feature a second from the actual film itself
1946	Around the World	Used in stage musical, now a lost film
1950	The Miracle of St. Anne	Used in stage play, now a lost film (short clips survive)
1953	Magic Trick
1960	Orson Welles in Dublin
1970	An Evening with Orson Welles	Six 30-minute recitations including The Golden Honeymoon, The Happy Prince, and writings by G. K. Chesterton, P. G. Wodehouse, Socrates and Clarence Darrow Only The Golden Honeymoon survives, the others are considered lost films.[2]
1976	F for Fake trailer	Instead of a conventional trailer, Welles shot a self-contained, original nine-minute mockumentary to promote the film's American release, containing only a few seconds from F for Fake itself
1978	Orson Welles's Jeremiah
1978	Unsung Heroes
1984	The Spirit of Charles Lindbergh

Television

Year	Film	Notes
1955	Orson Welles' Sketch Book	Series of six episodes
1955	Around the World with Orson Welles	Series of six completed episodes One additional incomplete episode posthumously completed in 2000
1956	Orson Welles and People	Unsold pilot, now a lost film
1958	The Fountain of Youth	Unsold pilot filmed in 1956 but not broadcast until 1958 Winner of the Peabody Award,[3] the only unsold pilot ever so honored[4]^:307
1958	Portrait of Gina	Unsold pilot Master tape lost, then found over 20 years later Broadcast once, on German television in the 1990s, before an injunction prevented any repeat airings
1964	In the Land of Don Quixote	Italian-language series of nine episodes One episode only released posthumously Filmed in 1961 but not broadcast until 1964
1979	The Orson Welles Show	Unsold pilot Welles directed under the pseudonym of G.O. Spelvin

Incomplete films

Year	Film	Notes
1942	It's All True	Partially and posthumously completed in 1991 as a reconstruction/documentary.
1950	An Evening With Orson Welles	Not to be confused with Welles's 1970 short film(s) of the same name. On 30 August 1950, Welles filmed his stage show of this name at the Geisengeige Studios outside Munich, but disposed of the footage after he was dissatisfied with the result, The show consisted of the one-act Welles-written stage play Time Runs, and a heavily abridged, one-act version of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest - now a lost film.
1955	The Dominici Affair	Television episode from the Associated-Rediffusion series for the ITV series Around the World with Orson Welles. Posthumously completed in 2000 as a reconstruction and documentary.
1955	Moby Dick—Rehearsed	Film version of the London stage play written, produced, directed by and starring Welles. Filming was not completed, and the material is now lost.
1957–1972	Don Quixote	Several versions attempted, with footage reused as the concept changed several times. A 1992 posthumous release edited by director Jesús Franco did not include all the footage shot for the film, and received mixed reviews.
1967	The Heroine	Only one day of filming completed. Now a lost film.
1967–1970	The Deep	Filming mostly completed, but one crucial underwater fight scene was left unfilmed when its star died in 1972, and most of the film lacks a soundtrack.
1968	Vienna	Short film. Originally a segment for the unfinished "Orson's Bag" TV special. Posthumously completed in 2000.
1968–1971	One Man Band[5][6][7]	Short film also known as Orson Welles' London. Originally a segment for the unfinished "Orson's Bag" TV special. Posthumously completed in 2000.
1969	The Merchant of Venice	Short 40-minute film. Originally a segment for the unfinished "Orson's Bag" TV special. Technically not an unfinished film, it was completed in 1969, but after just one private preview screening in Rome for Oja Kodar and her mother, the last two out of the three reels of the film's workprint were stolen, and remain missing. The original negative of the raw footage survives, but without sound; and so without the last two-thirds of the workprint, there is no way to know how that raw footage would have been edited together. The first reel of the workprint is complete, and has a soundtrack.
1970–1976	The Other Side of the Wind	Although close to completion in 1976, a combination of copyright disputes, embezzlement of part of the film's budget by one of its producers, questionable decisions in seeking funding from the Shah of Iran's regime, the impounding of the negative by Ayatollah Khomeini's government, disputes between Welles's heirs over the rights, and literally decades of litigation, have all delayed its release. Filming was completed, and rough cut workprints exist, but only 40 minutes was properly edited by Welles in his lifetime. The original negative remains preserved in a locked Paris vault, tied up in legal disputes. Over the years there have been efforts to complete the film, most notably a 2015 crowdfunding initiative that raised over $400,000. The film has not yet been edited and has no official release date.
1981	Filming The Trial	Welles recorded a Q&A session on his 1962 film The Trial, intending to integrate it into a "making of" documentary. The documentary was never made, but in 2000 the rushes were assembled into an 82 minute film.
1982	The Dreamers	While Welles never began principal photography, two 10-minute "test" scenes were filmed, one in color, the other in black and white.
1976–1985	Orson Welles' Magic Show	A long-term project filmed on-and-off from 1976 until Welles's death, this was planned as a TV special. Although unfinished, a 27-minute cut was posthumously completed in 2000.
1985	King Lear	Black and white test scenes for a version of the Shakespeare play, to be mostly filmed in close-up.

