Joseph Cotten

At 88 years old, Joseph Cotten has this physical status:

Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio, and television actor.

Cotten made a name for herself on Broadway, appearing in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He first gained international recognition in three Orson Welles films: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also involved in the screenplay.

He went on to become one of the top Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films including Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Love Letters (1945), and Duel in the Sun (1948), Portrait of Jennie (1948) and Niagara (1953).

Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate (1980) was one of his last films.

Early life

Joseph Cotten was born in 1905 in Petersburg, Virginia, the first of three boys born to Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster, and Sally Willson Cotten. 224 He grew up in the Tidewater area and displayed an aptitude for drama as well as a gift for storytelling.

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

Personal life

Lenore Kipp, his first wife, died of leukemia at the start of 1960. Joseph Cotten married British actress Patricia Medina on October 20, 1960, in Beverly Hills, at the home of David O. Selznick and Jennifer Jones. He and Patricia bought a historic 1935 home in Palm Springs, California, where they lived from 1985 to 1992. There were no children of the marriage.

In 1961, Cotten was accepted into the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of North Carolina, based on a common descent from Captain Hudson Whitaker, Seventh Regiment, North Carolina Continental Line. Captain Whitaker was held in hereditary office until his death in 1994.

Cotten's heart attack was followed by a stroke that affected his brain's speech center on June 8, 1981. He began years of therapy, which made it possible for him to talk again. For a few hours as he began to recover, Orson Welles and I talked on the phone every week for a few hours. "He was steadfast and encouraging," Cotten said, "and if I used the wrong word (which was often) he'd say, 'I'm going to use it.'" For lunch and reminisce, he and Wellesce will dine. Welles begged for the manuscript and read it the night after Cotten revealed that he had written a book.

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Welles told his friend and mentor Roger Hill that Cotten had written a book, and Hill wondered how it read in a phone call on October 9, 1985. "Gentle, witty, and self-effacing, just like Jo," Welles said. "My only complaint is that it's too short." Welles died the next day. "Under a manuscript of this book," Cotten wrote on the last page of his autobiography, "Vanity Will Get You Somewhere."

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Cotten's larynx was removed from the chest in 1990 due to cancer. He died of pneumonia on February 6, 1994, at the age of 88. He was buried in Petersburg, Virginia, at Blandford Cemetery.

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Career

On Sundays, Cotten earned more money by playing competitive football for $25 a quarter. He earned enough funds as a lifeguard at Wilcox Lake to repay his family's loan with interest after graduation.

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In 1925, he moved to Miami and worked as an advertising salesman for The Miami Herald, earning $35 per week. He began performing at the Miami Civic Theatre and spent five years there, as well as covering the Herald's shows.

Cotten came from New York to work for David Belasco as an assistant stage manager. Melvyn Douglas was understudied in Tonight or Never, Douglas took over Douglas' appearance in Boston's Copley Theatre, where he appeared in over 30 plays.

Cotten had trouble finding jobs in the depression and so he turned to modeling under the Walter Thornton Model Agency and appearing in industrial films. He has appeared on radio as well. In 1932, Cotten appeared in Absent Friends, which had 88 performances.

Jezebel (1933), staged by Katherine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic, which only had a short run, was followed by him.

He appeared in Loose Moments, which was an eight-performance tour.

Cotten lived and became friends with Orson Welles, a fellow cast member of CBS Radio's The American School of the Air, in 1934. 30 – 31 Welles regarded Cotten as a brilliant comic actor, aged 166 and giving him the lead in his Federal Theatre Project farce, Horse Eats Hat: 34 (September 26 – December 5, 1936). With the knowledge of Katharine Hepburn's upcoming Broadway co-star, 334 Cotten, he was positive that Horse Eats Hat would have given him the news.

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Welles later told him, "You're very lucky to be tall and thin, with curly hair." You can also get around the stage without having to reach the furniture. However, these are fringe benefits, and I'm afraid you won't be able to make it as an actor. However, as a comedian, I believe you have a chance to win the jackpot."

Cotten was an inaugural member of Welles' Mercury Theatre company in 1937, starring in its Broadway revivals Caesar as Publius; the company ran for 157 performances.

He narrated it with Welles' Holiday (1938) and Ashoemaker's Death (1938). In radio dramas on The Mercury Theatre on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse, Cotten has appeared in radio dramas.

Cotten appeared in Too Much Johnson, a short film directed by Welles, a comedy that was supposed to complement William Gillette's 1894 play. The film was never shown in public before 2008 (and then screened in 2013 at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival).

In the original version of Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story, Cotten appeared in Broadway in 1939, playing C. K. Dexter Haven opposite Katharine Hepburn's Tracy Lord. The play appeared at the Shubert Theatre for 417 performances, and MGM promised to produce a film version in the months leading up to the Shubert Theatre's huge national tour. Cotten went to Hollywood, but later discovered that his stage success in The Philadelphia Story aided to, in the words of his agent Leland Hayward, "spending a long year in the Cary Grant role." Orson Welles, Hayward's closest friend, was named after Cotten's. Hayward said, "He's been making major waves out here." "Maybe no one in Hollywood ever heard of the Shubert Theatre in New York," says the director, but everybody knows about the Mercury Theatre in New York."

