Dutch postcard. Photo: Nederland Film. Trevor Howard in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

An English film, stage and television actor Trevor Howard (1913-1988) is best known as the doctor in the classic romantic drama Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), in which his co-star was Celia Johnson. In the 1940s and 1950s, he often played the slightly dry, slightly crusty but capable British military officer, and in the 1960s he became one of England's finest character actors.

Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith was born in Kent, England, to Arthur John Howard-Smith, a Ceylon representative for Lloyd's of London, and his Canadian wife, Mabel Grey Wallace. Until he was five Trevor lived in Colombo, Ceylon. When the time came for him to be educated he was sent back to England to board at Clifton College. After school he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, acting on the London stage for several years before World War II. His first paid work was a walk-on part in the play Revolt in a Reformatory (1934), starring Alastair Sim before leaving RADA. In 1935 he was spotted by a Paramount studio talent scout but turned down the offer of film work in favour of a career in theatre. This decision seemed justified when, in 1936, he was invited to join the Stratford Memorial Theatre and, in London, given the role of one of the students in French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan, which ran for two years. He returned to Stratford in 1939. In 1940, he was drafted into the army. He was invalided out in 1943 having seen no action, despite later publicity which implied distinguished service and a Military Cross. Files held in the Public Records Office reveal he had actually been discharged from the Army for mental instability and having a 'psychopathic personality'. These stories of war heroism were originally fabricated, without his consent, for publicity purposes although Howard also recounted how he had parachuted into Nazi-occupied Norway and fought in the Allied invasion of Sicily. Howard moved back to the theatre in The Recruiting Officer (1943), where he met the actress Helen Cherry. They married in 1944 and remained together till his death. Howard had a certain notoriety as a hell-raiser, based on his drinking capacity. Under the influence of alcohol, he could embark on celebrated exploits, one of which led to his arrest in Vienna, for impersonating an officer. Despite his drinking, however, he always remained reliable and professional, never allowing alcohol to affect his work. He was also unfaithful to Cherry on a serial basis.

Trevor Howard had a short part in one of the best British war films, The Way Ahead (Carol Reed, 1944), which meant his springboard into cinema. Another small part in The Way to the Stars (Anthony Asquith, 1945) led to his breakthrough role, the doctor in Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), in which his co-star was Celia Johnson. In a café at a railway station, housewife Laura Jesson meets doctor Alec Harvey. Although they are already married, they gradually fall in love with each other. They continue to meet every Thursday in the small café, although they know that their love is impossible. The film won an award at the Cannes Film Festival and considerable critical acclaim for Howard. Next came two successful thrillers, I See a Dark Stranger (Frank Launder, 1945) and Green for Danger (Sidney Gilliat, 1946), followed by They Made Me a Fugitive (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947), in which the roots of British realism in cinema can be traced. In 1947 he was invited by Laurence Olivier to play Petruchio in an Old Vic production of The Taming of the Shrew. Despite The Times declaring ‘We can remember no better Petruchio’ the opportunity of working again with David Lean, in The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1948), drew Howard back to film and, although he had a solid reputation as a theatre actor, his dislike of long runs, and the attractions of travel afforded by film, made him concentrate on cinema from this point. Howard's film reputation was secured in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949). He played the character type with which he became most associated, the slightly dry, slightly crusty but capable British military officer. He also starred in The Key (Carol Reed, 1958), based on a Jan de Hartog novel, for which he received the best actor award from the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) and Sons and Lovers (Jack Cardiff, 1960), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Another notable film was The Heart of the Matter (George More O’Ferall, 1953), another Graham Greene story, in which he probably produced his best screen performance.