Actor

Film and TV

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1937	The Spanish Earth	Narrator	Joris Ivens	Alternate English-language release narrated by Ernest Hemingway; French-language version narrated by Jean Renoir[8]^:617[9]
1940	Swiss Family Robinson	Narrator	Edward Ludwig	Uncredited
1941	Citizen Kane	Charles Foster Kane	Orson Welles	Also has an uncredited cameo as a journalist in the projection room scene. Also co-writer, producer & director (see above).
1943	Journey into Fear	Colonel Haki	Norman Foster	Welles co-director (uncredited)
1943	Jane Eyre	Edward Rochester	Robert Stevenson	Welles producer (uncredited)
1944	Follow the Boys	Himself	Edward Sutherland	Welles directed his own scenes (uncredited)
1945	Mexico City, Old and New	Narrator		Produced by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in collaboration with the Mexican Tourist Association[10][11]
1946	Duel in the Sun	Narrator	King Vidor
1946	Tomorrow Is Forever	John MacDonald, Erich Kessler	Irving Pichel
1946	The Stranger	Franz Kindler/ Professor Charles Rankin	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1947	The Lady from Shanghai	Michael O'Hara	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1948	Macbeth	Macbeth	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1949	Black Magic	Cagliostro	Gregory Ratoff	Welles directed his own scenes (uncredited)
1949	The Third Man	Harry Lime	Carol Reed	Welles wrote a small portion of his own dialogue ("Cuckoo clock" speech)
1949	Prince of Foxes	Cesare Borgia	Henry King
1950	The Black Rose	Bayan	Henry Hathaway
1951	Return to Glennascaul	Narrator/Himself	Hilton Edwards	Includes scenes of Welles directing his own Othello
1951	Le Petit Monde de Don Camillo	Narrator	Julien Duvivier	English-language version only
1952	Trent's Last Case	Sigsbee Manderson	Herbert Wilcox
1952	Othello	Othello	Orson Welles	Also writer, producer, director (see above).
1953	L'Uomo, la bestia e la virtù	Captain Perella, the Beast	Steno
1953	Si Versailles M'Etait Conté	Benjamin Franklin	Sacha Guitry
1953	King Lear	King Lear	Peter Brook	TV; live presentation preserved as a kinescope
1954	Trouble in the Glen	Sanin Cejadory Mengues	Herbert Wilcox
1955	Three Cases of Murder	Lord Mountdrago	George More O'Ferrall ("Lord Mountdrago" segment)	Welles directed his own scenes (uncredited)[12]^:416
1955	Mr. Arkadin	Grigory Arkadin	Orson Welles	Also writer, director.
1955	Orson Welles' Sketch Book	Himself	Orson Welles	TV. Also writer, director.
1955	Around the World with Orson Welles	Himself	Orson Welles	TV. Also writer, director (see above).
1955	Napoléon	Hudson Lowe	Sacha Guitry
1956	Moby Dick	Father Mapple	John Huston
1955	Orson Welles and People	Himself	Orson Welles	TV. Also writer, director.
1956	Out of Darkness	Dramatic narrator		CBS-TV documentary about mental patients and hospitals, with medical narration by Dr. William C. Menninger (March 18)[13]
1956	Ford Star Jubilee	Oscar Jaffe	Paul Nickell	TV episode "Twentieth Century" (April 7)[12]^:420[14][15]
1956	I Love Lucy	Himself		TV episode "Lucy Meets Orson Welles" (October 15)[16]
1957	Man in the Shadow	Virgil Renchler	Jack Arnold
1958	The Fountain of Youth	Himself/ Narrator	Orson Welles	TV. Also writer, director.
1958	Portrait of Gina	Himself	Orson Welles	TV. Also writer, director.
