Editing Orson Welles (section)

== Personal life ==

=== Relationships and family ===
[[File:Orson-Virginia-Christopher-Welles-1938.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and Virginia Nicolson Welles with their daughter Christopher Marlowe Welles (1938)]]
Welles and Chicago-born actress and socialite Virginia Nicolson were married on November 14, 1934.<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|332|date=April 2014}} "Regardless of his later comments, the two were very much in love," wrote biographer Patrick McGilligan, "and she was his salvation."<ref>{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |date=2015 |title=Young Orson |location=New York |publisher=Harper |page=following page 310 |isbn=978-0-06-211248-4 }}</ref>{{efn|Virginia Welles is a sympathetically written key character in one of Welles's last important pieces of writing, the unproduced screenplay about the 1937 staging of ''[[The Cradle Will Rock]]'' that he completed a year before his death.<ref name="McGilligan"/>{{Rp|384}}}} The couple separated in December 1939<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|226}} and were divorced in February 1940.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=942|title=A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles: A talk with Chris Welles Feder on her new book, ''In My Father's Shadow'' – Part One|publisher=Lawrence French, Wellesnet, November 8, 2009|access-date=November 10, 2013|date=November 8, 2009|archive-date=May 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120522100012/http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=942|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19400201&id=2-BPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6555,8524 |title=Orson Welles is Divorced by Wife |publisher=Associated Press |work=[[Evening Independent]]|date= February 1, 1940 |access-date=February 7, 2014 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164510/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19400201&id=2-BPAAAAIBAJ&pg=6555%2C8524 |url-status=live }}</ref> A few months later, on May 18, 1940, she married [[Marion Davies]]'s nephew [[Charles Lederer]].

After bearing with Welles's romances in New York, Virginia had learned that Welles had fallen in love with Mexican actress [[Dolores del Río]].<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|227}} Infatuated with her since adolescence, Welles met del Río at Darryl Zanuck's ranch<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|206}} soon after he moved to Hollywood in 1939.<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|227}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|168}} Their relationship was kept secret until 1941, when del Río filed for divorce from her second husband. They openly appeared together in New York while Welles was directing the Mercury stage production ''[[Native Son (play)|Native Son]]''.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|212}} They acted together in the movie ''[[Journey into Fear (1943 film)|Journey into Fear]]'' (1943). Their relationship came to an end due, among other things, to Welles's infidelities. Del Río returned to Mexico in 1943, shortly before Welles married [[Rita Hayworth]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ramón|first1=David|title=Dolores del Río|date=1997|publisher=Clío|location=México|isbn=978-968-6932-35-5|page=11}}</ref> [[File:Orson Welles & Dolores del Rio, 1941.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Welles and [[Dolores del Río]] (1941)]] [[File:Rebecca-Welles-Rita-Hayworth-1946.jpg|thumb|upright|Daughter Rebecca Welles and Rita Hayworth (December 23, 1946)]]
Welles married Hayworth on September 7, 1943.<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|278}} They were divorced on November 10, 1947.<ref name="Leaming Hayworth" />{{Rp|142}} During his last interview, recorded for ''[[The Merv Griffin Show]]'' on the evening before his death, Welles called Hayworth "one of the dearest and sweetest women that ever lived ... and we were a long time together—I was lucky enough to have been with her longer than any of the other men in her life."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEWy--VsBQ&list=UUaxAJybXd-1ahQ9OV1J2WaA |title=Orson Welles' Last Interview (excerpt) |work=The Merv Griffin Show|date= October 10, 1985 |access-date=September 11, 2014 |archive-date=May 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517174345/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZEWy--VsBQ&list=UUaxAJybXd-1ahQ9OV1J2WaA |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Mori-Welles-1955.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Paola Mori]] and Welles, days before their marriage (May 1955)]]
In 1955, Welles married actress [[Paola Mori]], an Italian aristocrat who starred as Raina Arkadin in his film ''[[Mr. Arkadin]]''. The couple began an affair, and were married at her parents' insistence.<ref name="Feder">{{cite book |last=Feder |first=Chris Welles |date=2009 |title=In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781565125995 |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |publisher=Algonquin Books |isbn=978-1-56512-599-5 }}</ref>{{Rp|168}} They were wed in London on May 8, 1955,<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|417, 419|date=May 2012}} and never divorced.