After his time as a star ended, Trevor Howard easily shifted to being one of England's finest character actors, many times appearing in war and period pieces. Howard's later works included such films as Mutiny on the Bounty (Lewis Milestone, 1962), Father Goose (Ralph Nelson, 1964), Morituri (Bernhard Wicki, 1965), Von Ryan's Express (Mark Robson, 1965), Battle of Britain (Guy Hamilton, 1969), Ryan's Daughter (David Lean, 1970), and Superman (Richard Donner, 1978). On Television, Howard began to find more substantial roles. He played Lovborg in Hedda Gabler (Alex Segal, 1963) with Ingrid Bergman, and won an Emmy award as Disraeli in The Invincible Mr. Disraeli (George Schaefer, 1963). In the 1970s he was acclaimed for his playing of an abbot in Catholics (Jack Gold, 1973) and he received an Emmy nomination for his role as Abbé Faria in a television version of The Count of Monte Cristo (David Greene, 1975). The decade ended with him reunited with Celia Johnson, giving a moving performance in the nostalgic Staying On (Silvio Narizzano, 1980). The 1980s saw a resurgence of Howard as a film actor. The exhilarating role of a Cheyenne Indian in Windwalker (Kieth Merrill, 1980) revitalized his acting career. One of his strangest films, and one he took great delight in, was Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (Steve Roberts, 1980) in which he played the title role. He continued with cameo roles, including Judge Broomfield in Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982). His final films were White Mischief (Michael Radford, 1988) and The Dawning (Robert Knights, 1988). Howard did not abandon the theatre altogether in 1947, returning to the stage on occasion, most notably as Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard (1954) and the captain in The Father (1964). His last appearance on the British stage was in Waltz of the Toreadors in 1974. Trevor Howard made seventy-four films. He embodied the traditional Englishman: his tight-lipped features and quiet, well-bred speaking voice caught the mood of post-war Britain while, in later years, his craggy face and gravelly voice animated the crusty character roles he played. He lacked the looks and physique to be an archetypal male hero, and his tall frame suited military roles. Supporting some of the most notable names in the world of cinema, he often received the highest critical acclaim.

Sources: David Absalom (British Pictures), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Chinese postcard. Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

American film, stage and television actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994) achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He first gained worldwide fame in the Orson Welles films Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay. He went on to become one of the leading Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films such as Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946) and The Third Man (1949). One of his final films was Michael Cimino's epic Heaven's Gate (1980).

American actor, director, writer and producer Orson Welles (1915-1985) worked in theatre, radio and film, both in the US and in Europe. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941), ranked as one of the all-time greatest films. His other films include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958) and Le Procès/The Trial (1962).

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French postcard in the Collection Cinéma by Editions Art & Scène, Paris, 1996, no. CAN 01. Orson Welles in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

American actor, director, writer and producer Orson Welles (1915-1985) worked in theatre, radio and film, both in the US and in Europe. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three media, most notably Caesar (1937), a groundbreaking Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar and the debut of the Mercury Theatre; The War of the Worlds (1938), one of the most famous broadcasts in the history of radio; and Citizen Kane (1941), ranked as one of the all-time greatest films. His other films include The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Touch of Evil (1958) and Le Procès/The Trial (1962).

George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1915. He was the second son of Beatrice (née Ives) and Richard Hodgdon Head Welles. In 1919, his parents separated and moved to Chicago. His father, who made a fortune as the inventor of a popular bicycle lamp, became an alcoholic and stopped working. His brother ‘Dickie’ was institutionalised at an early age because he had learning difficulties. Welles's mother, a beautiful concert pianist, had to support her son and herself. In 1924, Beatrice died of hepatitis in a Chicago hospital, just after Welles's ninth birthday. He was taken in by Dudley Crafts Watson. At the age of ten, Orson ran away from home with Watson's third daughter, Marjorie. They were found a week later, singing and dancing for money on a street corner in Milwaukee. Welles' father died when Orson was 15. Maurice Bernstein, a physician from Chicago, became his guardian. His school teacher Roger Hill provided Welles with an ad hoc educational environment that proved invaluable to his creative experience, allowing Welles to perform and stage theatrical experiments and productions. Welles was awarded a scholarship to Harvard University, but he chose to travel to Europe instead. In Ireland, he strode into the Gate Theatre in Dublin and claimed he was a Broadway star. The manager of Gate, Hilton Edwards, was impressed by his brashness and an impassioned quality in his audition. Welles made his stage debut at the Gate in 1931, appearing in 'Jew Suss' as the Duke. He acted to great acclaim, word of which reached the United States. On returning to the United States he wrote the immensely successful 'Everybody's Shakespeare'. In 1933, he toured in three off-Broadway productions with Katharine Cornell's company, including two roles in 'Romeo and Juliet'. In 1934, he shot his first film, an eight-minute short titled The Hearts of Age, and he married Chicago actress Virginia Nicholson. By 1935 Welles was supplementing his earnings in the theatre as a radio actor, working with many actors who would later form the core of his Mercury Theatre.

