Joseph Cotten

Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' and '' Sabrina Fair''. He then gained worldwide fame in three Orson Welles films: ''Citizen Kane'' (1941), ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1942), and '' Journey into Fear'' (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay.

Cotten went on to become one of the leading Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films such as '' Shadow of a Doubt'' (1943), '' Gaslight'' (1944), '' Love Letters'' (1945), '' Duel in the Sun'' (1946), ''Portrait of Jennie'' (1948) for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, ''The Third Man'' (1949) and '' Niagara'' (1953). One of his final films was Michael Cimino's '' Heaven's Gate'' (1980).

Multiple film critics and media outlets have cited him as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Early life

Joseph Cotten was born in 1905 in Petersburg, Virginia, the first of three boys born for Joseph Cheshire Cotten Sr., an assistant postmaster, and Sally Willson Cotten. He grew up in the Tidewater region and showed an aptitude for drama and a gift for storytelling.

In 1923, when Cotten was 18, his family arranged for him to receive private lessons at the Hickman School of Expression in Washington, D.C., and underwrote his expenses.

Cotten served in the First Motion Picture Unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.World War II: The Movie - When the U.S. Army Air Forces needed 100,000 men to volunteer, General Hap Arnold recruited Hollywood.
''Smithsonian Magazine''. Retrieved November 5, 2022.

Career

Cotten earned spending money playing professional football on Sundays, for $25 a quarter. After graduation, he earned enough money as a lifeguard at Wilcox Lake to pay back his family's loan, with interest.

He moved to Miami in 1925 and worked as an advertising salesman for ''The Miami Herald'' at $35 a week. He started performing at the Miami Civic Theatre, and worked there for five years, also reviewing the shows for the ''Herald''.

Broadway

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.

Cotten struggled to find work in the depression so turned to modeling under the Walter Thornton Model Agency 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.

He followed it with ''Jezebel'' (1933), staged by Katherine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic, which only had a short run.

He was in ''Loose Moments'' which ran for 8 performances.

Orson Welles

In 1934, Cotten met and became friends with Orson Welles, a fellow cast member on CBS Radio's '' The American School of the Air''. Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor, and gave him the starring role in his Federal Theatre Project farce, '' Horse Eats Hat'' (September 26 – December 5, 1936). Cotten was sure that ''Horse Eats Hat'' won him the notice of his future Broadway co-star, Katharine Hepburn.

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."

In 1937, Cotten became an inaugural member of Welles's Mercury Theatre company, starring in its Broadway productions ''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''.

Cotten made his film debut in the Welles-directed short, '' Too Much Johnson'', 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).

''The Philadelphia Story''

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''. The play ran for 417 performances at the Shubert Theatre, and in the months before its extensive national tour a 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."

''Citizen Kane''

After the success of Welles's '' War of the Worlds'' 1938 Halloween radio broadcast, Welles gained a unique contract with RKO Pictures. The two-picture deal promised full creative control for the young director below an agreed budget limit, and Welles's intention was to feature the Mercury Players in his productions. Shooting had still not begun on a Welles film after a year, but after a meeting with writer Herman J. Mankiewicz Welles had a suitable project.

In mid-1940, filming began on ''Citizen Kane'', portraying the life of a press magnate (played by Welles) who starts out as an idealist but eventually turns into a corrupt, lonely old man. The film featured Cotten prominently in the role of Kane's best friend Jedediah Leland, eventually a drama critic for one of Kane's papers.

When released on May 1, 1941, ''Citizen Kane'' – based in part on the life of William Randolph Hearst – did not do much business at theaters; Hearst owned numerous major newspapers, and forbade them to carry advertisements for the film. Nominated for nine Academy Awards in 1942, the film won only for Best Screenplay, for Mankiewicz and Welles. ''Citizen Kane'' launched the film careers of the Mercury Players, including Agnes Moorehead (who played Kane's mother), Ruth Warrick (Kane's first wife), and Ray Collins (Kane's political opponent). However, Cotten was the only one of the four to find major success as a lead in Hollywood outside of ''Citizen Kane''; Moorehead and Collins became successful character film actors and Warrick spent decades in a career in daytime television.

Alexander Korda