Croatian-born artist and actress [[Oja Kodar]] became Welles's longtime companion and mistress both personally and professionally from 1966 onward. They lived together for some of the last 20 years of his life.<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|255–258}}

Welles had three daughters from his marriages: Christopher Welles Feder (born 1938, with Virginia Nicolson);{{efn|"On March 27, 1938," biographer Barbara Leaming wrote, "Orson's close friends received a most peculiar telegram: 'Christopher, she is born.' It was no joke"<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|148}} Her full name was given to be [[Christopher Marlowe]] in a January 1940 magazine profile of Welles by [[Lucille Fletcher]].}}<ref name="Leaming" />{{Rp|148}} Rebecca Welles Manning (1944–2004,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tribnet/obituary.aspx?pid=2737245 |title=Rebecca Manning Obituary |newspaper=[[The News Tribune]]|location=Tacoma, Washington|date= October 21–22, 2004 |access-date=May 11, 2014 |archive-date=September 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926124819/http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tribnet/obituary.aspx?pid=2737245 |url-status=live }}</ref> with Rita Hayworth); and [[Beatrice Welles]] (born 1955, with Paola Mori).<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|419}}

Welles has been thought to have had a son, British director [[Michael Lindsay-Hogg]] (born 1940), with Irish actress [[Geraldine Fitzgerald]], then the wife of [[Lindsay-Hogg baronets|Sir Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 4th baronet]].<ref name="Bright Lights" /><ref name="Alex Witchell">{{cite news |title=Are You My Father, Orson Welles? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/books/review/luck-and-circumstance-by-michael-lindsay-hogg-book-review.html |newspaper=The New York Times |last=Witchel |first=Alex |date=September 30, 2011 |access-date=April 27, 2014 |archive-date=July 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701035015/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/books/review/luck-and-circumstance-by-michael-lindsay-hogg-book-review.html |url-status=live }}</ref> When Lindsay-Hogg was 16, his mother reluctantly divulged pervasive rumors that his father was Welles, and she denied them—but in such detail that he doubted her veracity.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hodgson |first=Moira |date=September 30, 2011 |title=A Director Casts About for Clues |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903791504576587093413119166 |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |access-date=August 31, 2015 |archive-date=July 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710035339/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903791504576587093413119166 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Luck">{{cite book |last=Lindsay-Hogg |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Lindsay-Hogg |date=2011 |title=Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond |url=https://archive.org/details/luckcircumstance00lind |location=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |isbn=978-0-307-59468-6 }}</ref>{{Rp|15}} Fitzgerald evaded the subject for the rest of her life. Lindsay-Hogg knew Welles, worked with him in the theatre and met him at intervals throughout Welles's life.<ref name="Alex Witchell" /> After learning that Welles's oldest daughter, Chris, his childhood playmate, had long suspected that he was her brother,<ref>{{cite news |last=Thorpe |first=Vanessa |date=January 30, 2010 |title=The 'only son' of Orson Welles to take DNA test |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/31/orson-welles-son |access-date=August 31, 2015 |archive-date=October 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019223334/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/jan/31/orson-welles-son |url-status=live }}</ref> Lindsay-Hogg initiated a DNA test that proved inconclusive. In his 2011 autobiography, Lindsay-Hogg reported that his questions were resolved by his mother's close friend [[Gloria Vanderbilt]], who wrote that Fitzgerald had told her that Welles was his father.<ref name="Luck" />{{Rp|265–267}} A 2015 Welles biography by [[Patrick McGilligan (biographer)|Patrick McGilligan]], however, reports the impossibility of Welles's paternity: Fitzgerald left the U.S. for Ireland in May 1939, and her son was conceived before her return in late October, whereas Welles did not travel overseas during that period.<ref name="McGilligan">{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick McGilligan (biographer) |date=2015 |title=Young Orson |location=New York |publisher=[[Harper (publisher)|Harper]] |isbn=978-0-06-211248-4}}</ref>{{Rp|602}}

