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Date of Birth: Joseph Cotten15 May 1905Retired from acting in the early 1980s after a stroke and a laryngectomy. Had a step-daughter from first marriage. Like Orson Welles, he has appeared in the top films of both the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; for AFI it was Citizen Kane (1941) as Jedediah Leland and for BFI, its The Third Man (1949) as Holly Martins. Despite their mercurial relationship, he and Orson Welles remained friends until Welles' death. Was cast as C.K. Dexter Haven in the original 1939 Broadway production of Phillip Barry's play Philadelphia StoryZ with Katharine Hepburn. When Hepburn, who owned the rights, sold the story to MGM, Cary Grant was cast in the part. ... Before his celebrated appearance as Charles Foster Kane's best friend, Jed Leland, in Citizen Kane (1941), he appears as one of the reporters in the March of Time parody sequence early in the film. He is seated in the back of the projection room, in the last row at the far left, and is only clearly visible in one shot, but his voice along with that of Everett Sloane's (who plays Bernstein) can often be heard in the darkness on the soundtrack. Served as best man at Orson Welles's wedding to Rita Hayworth. Read more |
