By RAY KELLY For decades, Todd Tarbox has assisted Orson Welles biographers and scholars by providing them access to the archive of his late grandfather, Roger “Skipper” Hill, headmaster at the former Todd School for Boys. In 2013, Tarbox published Orson Welles and Roger Hill: A Friendship in Three Acts, a play recounting the two […]
By RAY KELLY The RKO corporate archive Welles material that was presumed lost in the sale to Turner has now been restored in a workable digital version and should be available online soon, Wellesnet has learned. Wellesnet has reached out to WarnerMedia, the current rights holder, for further details. Orson Welles was signed by RKO […]
Freddie Gillette, chauffeur for Orson Welles in his final years, has died. He was 89. Gillette was a devoted patron of Los Angeles’ New Beverly Cinema, which announced his passing on Twitter today. “Sending our love to the friends and family of longtime New Beverly patron Freddie Gillette, who has passed away at the age […]
Mark Cousins documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles and five films from the late director will be screened later this month at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A DCP of Cousins’ examination Welles’ work as a visual artist runs daily on June 21-27. The Eyes of Orson Welles had its premiere as a Cannes […]
The Hollywood Hills home where Orson Welles once lived has undergone $1.7 million in renovations. The 1920s Neoclassical Revival home at 1717 North Stanley Ave. has changed hands several times since Welles’ died there on October 10, 1985. He had shared the home with his longtime companion and collaborator, Oja Kodar. Its current owners, Dan […]
Want a whiff of Orson? Carine Roitfeld, former editor of Vogue Paris, this week unveiled Carine Roitfeld Parfums, a collection of seven boutique scents, including one named after the late Orson Welles. “I have so many projects, but the one thing I really like and never did was perfume,” Roitfeld told The Hollywood Reporter, noting […]
By RAY KELLY Truly, I detest websites that post phony news stories on April 1. Juvenile stuff like, “They just found the lost Orson Welles cut of The Magnificent Ambersons in the storage room of a Rio nightclub! — Ha!! April Fools!!!” Ugh. Still, there is a sense of obligation to post something a little […]
Janus Films has revealed its poster and trailer for the U.S. release of Mark Cousins’ acclaimed documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles. The film, which begins its run Friday, March 15, at the IFC Center in New York City, explores Welles’ life and career through a trove of paintings and sketches he created throughout his […]
By RAY KELLY The fact that the word Wellesian was added to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary in 2018 was hardly surprising. Orson Welles ― who has been dead for 33 years ― had one of the best years of his career in 2018. This could have been the year his fans simply reflected on […]
Maverick, a new play set during filmmaker Orson Welles’ final months, will run February 6 through March 2 at the Connelly Theater in New York’s East Village. The play is based on the real-life happenings of Frank Beacham, a young video maker, who was given the creative opportunity to work with Welles in the months […]
New York’s The Quad will showcase Orson Welles work as an actor with a dozen movies he appeared in, but did not direct. Actor for Hire: The Other Side of Orson Welles runs between December 7 and 13. The retrospective samples four decades of Welles’ film appearances for other directors, from rewarding star-turns to scene-stealing […]
By RAY KELLY On a sunny Monday afternoon a week before Christmas, Peter Bogdanovich, Filip Jan Rymsza and Frank Marshall gathered in an editing suite at Tribeca West in Los Angeles to view the progress made on the completion of The Other Side of the Wind. As his colleagues arrived, Rymsza explained that editor Bob Murawski […]