After the death of Rebecca Welles Manning, a man named Marc McKerrow was revealed to be her son—and therefore a direct descendant of Welles and Hayworth—after he requested his adoption records unsealed. While McKerrow and Rebecca were never able to meet due to her cancer, they were in touch before her death, and he attended her funeral. McKerrow's reactions to the revelation and his meeting with Kodar are documented in the 2008 ''[[Prodigal Sons (film)|Prodigal Sons]]'', produced and directed by his sister [[Kimberly Reed]].<ref name="SF Chronicle March 2010">{{cite news |title=Twists, turns in 'Prodigal Sons' documentary |url=http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Twists-turns-in-Prodigal-Sons-documentary-3197738.php |newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]] |last=Weigand |first=David |date=March 5, 2010 |access-date=November 17, 2012 |archive-date=May 15, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515153853/http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Twists-turns-in-Prodigal-Sons-documentary-3197738.php |url-status=live }}</ref> McKerrow died in 2010, in his sleep aged 44. His death was related to injuries he received in a car accident when younger.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://helenair.com/news/local/obituaries/article_b2081642-7e92-11df-81a9-001cc4c03286.html |url-access=subscription |title=Marc McKerrow |newspaper=Independent Record |date=June 23, 2010 |access-date=July 20, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Marc McKerrow Foundation Home">{{cite web |title=In beloved memory of Marc McKerrow |url=http://www.marcmckerrowfoundation.org/Home.html |publisher=Marc McKerrow Foundation |year=2010 |access-date=November 6, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131117094526/http://www.marcmckerrowfoundation.org/Home.html |archive-date=November 17, 2013 }}</ref>

In the 1940s, Welles had a brief relationship with [[Maila Nurmi]]. According to the biography ''Glamour Ghoul: The Passions and Pain of the Real Vampira, Maila Nurmi'', she became pregnant; since Welles was then married to Hayworth, Nurmi gave the child up for adoption.<ref name=Nurmi>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-01-12/vampira-hollywoods-original-goth-emerges-in-new-biography|title=Vampira, Hollywood's original Goth, emerges from the shadows in a new biography|first=Scott|last=Bradfield|author-link=Scott Bradfield|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=January 12, 2021|access-date=January 17, 2021|archive-date=January 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118034755/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-01-12/vampira-hollywoods-original-goth-emerges-in-new-biography|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- the Los Angeles Times piece doesn't say 'in the 40s', but does say that by the time Nurmi gave birth, Welles was married to Hayworth, so that's an indicator.--> However, the child mentioned in the book was born in 1944. Nurmi revealed in an interview weeks before her death in 2008 that she met Welles in a New York casting office in spring 1946.<ref>{{Cite web|date=January 19, 2021|title=Retired lawyer is the son of Vampira but is Orson Welles the father?|url=https://www.wellesnet.com/vampira-orson-welles-son/|access-date=February 20, 2021|website=Wellesnet|archive-date=March 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319005238/https://www.wellesnet.com/vampira-orson-welles-son/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Despite an [[urban legend]] promoted by Welles,{{efn|While bantering with [[Lucille Ball]] on a 1944 broadcast of ''[[The Orson Welles Almanac]]'' before an audience of U.S. Navy service members, Welles says: "My great-granduncle was Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln's cabinet." (Lucille Ball AFRS broadcast, May 3, 1944, 2:42.)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/1944OrsonWellesRadioAlmanacpart1 |title=The Orson Welles Almanac – Part 1 |publisher=[[Internet Archive]] |access-date=May 9, 2015 }}</ref>}}{{efn|Welles repeats the claim in a 1970 appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.<ref>{{cite web |title=When Orson Welles Crossed Paths With Hitler and Churchill |date=July 27, 1970 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI&t=275 |website=YouTube |publisher=The Dick Cavett Show |access-date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=December 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205164500/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI&t=275 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} he is not related to [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s wartime Secretary of the Navy, [[Gideon Welles]]. The myth dates back to the first newspaper feature ever written about Welles—"Cartoonist, Actor, Poet and only 10"—in the February 19, 1926, issue of ''[[The Capital Times]]''. The article falsely states he was descended from "Gideon Welles, who was a member of President Lincoln's cabinet".<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|47–48}}<ref name="McBride" />{{Rp|311}} As presented by Charles Higham in a genealogical chart that introduces his 1985 biography of Welles, Welles's father was Richard Head Welles (born Wells), son of Richard Jones Wells, son of Henry Hill Wells (who had an uncle named Gideon ''Wells''), son of [[William H. Wells|William Hill Wells]], son of Richard Wells (1734–1801).<ref name="Higham" />

=== Physical characteristics ===

Peter Noble's 1956 biography describes Welles as "a magnificent figure of a man, over six feet tall, handsome, with flashing eyes and a gloriously resonant speaking-voice".<ref name="Noble">Noble, Peter, ''The Fabulous Orson Welles''. London: [[Hutchinson (publisher)|Hutchinson and Co.]], 1956.</ref>{{Rp|19}} Welles said that a voice specialist once told him he was born to be a [[Tenor#Heldentenor|heldentenor]], a heroic tenor, but that when he was young and working at the [[Gate Theatre]] in Dublin, he forced his voice down into a [[bass-baritone]].<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|144}}

