“The whole estate is about as mixed up as an estate can get.” – The Magnificent Ambersons
By RAY KELLY
When Orson Welles died, he left behind an incredible legacy of achievements in movies, television, radio and stage – the result of his fertile, creative mind and a willingness to seek out talented collaborators throughout his career.
The 70-year-old actor-writer-director also left behind an incredibly messy estate – the result of his personal shortcomings and absence of sound legal advice on key decisions during his final months.
Thirty years after the dispute over his estate, Wellesnet looks back at his will and subsequent agreements through available Nevada and California court documents. Although these are all public records, Wellesnet has chosen to redact the home addresses and telephone numbers of Welles’ heirs and associates.
Upon his death on October 10, 1985, Welles was survived by his wife of 30 years, Italian countess Paola Mori; two ex-wives; three daughters, one from each marriage; and a longtime companion, Croatian actress Olga Palinkas, also known as Oja Kodar.
On January 15, 1982, Orson Welles signed his last will and testament leaving his Las Vegas home and the bulk of his estate to Mori with $10,000 bequests to each of his three daughters. He left his Los Angeles house and its contents to Kodar. The will contained the provision that an heir would be disinherited if she contested a portion of the will, specifically he cited his request that the Los Angeles house be given to Kodar.
- Final will of Orson Welles, January 15, 1982 (pdf)
- Certificate of death, filed October 15, 1985 (pdf)
But between the signing of the will in January 1982 and his death on October 10, 1985, Welles undertook several actions that greatly complicated the settling of his estate.
– Welles funded a trust, IDIOM Inc., which was established on November 23, 1983. While Welles may have griped about having to seek out commercial work for “grocery money,” he and Kodar managed to put aside $400,000 in less than two years with Kodar designated as the fund’s administrator and trustee.
– On June 19, 1985, Welles handed over the rights to a dozen unfinished film projects to Kodar in a two-page, notarized Confirmation of Ownership. Much of the agreement reads like a laundry list of titles with no indication how Welles wanted these once-cherished projects to proceed upon his death. Among the unfinished works was Don Quixote, which was initiated with Mori years before his relationship with Kodar began.
– On September 20, 1985, three weeks before his death, he pledged to repay a $130,000 loan to Kodar with possible interest. The reason why he would need to borrow from Kodar was not explained nor was the deal notarized. His shaky signature was witnessed by longtime cameraman Gary Graver and Darinka Hizak, reportedly a bookkeeper and relative of Kodar’s who lived at the Los Angeles home during the 1980s, according to county records. Hizak was among those deposed by Mori’s lawyers in a civil suit she filed against Kodar. (In the settlement, it is stated the $130,000 was borrowed by Welles to fund the pension plan of IDIOM Inc.)
– And just six days before his death, Welles made Kodar a 50 percent beneficiary of all of his pension plans, including SAG and AFTRA, in a single sentence agreement signed on October 4, 1985. Like the previous agreement, it was not notarized and the shaky signature was witnessed by Graver and Sandrina Bogunovic, who once lived at the Los Angeles home with her daughter, Katarina Rebrača. Bogunovic and her daughter were arrested in 2010 for defrauding a Serbian cancer charity out of more than $330,000 and are awaiting trial. According to Belgrade media reports, the U.S. deported Bogunovic several years earlier for organizing the sale of pieces of art on transAtlantic flights.
Neither the pension offering, promissory note nor Confirmation of Ownership appear to have been reviewed or drafted by Welles’ lawyer.
While Mori did not contest the will, she questioned the more recent deals benefiting Kodar and signed in her husband’s final weeks. Mori filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court and the two struggled to settle the estate, but not before Mori died after a car accident on August 12, 1986.
As Mori’s sole heir, daughter Beatrice Welles reached an agreement with Kodar on November 7, 1986. Under the terms of the agreement, Kodar dropped her claim on half of the SAG and AFTRA pension payments, while Beatrice Welles dropped the civil suit her mother had filed and agreed not to fight the Confirmation of Ownership on the unreleased films.
IDIOM Inc.’s $400,000 in assets would go to Beatrice Welles – less the $130,000 promissory note owed Kodar and $16,000 in corporate obligations.
As sole heir to the Estate of Paola Mori Welles, which inherited the Estate of Orson Welles, Beatrice Welles oversees both her parents’ legacy. She later formed Orson Welles LLC. To clear up any lingering confusion about the complicated status of the Welles estate, her role as sole legal custodian of her father’s legacy was made clear in a letter written by Welles’ executor and longtime friend, Greg Garrison, five years after the settlement of the estate: “This letter is to advise you that Beatrice Welles Smith is the sole heir to the estate of her mother, Paola Mori Welles (deceased) who was the sole heir to the estate of her husband, George Orson Welles (deceased).”
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