1958	The Long, Hot Summer	Will Varner	Martin Ritt
1958	Touch of Evil	Hank Quinlan	Orson Welles	Also writer, director.
1958	The Vikings	Narrator	Richard Fleischer	Uncredited
1958	South Seas Adventure	Narrator	Various directors	Uncredited
1958	The Roots of Heaven	Cy Sedgewick	John Huston
1959	High Journey	Narrator	Peter Baylis
1959	Les Seigneurs de la forêt	Narrator	Henry Brandt, Heinz Sielmann	English-language version only
1959	Compulsion	Jonathan Wilk	Richard Fleischer
1959	Ferry to Hong Kong	Captain Hart	Lewis Gilbert
1960	David and Goliath	King Saul	Ferdinando Baldi, Richard Pottier	Welles directed his own scenes (uncredited)
1960	Crack in the Mirror	Hagolin, Lamerciere	Richard Fleischer
1960	Austerlitz	Robert Fulton	Abel Gance
1961	La Fayette	Benjamin Franklin	Jean Dréville
1961	King of Kings	Narrator	Nicholas Ray	Uncredited
1961	I Tartari	Burundai	Ferdinando Baldi, Richard Thorpe
1962	The Trial	The Advocate	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above). Welles also provided the opening narration, which he said was in character as the Advocate, but this is not made explicit in the film.
1962	Ro.Go.Pa.G.	Film Director	Pier Paolo Pasolini	La Ricotta segment
1963	The V.I.P.s	Max Buda	Anthony Asquith
1964	In the Land of Don Quixote	Himself	Orson Welles	TV. Also director (see above).
1964	The Finest Hours	Narrator	Peter Baylis
1965	A King's Story	Narrator	Harry Booth
1965	La Fabuleuse aventure de Marco Polo	Akerman, Marco's Tutor	Denys de La Patellière, Raoul Lévy
1965	Chimes at Midnight	Sir John Falstaff	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1966	Is Paris Burning?	Consul Raoul Nordling	René Clément
1966	A Man for All Seasons	Cardinal Wolsey	Fred Zinnemann
1967	Le Désordre à vingt ans	Himself	Jacques Baratier
1967	Casino Royale	Le Chiffre	Various directors
1967	The Sailor from Gibraltar	Louis de Mozambique	Tony Richardson
1967	I'll Never Forget What's'isname	Jonathan Lute	Michael Winner
1968	The Immortal Story	Mr. Clay	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1968	Oedipus the King	Tiresias	Philip Saville
1968	Tepepa	Colonel Cascorro	Giulio Petroni
1968	Around the World of Mike Todd	Narrator	Saul Swimmer
1968	House of Cards	Leschenhaut	John Guillermin
1968	Kampf um Rom I	Emperor Justinian	Robert Siodmak
1969	Kampf um Rom II - Der Verrat	Emperor Justinian	Robert Siodmak
1969	The Southern Star	Plankett	Sidney Hayers	Welles directed the opening scenes (uncredited)
1969	Bitka na Neretvi	Chetnik senator	Veljko Bulajic
1969	12 + 1	Markan	Nicolas Gessner, Luciano Lucignani
1970	Is It Always Right to Be Right?	Narrator	Lee Mishkin	Animated short
1970	A Horse Called Nijinsky	Narrator	Jo Durden-Smith
1970	The Kremlin Letter	Bresnavitch	John Huston
1970	Start the Revolution Without Me	The Narrator	Bud Yorkin
1970	Catch-22	General Dreedle	Mike Nichols
1970	Salvador Dalí	Narrator	Jean-Christophe Averty
1970	Waterloo	Louis XVIII	Sergei Bondarchuk
1971	Malpertuis	Cassavius	Harry Kümel
1971	Freedom River	Narrator	Sam Weiss
1971	Sentinels of Silence	Narrator	Robert Amram
1971	A Safe Place	The Magician	Henry Jaglom
1971	Directed by John Ford	Narrator	Peter Bogdanovich
1971	Ten Days' Wonder	Theo Van Horn	Claude Chabrol
1972	Future Shock	Narrator	Alexander Grasshoff
1972	Get to Know Your Rabbit	Mr. Delasandro	Brian De Palma
1972	Treasure Island	Long John Silver	John Hough