Even as a baby, Welles was prone to illness, including [[diphtheria]], [[measles]], [[whooping cough]], and [[malaria]]. From infancy he suffered from [[asthma]], sinus headaches, and backache<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}} that was later found to be caused by congenital anomalies of the spine. Foot and ankle trouble throughout his life was the result of [[flat feet]].<ref name="Callow Xanadu">{{cite book|first=Simon |last=Callow | title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu | isbn=978-0-09-946251-4|year=1996 |publisher=Vintage }}</ref>{{Rp|560}} "As he grew older", Brady wrote, "his ill health was exacerbated by the late hours he was allowed to keep [and] an early penchant for alcohol and tobacco".<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|8}}

In 1928, aged 13, Welles was already six feet tall (1.83 meters) and weighed over {{convert|180|lb|kg}}.<ref name="Higham" />{{Rp|50}} His passport recorded his height as {{convert|6|ft|3|in|cm|spell=in}}, with brown hair and green eyes.<ref name="Feder" />{{Rp|229}} "Crash diets, [pharmaceutical] drugs, and corsets had slimmed him for his early film roles", wrote biographer Barton Whaley. "Then always back to gargantuan consumption of high-caloric food and booze. By summer 1949, when he was 34, his weight had crept up to a stout {{convert|230|lb|kg}}. In 1953, he ballooned from {{convert|250|to|275|lb|kg|abbr=off}}. After 1960, he remained permanently obese."<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|329}}

=== Religious beliefs ===

When Peter Bogdanovich once asked him about his religion, Welles gruffly replied that it was none of his business, then misinformed him that he was raised [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].<ref name="Welles TIOW" />{{Rp|xxx}}<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|12}} Although the Welles family was no longer devout, it was fourth-generation [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] and before that, [[Quaker]] and [[Puritan]].<ref name="Whaley">[http://www.lybrary.com/barton-whaley-m-191.html Whaley, Barton] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407122754/http://www.lybrary.com/barton-whaley-m-191.html |date=April 7, 2016 }}, ''Orson Welles: The Man Who Was Magic''. Lybrary.com, 2005,</ref>{{Rp|12}} In 1982, when interviewer [[Merv Griffin]] asked about his religious beliefs, Welles replied, "I try to be a Christian. I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God."<ref name="Brady" />{{Rp|576}}

Near the end of his life, Welles was dining at [[Ma Maison]], his favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, when proprietor Patrick Terrail conveyed an invitation from the head of the [[Greek Orthodox Church]], who asked Welles to be his guest of honor at divine liturgy at [[Saint Sophia Cathedral, Los Angeles|Saint Sophia Cathedral]]. Welles replied, "Please tell him I really appreciate that offer, but I am an [[Atheism|atheist]]."<ref>Terrail, Patrick, ''A Taste of Hollywood: The Story of Ma Maison''. New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books, 1999. {{ISBN|978-0-86730-767-2}}</ref>{{Rp|104–105}}

"Orson never joked or teased about the religious beliefs of others", wrote biographer Barton Whaley. "He accepted it as a cultural artifact, suitable for the births, deaths, and marriages of strangers and even some friends—but without emotional or intellectual meaning for himself."<ref name="Whaley" />{{Rp|12}}

=== Politics and activism ===

Welles was politically active from the beginning of his career. He remained aligned with [[left-wing politics]] and the [[American Left]],<ref name=Callow>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/may/20/biography.film |title=This Greater Drama |first=Simon |last=Callow |date=May 19, 2006 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=December 4, 2016 |archive-date=April 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406143244/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/may/20/biography.film |url-status=live }}</ref> and always defined his political orientation as "[[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]]". A Democrat, he was an outspoken critic of [[racism in the United States]] and [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]].<ref name="McBride"/>{{Rp|46}} He was a strong supporter of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]] and often spoke out on radio in support of progressive politics.<ref name=Callow/> He campaigned for Roosevelt in the 1944 election.<ref name=Callow/>

In a 1983 conversation with his friend Roger Hill, Welles recalled: "During a White House dinner, when I was campaigning for Roosevelt, in a toast, with considerable tongue in cheek, he said, 'Orson, you and I are the two greatest actors alive today.' In private that evening, and on several other occasions, he urged me to run for a Senate seat in either California or Wisconsin. He wasn't alone."<ref name="Tarbox" />{{Rp|115}} In the 1980s, Welles expressed admiration for Roosevelt but described his presidency as "a [[Hybrid regime|semidictatorship]]".<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Biskind |editor-first=Peter |editor-link=Peter Biskind |date=2013 |title=My Lunches with Orson: Conversations Between Henry Jaglom and Orson Welles |location=New York |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company|Metropolitan Books]] |page=187 |isbn=978-0-8050-9725-2}}</ref>