In 1936, the Federal Theatre Project (part of Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration) put unemployed theatre performers and employees to work. Orson Welles was hired by John Houseman and assigned to direct a play for the Federal Theatre Project's Negro Theatre Unit. His production of Macbeth was set in the Haitian court of King Henri Christophe, with voodoo witch doctors for the three Weird Sisters. The play was received rapturously and later toured the nation. At 20, Welles was hailed as a prodigy. A few minutes of Welles’ ‘Voodoo Macbeth’ was recorded on film in the documentary We Work Again (1937). Welles rehearsed Marc Blitzstein's political operetta, The Cradle Will Rock, but because of severe federal cutbacks in the Works Progress projects, the show's premiere at the Maxine Elliott Theatre was cancelled. In a last-minute move, Welles announced to waiting ticket-holders that the show was being transferred to the Venice, twenty blocks away. Some cast, crew and audience members walked the distance on foot. Lacking the participation of the union members, The Cradle Will Rock began with Blitzstein introducing the show and playing the piano accompaniment on stage with some cast members performing from the audience. This impromptu performance was well received and played at the Venice for two more weeks. Welles and Houseman then formed the Mercury Theatre, of which Welles became the executive producer and whose repertory company eventually included the actors Agnes Moorehead, Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Río, Everett Sloane, and Erskine Sanford. The first Mercury Theatre production was William Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar, set in a contemporary frame of fascist Italy. The production was widely acclaimed. In the second year of the Mercury Theater, Welles shifted his interests to the radio. He adapted, directed and played Hamlet for CBS and Les Misérables for Mutual with great success. CBS gave the Mercury Theatre a weekly hour-long show to broadcast radio plays based on classic literary works. In 1938, their adaptation of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells brought Welles instant fame. The combination of the news bulletin form of the performance with the between-breaks dial spinning habits of listeners from the rival more popular Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy program was later reported in the media to have created widespread confusion. Wikipedia: “Panic was reportedly spread among listeners who believed the news reports of a Martian invasion. The myth of the result created by the combination was reported as fact around the world and disparagingly mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a public speech some months later. The 1975 docudrama The Night That Panicked America was based on events centering on the production of, and events that resulted from the program.”

Orson Welles's growing fame drew Hollywood offers, lures that the independent-minded Welles resisted at first. RKO Radio Pictures president George Schaefer eventually offered him complete artistic control and signed Welles in a two-picture deal, although Welles had a budget limit for his projects. In Hollywood, Welles toyed with various ideas for his first project. RKO rejected Welles's first two movie proposals but agreed on the third offer, Citizen Kane (1941), for which Welles co-wrote, produced, directed and performed the lead role. Co-scriptwriter Joseph Mankiewicz based the original outline on an exposé of the life of William Randolph Hearst, whom he knew socially and came to hate, having once been great friends with Hearst's mistress, Marion Davies. Kane's megalomania was modelled loosely on Robert McCormick, Howard Hughes and Joseph Pulitzer as Welles wanted to create a broad, complex character, intending to show him in the same scenes from several points of view. On Welles's instruction, John Houseman wrote the opening narration as a pastiche of The March of Time newsreels. Autobiographical allusions to Welles were worked in, most noticeably in the treatment of Kane's childhood and particularly, regarding his guardianship. Once the script was complete, Welles attracted cinematographer Gregg Toland, and actors from his Mercury Theatre. After gossip columnist Hedda Hopper saw a preview screening of Citizen Kane, the attempted suppression of Citizen Kane started. Hearst's media outlets boycotted the film. They exerted enormous pressure on Hollywood, but RKO gave the film a limited release. The film was well-received critically and garnered nine Academy Award nominations. Welles was nominated as a producer, director, writer and actor, but won only for Best Original Screenplay, shared with Mankiewicz. Today, the film is considered by most film critics and historians to be one of the classics in film history.

