Most recently I stumbled upon a memoir about Orson Welles this was written by his eldest daughter a Chris Welles Feder and before that I didn't know much about him. Expect that he was married once to the very beautiful and glamorous Rita Hayworth and he had been in a the very well known movie called Citizen Kane. This memoir portrays the journey of a little girl seeing her father as not only the famous star he was but as a creative genius and most importantly a human being!!
Through Chris's memoir it is interesting to observe that although she doesn't live with her father after his marriage to Rita Hayworth she fondly remembers the encounters she has with him and sometimes through the journey of the book this is sometimes years instead of months. The memoir itself journey's from her early childhood to after Orson Welles death. Much of the book is about Chris growing up and her journey but she always remembers her dad when she does visit him. The trip she describes in London where she meets Laurence Oliver and Vivien Leigh was bizarre to read as these people were considered the best of the best for their time.
There is a brilliant quote that I feel really captures Orson Welles's open mindedness. Although Welles himself didn't go to college he was a very knowledgeable and intelligent man who was happy to learn from others.
"If you're curious by nature and willing to admit how little you know about anything,you'll spend your entire life educating yourself and do a far better job of it than any university"
One very interesting issue that stems though Chris's journey is that like her father she wanted to be an actor but her father wanted her to go to college. What's evident to me whilst reading the book at the beginning is that like many actors he choose acting but he never choose fame and this is something that is still occurring theme in Hollywood to this day.
What is really intriguing for me is for a man who was so famous and in fact well known in his industry he battled the fact that he didn't feel as appreciated for his own creative flair when he was alive. Citizen Kane is considered even today by many critics as one of the greatest movies ever made. Orson's first wife at the beginning of the book complained about where the money for his great work was actually going. Due to his creative flair he was always investing in projects he had passion for but not necessarily getting the effort he put into the projects back in a financial way. This shows he didn't really care if it was going to make him more money he just did it because he loved acting and directing. It seems like this passion has somewhat faded in this age but at least he did what he wanted to.
Orson Welles died in1985 which was 26 years ago and a brilliant quote to sum up his legacy is something that said to his daughter shortly before he died "Darling girl. they're gonna love me when I'm dead". Weirdly enough the film industry still talks about him to this day and among his films Citizen Kane, Third Man etc people do commend him for his unique talents. Most recently the film Me and Orson Welles although based on a book is ultimately Welles inspired!! Through reading the memoir I see Welles's as a magician, actor, director, artist, father and human being but what comes across the most is he wasn't afraid of being creative.When I say human being I mean his daughter discovers along the way that her father did make mistakes along his life but the bond she shared with him was the most important thing at the end of it. This is something we can all learn from and maybe a favourable way of remembering him is "Orson Welles was one of the greatest creative forces of the twentieth century". Well if people are still talking about today and he is influencing directors even now he must of done something right :)!!