1972	Necromancy	Mr. Cato	Bert I. Gordon
1972	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Sheridan Whiteside	Buzz Kulik	TV episode "The Man Who Came to Dinner"
1973	Kelly Country	Narrator	Stuart Cooper	Documentary Subtitle: "A Journey Across Australia Through the Paintings of Sidney Nolan"[17][18]
1973	Orson Welles' Great Mysteries	Host	Alan Gibson, Peter Sykes, Peter Sasdy, Philip Saville, James Ferman, Alan Cooke	Series of 26 episodes produced for ITV
1974	F for Fake	Himself	Orson Welles	Also writer, director (see above).
1974	Ten Little Indians	Voice of Tape	Peter Collinson	Voice only
1974	The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art	Himself	Herbert Kline
1975	Who's Out There?	Narrator
1975	Bugs Bunny Superstar	Narrator	Larry Jackson
1975	Rikki-Tikki-Tavi	Narrator, Nag, Chuchundra	Chuck Jones	Animated short
1976	Voyage of the Damned	Estedes	Stuart Rosenberg
1977	Some Call It Greed	Narrator	Tim Forbes
1977	Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Narrator	Larry Jordan
1977	The Lions of Capitalism	Narrator	Tim Forbes
1977	Hot Tomorrows	Parklawn Mortuary (voice)	Tim Forbes
1978	Mysterious Castles of Clay	Narrator	Alan Root
1978	The Greatest Battle	Narrator	Umberto Lenzi
1978	Filming Othello	Himself/ Othello (in archive footage)	Orson Welles	Also writer, producer, director (see above)
1979	The Orson Welles Show	Himself	Orson Welles	TV; also writer, producer, director (see above)
1979	The Late Great Planet Earth	Himself, narrator	Robert Amram, Rolf Forsberg
1979	The New Deal for Artists	Narrator	Wieland Schulz-Keil	Ninety-minute TV documentary about the Works Progress Administration and support for the arts[19][20][21] First aired in West Germany (180 minutes) without Welles's narration[22]
1979	The Muppet Movie	Lew Lord	James Frawley
1979	The Double McGuffin	Narrator	Joe Camp
1980	Shōgun	Narrator	Jerry London	TV miniseries
1980	Step Away	Narrator	Roberto Ponce, Marcos Zurinaga
1980	The Greenstone	Narrator	Kevin Irvine
1980	The Secret of Nikola Tesla	J.P. Morgan	Krsto Papic
1980	Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park	Narrator[23]
1981	Search for the Titanic	Himself	Michael Harris
1981	The Man Who Saw Tomorrow	Presenter, narrator	Robert Guenette
1981	History of the World: Part I	Narrator	Mel Brooks
1982	Butterfly	Judge Rauch	Matt Cimber
1982	Genocide	Narrator	Arnold Schwartzman
1982	Slapstick of Another Kind	Father of the Aliens (voice)	Steven Paul
1983	Where Is Parsifal?	Klingsor	Henri Helman
1983	Hot Money	Sheriff Paisley	Zale Magder
1984	The Road to Bresson	Himself	Leo De Boer, Jurriën Rood
1984	The Enchanted Journey	Pippo	Yakikoto Higuchi	English-language version
1984	In Our Hands	Himself	Robert Richter, Stanley Warnow
1984	The Last Sailors: The Final Days of Working Sail	Narrator	Neil Hollander, Herald Mertes	Welles narrates a 12-minute segment about the jangadeiros of northern Brazil, the subject of one episode of his unfinished film, It's All True (1942)[24]
1985	Almonds and Raisins	Narrator	David Elstein, Russ Karel
1985	Scene of the Crime	Host		TV; short-lived NBC series (April–May)[25]^:1201
1986	The Transformers: The Movie	Unicron (voice)	Nelson Shin	Produced in 1985; final role filmed, in September 1985
1987	Someone to Love	Himself	Henry Jaglom	Filmed in August 1985

