Petersburg, Virginia has paid tribute to one its favorite sons, Mercury Theatre great Joseph Cotten.
A historical marker honoring the Petersburg native, who died in 1994, was placed on the grounds of the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology on West Washington Street, which was the then-new Petersburg High School when Cotten attended it around 1920.
Petersburg’s The Progress Index noted that Cotten did not graduate – he was more interested in theater and sports than academics – but the building honors the city’s most famous dropout by giving his name to its Joseph Cotten Stage.
The marker was approved by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources with the financial support of Cotten’s nephew, Whitworth W. Cotten Jr., of Orlando, Florida. Dr. Pegram Johnson III, a retired Episcopal priest, pushed for the Cotten and three other historical markers.
In his autobiography, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere, Cotten reminisced about his time in Petersburg, including the summers he worked as a lifeguard at Wilcox Lake, and remembered the summer climate here: “The summer is hot. It is humid, it is long, and it is beautifully unhurried.”
As a member of the Mercury Theatre, Cotten was directed by Orson Welles on stage, radio and film. The two enjoyed a 50-year friendship. In addition to their work together on the Mercury Theatre movies Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons and Journey Into Fear, Cotten also appeared with Welles in Carol Reed’s The Third Man and Welles’ own Touch of Evil and F For Fake.
Cotten returned to Petersburg regularly throughout his life. He was buried in Blandford Cemetery in 1994. His second wife, actress Patricia Medina (Mr. Arkadin), joined him there in 2012.
The text of the marker reads:
“Joseph Cotten, actor, was born in Petersburg. At school he excelled in football and on the stage. He appeared in several Broadway productions during the 1930s and joined Orson Welles’s Mercury Theater company. Cotten made his film debut in 1941 alongside Welles in Citizen Kane. He later starred in Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Gaslight (1944) and The Third Man (1949), becoming one of Hollywood’s most popular leading men. Cotten won the Best Actor award at the 1949 Venice International Film Festival. He appeared in more than 80 films over four decades and hosted The Joseph Cotten Show on television. He died in 1994 and is buried at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.”
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