Orson Welles's second film for RKO was The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Booth Tarkington. At RKO's request, Welles worked also on an adaptation of Eric Ambler's spy thriller, Journey into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943), co-written with Joseph Cotten. In addition to acting in the film, Welles was the producer. Changes throughout RKO caused re-evaluations of both projects. RKO took control of The Magnificent Ambersons and ordered to edit the film into a ‘commercial’ format. They removed fifty minutes of Welles's footage, re-shot sequences, rearranged the scene order, and added a happy ending. It resulted in an expensive flop for RKO, although The Magnificent Ambersons received four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress for Agnes Moorehead. Welles found no studios interested in him as a director after the disaster of The Magnificent Ambersons and worked on radio. In 1943, he married Rita Hayworth. They had one child, Rebecca Welles, and divorced five years later in 1948. In between, Welles found work as an actor in other films. He starred in the film adaptation of Jane Eyre (Robert Stevenson, 1944), trading credit as associate producer for top billing over Joan Fontaine. He had a cameo in the wartime salute Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland, 1944), in which he performed his magic act ‘sawing’ Marlene Dietrich in half. In 1946, Sam Spiegel produced The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1946), starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young and Welles. The film follows the hunt for a Nazi war criminal living under an alias in the United States. Although disputes occurred during editing between Spiegel and Welles, the film was a box office success and it helped his standing with the studios. He then filmed The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947) for Columbia Pictures, in which his then-estranged second wife Rita Hayworth co-starred. Cohn disliked Welles's rough-cut and ordered extensive editing and re-shoots. Approximately one hour of Welles's first cut was removed, including much of a climactic confrontation scene in an amusement park funhouse. The film was considered a disaster in America at the time of release, though the closing shootout in a hall of mirrors has since become a touchstone of film noir. Welles convinced Republic Pictures to let him direct a low-budget version of Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1948). Republic initially trumpeted the film as an important work but decided it did not care for the Scottish accents and held up general release for almost a year after the early negative press reaction. In the late 1970s, a fully restored version of Macbeth was released that followed Welles's original vision.

