Editing Joseph Cotten (section)

=== 1932–1939: Broadway and film debuts ===
Cotten moved to New York and went to work for [[David Belasco]] as an assistant stage manager. He understudied [[Melvyn Douglas]] in ''Tonight or Never'' then took over Douglas' role for the Copley Theatre in Boston, where he worked on over 30 plays.<ref>{{cite news|title=Joseph Cotten, Film and Stage Actor, Dies; Starred in 'Citizen Kane,' The Third Man'|edition=FINAL|author=Weil, Martin|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=February 7, 1994|page=d07}}</ref> Cotten struggled to find work in the depression so turned to modeling under the Walter Thornton Model Agency<ref>{{Cite news |date=Jan 26, 1947 |title=Men's Lady (A 60-Second Close Up) |pages=2 |work=Star Tribune Minneapolis, Minnesota · Sunday}}</ref> and acting in industrial films. He also performed on radio. Cotten made his Broadway debut in 1932 in ''Absent Friends'' which ran for 88 performances.<ref>[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/absent-father-11648 ''Absent Father''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803040900/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/absent-father-11648 |date=August 3, 2020 }} IBDB</ref> He followed it with ''Jezebel'' (1933), staged by [[Katherine Cornell]] and [[Guthrie McClintic]], which only had a short run.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/jezebel-11805 | title=Jezebel – Broadway Play – Original &#124; IBDB | access-date=November 4, 2018 | archive-date=August 2, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802200613/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/jezebel-11805 | url-status=live }}</ref> He was in ''Loose Moments'' which ran for 8 performances.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/loose-moments-11200|title=Loose Moments – Broadway Play – Original &#124; IBDB|website=www.ibdb.com|access-date=November 4, 2018|archive-date=April 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200402004444/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/loose-moments-11200|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1934, Cotten met and became friends with [[Orson Welles]], a fellow cast member on [[CBS Radio]]'s ''[[The American School of the Air]]''.<ref name="Vanity"/>{{Rp|30–31|date=January 2014}} Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor,<ref name="Lunches">{{cite book |last1=Biskind |first1=Peter |author-link1=Peter Biskind |last2=Jaglom |first2=Henry |author-link2=Henry Jaglom |last3=Welles |first3= Orson |title=My Lunches with Orson: Conversations between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles |publisher=Metropolitan Books |location=New York |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-8050-9725-2}}</ref>{{Rp|166}} and gave him the starring role in his [[Federal Theatre Project]] farce, '' [[Horse Eats Hat]]''<ref name="Vanity"/>{{Rp|34}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Leaming|first=Barbara|title=Orson Welles|year=1985|publisher=Viking Penguin Inc|location=New York City|isbn=0-670-52895-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesbiogr00leam/page/114 114]|url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesbiogr00leam/page/114}}</ref> (September 26 – December 5, 1936).<ref name="TIOW"/>{{Rp|334}} Cotten was sure that ''Horse Eats Hat'' won him the notice of his future Broadway co-star, [[Katharine Hepburn]].<ref name="Vanity"/>{{Rp|34}} Cotten said Welles later told him "You're very lucky to be tall and thin and have curly hair. You can also move about the stage without running into the furniture. But these are fringe assets, and I'm afraid you'll never make it as an actor. But as a star, I think you well might hit the jackpot."<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Joseph Cotten|author=Rule, Vera|work=The Guardian|date=February 8, 1994}}</ref>

In 1937, Cotten became an inaugural member of Welles's [[Mercury Theatre]] company, starring in its Broadway productions ''[[Caesar (Mercury Theatre)|Caesar]]'' as Publius; it ran for 157 performances. He followed it with ''[[The Shoemaker's Holiday]]'' (1938) and ''[[Danton's Death]]'' (1938) for Welles. Cotten also performed in radio dramas presented on ''[[The Mercury Theatre on the Air]]'' and ''[[The Campbell Playhouse (radio series)|The Campbell Playhouse]]''. That same year Cotten made his film debut in the Welles-directed short, ''[[Too Much Johnson (1938 film)|Too Much Johnson]]'' (1938), a comedy that was intended to complement the aborted 1938 Mercury stage production of [[William Gillette]]'s 1894 play. The film was never screened in public and was lost until 2008 (and then screened in 2013 at the [[Pordenone Silent Film Festival]]).<ref>{{cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |author-link=Dave Kehr |date=August 7, 2013 |title=Early Film by Orson Welles Is Rediscovered |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/movies/early-film-by-orson-welles-is-rediscovered.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/movies/early-film-by-orson-welles-is-rediscovered.html |archive-date=2022-01-03 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date= July 12, 2016 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Cotten returned to Broadway in 1939, creating the role of C. K. Dexter Haven opposite [[Katharine Hepburn]]'s Tracy Lord in the original production of [[Philip Barry]]'s ''[[The Philadelphia Story (play)|The Philadelphia Story]]''. The play ran for 417 performances at the [[Shubert Theatre (New York City)|Shubert Theatre]], and in the months before its extensive national tour a [[The Philadelphia Story (film)|film version]] was to be made by MGM. Cotten went to Hollywood, but discovered there that his stage success in ''The Philadelphia Story'' translated to, in the words of his agent [[Leland Hayward]], "spending a solid year creating the [[Cary Grant]] role." Hayward suggested that they call Cotten's good pal, Orson Welles. "He's been making big waves out here", Hayward said. "Maybe nobody in Hollywood ever heard of the Shubert Theatre in New York, but everybody certainly knows about the Mercury Theatre in New York."<ref name="Vanity"/>{{Rp|34–37|date=January 2014}}