Orson Welles

Among the most legendary and iconic filmmakers of all time, Orson Welles made his reputation as a young man by writing and directing Citizen Kane, still regarded by many as one of the greatest, or at one of the most influential, movies ever made. He was also a celebrated contributor to television, radio and the stage.

As a teenager, Welles traveled around Europe, and started to work in the theater (initially by posing as an established Broadway star). Upon returning to New York City in the 1930s, he became a familiar figure in the local theater scene, and started to do some acting for radio. In 1935, he made his first film, an experimental short called Hearts of Age.

After taking a job with the Federal Theater Project, a Depression-era attempt to put unemployed actors back to work, he directed a revival of the Shakespeare play Macbeth featuring an entirely African-American cast. The play was a huge national success and made Welles famous at age 20.

After leaving the Federal Theater Project, Welles and John Houseman founded the "Mercury Theater Company", a group of actors with whom he frequently collaborated on stage and the radio. Their October 30, 1938 broadcast, a take-off on the H.G. Wells novel War of the Worlds, was so realistic, it fooled a number of listeners into believing the U.S. was really being invaded by extra-terrestrials.

In 1939, Welles signed a two-film deal with RKO Pictures. He had initially hoped to make a big-screen adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness, but eventually settled on a drama about a William Randolph Hearst-inspired figure called American. In 1941, he released the film, retitled Citizen Kane.

This would be the last studio film on which Welles would retain creative control. Future projects such as The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady From Shanghai and Touch of Evil would be recut by studios, and Welles eventually earned a reputation as a maverick who was difficult to work with, severely limiting the types of projects he would be offered and his ability to get his own films made.

In addition to his own films, Welles worked frequently as an actor. His most celebrated performance, Charles Foster Kane aside, may be in Carol Reed's post-war thriller The Third Man, in which Welles portrays the shadowy Harry Lime.

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• May 6th, 1915: George Orson Welles born

• 1938: War of the Worlds Broadcast

• 1941: Citizen Kane

• 1942: The Magnificent Ambersons

• 1947: The Lady from Shanghai

• 1948: Macbeth

• 1949: The Third Man

• 1953: King Lear

• 1955: Three Cases of Murder

• 1958: Touch of Evil

• 1959: Compulsion

• 1966: A Man for All Seasons

• 1967: Casino Royale

• 1967: Oedipus the King

• 1970: Catch-22

• 1970: Waterloo

• 1972: Treasure Island

• 1975: Awarded AFI's Life Achievement Award

• 1979: The Muppet Movie

• 1981: History of the World: Part 1

• 1984: Awarded the D.W. Griffith Award by the Directors Guild of America

• October 10th, 1985: Orson Welles dies of a heart attack