Orson Welles left Hollywood for Europe. In Italy, he starred as Cagliostro in Black Magic (Gregory Ratoff, 1948) with Akim Tamiroff. His co-star impressed Welles so much that Tamiroff would appear in four of Welles's later productions. Welles starred as Harry Lime in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), alongside Joseph Cotten. The film was an international smash hit. Welles also appeared as Cesare Borgia in the Italian film Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949), and as the Mongol warrior Bayan in The Black Rose (Henry Hathaway, 1950), both with Tyrone Power. Welles was channelling his money from acting jobs into a self-financed film version of Shakespeare's play Othello. From 1949 to 1951, Welles filmed Othello (1952) on location in Europe and Morocco. Suzanne Cloutier co-starred as Desdemona. When it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival it won the Palme d'Or, but the film did not receive a general release in the United States until 1955. Welles's daughter, Beatrice Welles-Smith, restored Othello in 1992 for a wide re-release. Welles played the murdered victim in Trent's Last Case (Herbert Wilcox, 1952) and the title role in the 'Lord Mountdrago' segment of Three Cases of Murder (George More O'Ferrall, 1954). Herbert Wilcox cast Welles as the antagonist in Trouble in the Glen (1954) opposite Margaret Lockwood, and John Huston cast him as Father Mapple in Moby-Dick (1956), starring Gregory Peck. Welles's next turn as director was Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles, 1955), filmed in France, Germany, Spain and Italy on a very limited budget. Welles played a billionaire who hires a man (Robert Arden) to delve into the secrets of his past. The film co-starred Welles's third wife, Paola Mori. Frustrated by his slow progress in the editing room, producer Louis Dolivet removed Welles from the project and finished the film without him as Confidential Report. In 1956, Welles returned to Hollywood and guest-starred on radio and television shows. His next film role was in Man in the Shadow (Jack Arnold, 1957) for Universal Pictures, starring Jeff Chandler. Around this time period, Welles began to suffer from weight problems that would eventually cause a deterioration in his health. Welles stayed on at Universal to co-star with Charlton Heston in Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958). Originally only hired as an actor, Welles was promoted to director by Universal at the insistence of Heston. He reunited with many actors and technicians with whom he had worked in the 1940s including Joseph Cotten, Marlene Dietrich and Akim Tamiroff. Filming proceeded smoothly, but after the end of production, the studio re-edited the film, re-shot scenes, and shot new exposition scenes to clarify the plot. In 1978, a longer preview version of the film was discovered and released. Next, Welles filmed his adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes' novel Don Quixote in Mexico, starring Mischa Auer as Quixote and Akim Tamiroff as Sancho Panza. While filming would continue in fits and starts for several years, Welles would never complete the project. Welles continued acting, notably in The Long, Hot Summer (Marin Ritt, 1958) and Compulsion (Richard Fleischer, 1959), but soon he returned to Europe.

In Italy, Orson Welles directed his own scenes as King Saul in David e Golia/David and Goliath (Ferdinando Baldi, Richard Pottier, 1959). In Hong Kong, he co-starred with Curt Jürgens in Ferry to Hong Kong (Lewis Gilbert, 1959). In Paris, he co-starred in Crack in the Mirror (Richard Fleischer, 1960). In Yugoslavia, he starred in I tartari/The Tartars (Richard Thorpe, 1962) and Bitka na Neretvi/Battle of Neretva (Veljko Bulajić, 1969). In 1962, Welles directed Le Procès/The Trial (Orson Welles, 1962), based on the novel by Franz Kafka and starring Anthony Perkins as Josef K, Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider. The film failed at the box office, but during the filming, he met Oja Kodar, who became his muse, star and mistress for the rest of his life. Welles played a film director in La Ricotta (1963)—Pier Paolo Pasolini's segment of the anthology film Ro.Go.Pa.G. He continued taking what work he could find acting, narrating or hosting other people's work, and began filming Campanadas a medianoche/Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1966). Filmed in Spain, it was a condensation of five Shakespeare plays, telling the story of Falstaff (Welles) and his relationship with Prince Hal (Keith Baxter). Then followed Histoire immortelle/The Immortal Story (Orson Welles, 1968) with Jeanne Moreau, which had a successful run in French theatres. He appeared as Cardinal Wolsey in A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) for which he won considerable acclaim. Welles began directing The Deep, based on the novel Dead Calm by Charles Williams and filmed off the shore of Yugoslavia. The cast included Jeanne Moreau, Laurence Harvey and Oja Kodar. Personally financed by Welles and Kodar, they could not obtain the funds to complete the project, and it was abandoned a few years later after the death of Harvey. The surviving footage was eventually edited and released by the Filmmuseum München. In 1969, Welles played a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. Drawn by the numerous offers he received to work in television and films, and upset by a tabloid scandal reporting his affair with Kodar, Welles moved back to America in 1970.

