The Mercury Theatre - Who WERE these people anyway?

[mteal]

Readick lived to be 97 years old? Wow, that's a ripe old age.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

sorry, mteal. made a mistake.

mr readick - 1908-1955

other date is irene rich.

this guy must not have wanted to be fanned. hardly any information on him anywhere.

found a web site that has a list of nearly every radio stars birth-death dates.

My Webpage

[mteal]

Wow, you cut Readick's life span in half. I guess he didn't live to a ripe old age. That's a good site you found. I wonder if it will keep expanding.

One more interesting bit about Edgar Barrier: He starred for RKO in a film version The Most Dangerous Game, which Welles had done as a radio play for SUSPENSE. RKO's film was retitled A GAME OF DEATH, and directed by Robert Wise. Barrier played the same role Welles had played on radio.


EUSTACE WYATT:

Found very little info on him, but he did play in 4 Mercury stage productions and 17 radio shows. With his sinister barritone voice he made a good villian and authority figure. He played the mysterious "Sunday" in Welles' radio play of THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY. I also recognised him as the old man at the end of Welles' fine adaptation of THE APPLE TREE for Lady Esther, who relates the tragic fate of the young girl Megan. He went to Hollywood with Welles, but his only role for him was as Dr. Haller in JOURNEY INTO FEAR, and a bit part in JANE EYRE. He also had bit parts in such notable films as GASLIGHT, MADAME CURIE, and Lang's MINISTRY OF FEAR, written by Graham Greene. Dates of birth and death unknown.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

that's more than i knew about mr. wyatt.

as for agnes and joseph, they have too much to choose from. she has sites and sites gallore on the internet. and joseph. hmmm...have you seen his book "vanity will get you somewhere." and do you know the name of mercedes mccambridge book? title is: "the quality of mercy" just in case.

i found his book at the library in the used section. the cover was in such bad shape, that i exchanged the bad one with another copy they had. and after learning that i did so, they laughed, and replaced theirs too. some of the ladies and gentlmen that work their are wonderful. one stupid broad thinks it's her library. and another thinks it's her classroom. :angry:

oh well. bye now!

[mteal]

I've skimmed parts of Cotton's autobiography. To me, the most curious thing about it is how little discussion there is about Ambersons and the butchery of it that Cotton was part of. Maybe it was just too painful of a subject, but it would have been nice to have his reflections on it.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

joseph was part of that? hmm...sounds painful to me to.

Entertainment Weekly, Feb 18, 1994

Joseph Cotten led two lives. On Broadway, the Virginia-born actor, was a genuine star, beginning with his 1939 portrayal of The Philadelphia Story's C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant played the role in the movie). On film, though, Cotten created a gallery of nice guys whose decency was inevitably swamped by uselessness. Early in his career, he hitched his star to that of Orson Welles (they met when both were tossed out of an audition), who cannily used Cotten as a lesser mortal to his own charismatic genius. Cotten didn't seem to mind, perhaps reserving ego for Broadway. "I didn't care about the movies," he once said. "I was tall. I had curly hair. I could talk. It was easy to do."

[mteal]

BRAINERD DUFFIELD

Although not a member of the original Mercury Theatre, Duffield was Welles' chief collaborator for The Mercury Summer Theatre show, writing many of the shows either with Welles or by himself, and acting in several of them. He clearly wrote the MOBY DICK show, which may be the only surviving document of Welles' playing Captain Ahab. In the Welles archive at the Lilly Library there is a huge script for Moby Dick - credited to Duffield - which the 30-minute radio show may have been a condensation of. Welles later planned a cantata of Moby Dick with music by Arthur Honnegger and the libretto by Duffield. Nothing ever came of it.

Duffield also played several roles in Welles' disastrous 1945 theatrical extravaganza AROUND THE WORLD (in the theatre section of Wellesnet, there's a program for Around the World which lists a brief biography). He also had a brief but significant cameo in Welles' film of MACBETH, playing the first murderer who Macbeth hires to kill Banquo (William "Thompson the Reporter" Alland played the other murderer). Duffield's part was diminished for the 86-minute theatrical release of Macbeth, on the order of Republic execs, who disliked his performance. His full cameo can now be seen in the restored version.

Duffield later became a noted writer for TV, succesfully adapting several classic works for the small screen, including Alice in Wnderland, The Hobbit, and probably his most famous adaptation- of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.