During a 1970 appearance on ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]'', Welles claimed to have met Hitler while hiking in Austria with a teacher who was a "budding [[Nazi]]". He said that Hitler made no impression on him and that he could not remember anything of him from the encounter. He said that he had no personality at all: "He was invisible. There was nothing there until there were 5,000 people yelling sieg heil."<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI|title=When Orson Welles Crossed Paths With Hitler and Churchill|date=July 27, 1970|people=Orson Welles, Dick Cavett|via=YouTube|access-date=August 30, 2019|archive-date=March 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321025340/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PUUHLknDI|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1946, Welles took to the airwaves in a series of radio broadcasts demanding justice for a decorated black veteran, [[Isaac Woodard]], who had been beaten and blinded by white police officers. Welles devoted his July 28, 1946, program to reading Woodard's affidavit and vowing to bring&nbsp;the officer responsible to justice.&nbsp;He continued his crusade over subsequent Sunday afternoon broadcasts on ABC Radio. "The [[NAACP]] felt that these broadcasts did more than anything else to prompt the Justice Department to act on the case," the Museum of Broadcasting stated in its 1988 retrospective ''Orson Welles on the Air: The Radio Years''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=wellesnet |date=June 19, 2020 |title=Orson Welles pursued justice for black veteran Isaac Woodard; beaten, blinded by police in 1946 |url=https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-isaac-woodard/ |access-date=November 11, 2022 |website=Wellesnet {{!}} Orson Welles Web Resource |language=en-US |archive-date=January 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116102236/https://www.wellesnet.com/orson-welles-isaac-woodard/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

For several years, he wrote a newspaper column on political issues and considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1946, representing his home state of Wisconsin—a seat ultimately won by [[Joseph McCarthy]].<ref name=Callow />

Welles's political activities were reported on pages 155–157 of ''[[Red Channels]]'', the [[anti-Communist]] publication that, in part, fueled the already flourishing [[Hollywood Blacklist]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/Red_Channels/index.html | title=Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television (1950) | date=July 18, 2012 | work=AuthenticHistory.com | access-date=May 30, 2015 | archive-date=May 3, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503083656/http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/Red_Channels/index.html | url-status=live }}</ref> He was in Europe during the height of the [[Red Scare]], thereby adding another reason for the Hollywood establishment to ostracize him.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/06/mcb1-j16.html |title=Orson Welles, the blacklist and Hollywood filmmaking – Part 1 |last1=Walsh |first1=David |last2=Laurier |first2=Joanne |date=June 16, 2009 |website=World Socialist Website |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408205823/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2009/06/mcb1-j16.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1970, Welles narrated (but did not write) a satirical political record on the rise of President [[Richard Nixon]] titled ''[[The Begatting of the President]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Presidents We Imagine: Two Centuries of White House Fictions on the Page, on the Stage, Onscreen, and Online.|url=https://archive.org/details/presidentsweimag00smit|url-access=limited|last=Smith|first=Jeff|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-299-23184-2|location=Madison|pages=[https://archive.org/details/presidentsweimag00smit/page/n335 321]|id={{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here --> }}}}}</ref> In the late 1970s, Welles referred to [[Josip Tito]] as "the greatest man in the world today" on Yugoslav television.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Asprey Gear |first1=Matthew |title=At the End of the Street in the Shadow Orson Welles and the City |date=2016 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=198}}</ref>

Welles spoke before a crowd of 700,000 at a nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park on June 12, 1982, and attacked the policies of President Reagan and the Republican Party.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orson Welles at 1982 anti-nuke rally |website=[[YouTube]] |date=December 14, 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPff-EdXCg |language=en |access-date=November 11, 2022 |archive-date=November 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111120102/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQPff-EdXCg&gl=US&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[American: An Odyssey to 1947]]'', a documentary by [[Danny Wu]] that looks at Welles's life against the political landscape of the 1930s and 40s, had its premiere at the [[Newport Beach Film Festival]] in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=wellesnet |date=September 12, 2022 |title='American' director talks Orson Welles, politics |url=https://www.wellesnet.com/american-director-talks-orson-welles-politics/ |access-date=November 11, 2022 |website=Wellesnet {{!}} Orson Welles Web Resource |language=en-US |archive-date=September 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928114546/https://www.wellesnet.com/american-director-talks-orson-welles-politics/ |url-status=live }}</ref>