In Hollywood, Orson Welles continued to self-finance his own film and television projects. While offers to act, narrate and host continued, Welles also found himself in great demand on television talk shows. His primary focus during his final years was The Other Side of the Wind, an unfinished project that was filmed intermittently between 1970 and 1976. Written by Welles, it is the story of an ageing film director (John Huston) looking for funds to complete his final film. Financed by Iranian backers, ownership of the film fell into a legal quagmire after the Shah of Iran was deposed, and disputes still prevent its release. Welles portrayed Louis XVIII of France in Waterloo (Sergey Bondarchuk, 1970), and narrated the historical comedy Start the Revolution Without Me (Bud Yorkin, 1970). He appeared in La décade prodigieuse/Ten Days' Wonder (Claude Chabrol, 1971), co-starring with Anthony Perkins. Wikipedia: “That same year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave him an honorary award "For superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures". Welles pretended to be out of town and sent John Huston to claim the award. Huston criticized the Academy for awarding Welles, even while they refused to give Welles any work.” Welles played Long John Silver in Treasure Island (John Hough, 1972), an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel. He completed F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973), a personal essay film about art forger Elmyr de Hory and the biographer Clifford Irving, and his documentary Filming Othello (Orson Welles, 1979). During the 1980s, Welles worked on such film projects as The Dreamers, based on two stories by Isak Dinesen. His last film appearance was in Henry Jaglom's Someone to Love (1987), released after his death. Welles had three daughters: Chris Welles Feder (1938), with Virginia Nicholson; Rebecca Welles Manning (1944–2004), with Rita Hayworth; and Beatrice Welles (1955), with Paola Mori. His only known son, British director Michael Lindsay-Hogg (1940), is from Welles's affair with Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, then the wife of Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th baronet. On 10 October 1985, Orson Welles appeared in his final interview on The Merv Griffin Show. He died several hours later of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles. His estranged wife Paola Mori refused to allow most of Welles's friends to attend the funeral, limiting the mourners to just nine: herself, Welles's three daughters, Roger Hill, and three of Welles's friends, as well as the doctor who had signed Welles's death certificate. Welles's companion for the last 20 years, Oja Kodar, was not invited, nor were either of his ex-wives. Welles's ashes were taken to Ronda, Spain, where they were buried in an old well covered by flowers, within the rural property of a long-time friend, retired bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez.

Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

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Vintage Dutch postcard. Trevor Howard in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

English film, stage and television actor Trevor Howard (1913-1988) is best known as the doctor in the classic romantic drama Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945), in which his co-star was Celia Johnson. In the 1940s and 1950s, he often played the slightly dry, slightly crusty but capable British military officer, and in the 1960s he became one of England's finest character actors.

Tags:   Trevor Howard The Third Man 1949 Carol Reed British Great Britain Dutch Nederland Film The Netherlands outfit costume hat Hut chapeau cappello Vintage Vedette Postcard Portrait Cinema Film Movies Movie Ansichtskarte Actor Acteur Attore SChauspieler Darsteller Film Star Carte Cine Cartolina Carte Postale Celebrity Screen Star Ansichtkaart

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British postcard in the Picturegoer Serie, no. W 792. Photo: British Lion. Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949).

American film, stage and television actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994) achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He first gained worldwide fame in the Orson Welles films Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay. He went on to become one of the leading Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films such as Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Duel in the Sun (1946) and The Third Man (1949). One of his final films was Michael Cimino's epic Heaven's Gate (1980).

Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1905 to a prosperous Southern family. He was the first of three sons of Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster, and Sally Willson Cotten. At an early age, Joseph already showed a passion for story-telling, reciting, and performing acts for his family. In 1923, when Cotten was 18, he went to Washington D.C. to study at the Hickman School of Expression and then moved to New York City in 1924 to make his way in the theatre world. This was tougher than Cotten had hoped. He ended up working as a shipping clerk for a year before heading south to Miami with friends. In Florida, Cotten supported himself with an odd assortment of jobs, including lifeguard, potato salad merchandiser and as a drama critic for the Miami Herald. That evidently led to appearance in plays at the Miami Civic Theater. Through a connection at the Miami Herald he managed to land an assistant stage manager job in New York. In 1929 he was engaged for a season at the Copley Theatre in Boston, and there he was able to expand his acting experience, appearing in 30 plays. Cotten made his Broadway debut in 1930 and he began working on radio shows soon after. He also married pianist Lenore La Mont in 1931 and they remained together until her 1960 death. On the cast of CBS Radio's The American School of the Air, Cotten met in 1934 Orson Welles and the two became friends. Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor, and gave him the starring role in his Federal Theatre Project farce, Horse Eats Hats (1936). In 1937, Cotten joined Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre company, where he took the lead in such plays as Shoemaker’s Holiday and Julius Caesar. Cotten made his film debut in the short, Too Much Johnson (Orson Welles, 1938), a comedy based on William Gillette's 1890 play. The short was occasionally screened before or after Mercury productions, but never received an official release. It was considered lost until it surfaced in 2013. Cotten appeared in the original Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story (1939–1940) as C. K. Dexter Haven opposite Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord. Cotten jumped off the radio and stage and onto the big screen in 1941, making his Hollywood feature debut in Welles’ film debut, Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941). The epic, portrayed the life of a press magnate (played by Welles) who starts out as an idealist but eventually turns into a corrupt, lonely old man. Cotten played the role of Kane's best friend Jedediah Leland, eventually a drama critic for one of Kane's papers. Cotten would find his finest roles in Welles’ films, and the pair followed Citizen Kane with another masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942), and the Nazi-related thriller Journey Into Fear (Norman Foster, 1943), which was co-written by Cotten and Welles.

Joseph Cotten had a remarkable film career during the 1940s. Next, he starred as a serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). He then played an eager police detective in the mystery thriller Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944) opposite Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman. Producer David O. Selznick then launched him successfully as a romantic leading man. Cotten starred with Jennifer Jones in four films for Selznick International Pictures: the wartime domestic drama Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), the romantic drama Love Letters (William Dieterle, 1945), the box office hit Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), and the critically acclaimed Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948), in which he played a melancholy artist who becomes obsessed with a girl who may have died many years before. He reunited with Hitchcock in the British historical thriller Under Capricorn (Alfred Hitchcock, 1949) as an Australian landowner with a shady past. Another British classic is The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), in which Orson Welles also plays a pivotal role. Cotten portrays a writer of pulp fiction who travels to postwar Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime (Welles). When he arrives, he discovers that Lime has died, and is determined to prove to the police that it was murder, but uncovers an even darker secret. He then made a string of less high-profile roles in films such as the dark Civil War Western Two Flags West (Robert Wise, 1950), the Joan Fontaine romance September Affair (William Dieterle, 1950), and the Film Noir Niagara (Henry Hathaway, 1953) in which he played Marilyn Monroe’s jealous husband. He also had a brief role as a member of the Roman Senate in Orson Welles’ The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice (1951). On Broadway, Cotten created the role of Linus Larrabee, Jr., in the original 1953 production of Sabrina Fair, opposite Margaret Sullavan. His film career floundered and Cotten found a new home on TV. He appeared on such shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents and hosting The 20th Century-Fox Hour and The Joseph Cotten Show. In the cinema, Cotten had an uncredited cameo in Welles’ Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958) and a starring role in the film adaptation of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (Byron Haskin, 1958). During the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in a long array of TV and film projects. His most memorable films include the horror classic Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Robert Aldrich, 1964), with Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965), the war film Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji Fukasaku, 1970), the British horror film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971) featuring Vincent Price, the Italian horror film La Figlia di Frankenstein/Lady Frankenstein (Mel Welles, 1971) starring Rosalba Neri, The Science Fiction thriller Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973) and the all-star disaster film Airport '77 (Jerry Jameson, 1977). One of Cotten's last films was the box-office bomb Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino. 1980). An on-and-off writer, Cotten published his autobiography, Vanity Will Get You Somewhere (1987), just a few years after suffering a stroke and heart attack. Joseph Cotten died of pneumonia in Los Angeles in 1994. He was survived by his second wife, British actress Patricia Medina.

Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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