Incomplete films

Year	Film	Notes
1942	It's All True	Due to be the narrator, but narration never recorded.
1955	The Dominici Affair	Presenter
1955	Moby Dick—Rehearsed	An Actor-Manager/Father Mapple/Captain Ahab
1957–1972	Don Quixote	Himself/Narrator/Voice of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (dubbed over other actors)
1967–1970	The Deep	Russ Brewster
1968	Vienna	Himself
1968–1971	Orson Welles' London aka One Man Band	Himself/One Man Band/Police constable/Old lady in window/Old sailor/Woman selling flowers and dirty postcards/Chinese strip club owner/Morris dancer/Winston Churchill/Lord Plumfield/Four English gentlemen
1969	The Merchant of Venice	Shylock
1970–1976	The Other Side of the Wind	Due to be the narrator, but narration never recorded.
1981	Filming The Trial	Himself
1982	The Dreamers	Marcus Kleek
1976–1985	Orson Welles' Magic Show	Himself
1985	King Lear	King Lear

References

1. Kehr, Dave (2013-08-07), "Early Film by Orson Welles Is Rediscovered", New York Times
2. Graver, Gary, with Andrew J. Rausch, Making Movies with Orson Welles; A Memoir. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8108-6140-4 page 166. Only The Golden Honeymoon is known to exist; discovered footage was supplemented by audio from the 1946 radio play.
3. "Fountain of Youth". Peabody Awards. Retrieved 2014-09-07.
4. Arnaz, Desi. A Book. New York: William Morrow, 1976. ISBN 0688003427
5. Orson Welles' London on IMDB
6. Orson Welles' London on British Film Institute
7. The Goodies Clarion & Globe Issue 93: ORSON-LY RARE GOODIES on Goodiesruleok.com
8. Brady, Frank, Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1989 ISBN 0-385-26759-2
9. "Clash of the Titans: When Orson Welles met Ernest Hemingway to narrate The Spanish Earth (May 1937)". Wellesnet. Retrieved 2014-05-06.
10. "Films to Trace History of Cities". Austin Daily Texan (Austin, Texas). January 21, 1945. Six sound and color films on "City Planning – Present and Past" and a lecture by Hugo Leipziger on city planning and slum clearance will be presented by the Department of Architecture in the Architecture Building Auditorium … Students in city planning courses have invited the public to attend the free showings.
11. Joseph, G. M.; Rubenstein, Anne; Zolov, Eric (2001). Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico Since 1940. Duke University Press. pp. 238–239. ISBN 0822383128. Retrieved 2015-05-10.
12. Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum, This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers 1992 ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
13. Adams, Val (February 7, 1955). "TV Series Slated for Perry Mason". The New York Times.
14. "Ford Star Jubilee". The Classic TV Archive. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
15. "Orson Welles and Betty Grable with Paul Nickell". Getty Images. Retrieved 2015-08-26.
16. "I Love Lucy (1956–57)". The Classic TV Archive. Retrieved 2015-04-09.
17. "Sidney Nolan" (PDF). Heide Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2014-09-06.
18. "Orson Welles Reads for Sidney Nolan". The Age, January 30, 1977. Retrieved 2014-09-06.
19. "New Deal Artists Star in a TV Documentary". Dunning, Jennifer, The New York Times, July 5, 1981. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
20. "TV: Warm Look Back at W.P.A. and the Arts". O'Connor, John J., The New York Times, July 6, 1981. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
21. "Going Out Guide". Shepard, Richard F., The New York Times, March 14, 1983. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
22. "The New Deal for Artists". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2015-09-08.
23. "Park Dedicated to President Roosevelt on His Namesake Island". Kral, Georgia, MetroFocus, WNET, October 18, 2012. Retrieved 2014-09-22.
24. Mertes, Neil, and Hollander, Harald, The Last Sailors: The Final Days of Working Sail (1984). Adventure Film Productions, Transdisc Music, S.L., 2006. Region 2 DVD, disc 2, 12:30–24:50
25. Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present New York: Ballantine Books, 2007. ISBN 9780345497734