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Welles received a unique deal with RKO Pictures after the success of Welles' 1938 Halloween radio broadcast. Welles's intention was to have full creative control for the young director under an agreed budget limit, and he wanted to include the Mercury Players in his productions. After a year of shooting on a Welles film, but after a meeting with writer Herman J. Mankiewicz Welles, a new idea was launched.

Filming on Citizen Kane began in mid-1940, portraying a press magnate (played by Welles) who starts out as an idealist but eventually transforms into a bitter, lonely old man. Cotten appeared in the role of Kane's closest friend, Jedediah Leland, and then a drama critic for one of Kane's papers.

Citizen Kane, a company based in part on William Randolph Hearst's life, did not do well at theaters when they were announced on May 1, 1941; Hearst owned several major newspapers, but forbidden them to carry advertisements for the film. In 1942, the film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but only for Best Screenplay for Mankiewicz and Welles. Citizen Kane introduced the Mercury Players' film careers, including Agnes Moorehead (who appeared in Kane's mother), Ruth Warrick (Kane's first wife), and Ray Collins (Kane's political foe). However, Cotten was the only one of the four lead actors to make a name for themselves in Hollywood outside of Citizen Kane; Moorehead and Collins became successful character film actors and Warrick spent decades in daytime television.

Alexander Korda recruited Cotten to play Merle Oberon's leading man in Lydia (1941). "I wasn't worried about the movies," Cotten said later. "I was tall." I had curly hair. I could debate. It was simple to do."

In Welles' adaptation and production of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Cotten appeared. RKO was apprehensive about the new film after poor preview responses, and it was cut almost an hour before its release. Despite the fact that the film was disjointed at certain points, critics lauded it highly. Despite the Academy's high praise for his work, Cotten was snubbed once more for his role.

In the thriller Journey into Fear (1943), based on Eric Ambler's book, Cotten was cast. Ben Hecht's script was first scripted, but Welles, the supervising, disliked it, and Cotten rewrote it with Cotten. Norman Foster, a RKO production, was produced. Due to the difficulties of shooting the film and the pressures connected to Welles' imminent departure to South America to begin filming on It's All True, it was a team effort.

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In Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Alfred Hitchcock cast Cotten to play a charming serial killer. It was produced for Universal Pictures, for whom Cotten appeared in Shes to Hold (1943), as Deanna Durbin's leading man.

Welles' return to the United States military services, he and Cotten co-produced The Mercury Wonder Exhibition for members of the US armed services. The all-star magic and variety show on Broadway's 9000 Cahuenga Boulevard began on August 3, 1943. Welles (Orson the Magnificent), Cotten (Jo-Jo the Great), Rita Hayworth (forced to resign by Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn and replaced by Marlene Dietrich), Agnes Moorehead (Cayope Aggie), and others were among the featured artists. More than 48,000 of them had not seen a show by September 1943, 177, 377, 378.

Cotten visited Welles' office in late 1943, finding that producer David O. Selznick wanted to make two or three films with him but that he wanted him to work under his own name. "He can do more for you than I can," Cotten's deal with Mercury Productions came to an end.

Good luck!

"186 Cotten has signed a long-term contract with Selznick."

Selznick loaned Cotten and Ingrid Bergman to MGM for the epic Gaslight (1944) which was a major hit. Selznick continued to put Cotten in a wartime drama Since You Went Away (1944), alongside Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, and Shirley Temple; it was another huge success.

Selznick continued this trend by teaming Cotten with Ginger Rogers and Temple in I'll Be Seeing You (1945), another melodrama. Love Letters was borrowed from Cotten and Jones by Hal Wallis (1945). In 1945, delegates voted him the 17th most influential celebrity in the United States.

Selznick's Sun (1946), an epic Western that was hugely popular at the box office, featured Cotten, Jennifer Jones, and Gregory Peck.

Dore Schary, who had worked with Selznick, volunteered for RKO and recruited Cotten for The Farmer's Daughter (1947), where he was Loretta Young's leading man. After Cotten made Portrait of Jennie (1948) for Selznick, co-starring Jones; Cotten played a melancholy artist who was obsessed with a girl who may have died many years ago. At the 1949 Venice International Film Festival, his performance earned him the International Prize for Best Actor.

In The Third Man (1949), produced by Korda and Selznick, Cotten was reunited with Welles. In a postwar Vienna, Cotten portrays a writer of pulp fiction who visits his friend Harry Lime (Welles). When he lands, he is told that Lime has died. He uncovers an even more disturbing truth as he tries to tell the cops that his friend was murdered. Years later, Cotten's "Orson Welles" is his best film, Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt is his best film, and Sir Carol Reed opts for "The Third Man" – "I'm in all of them."

In Under Capricorn (1949) as an Australian landowner with a shady history, Cotten was reunited with Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman, a box office disappointment; it was a box office flop. Beyond the Forest (1949) with Bette Davis at Warner Bros.

In September Affair (1950) for Hal Wallis, Cotten costarred with Joan Fontaine. Selznick loaned him to the 20th Century Fox for the grim Civil War Western Two Flags West (1950), then to RKO for Walk Softly, Stranger (1950, photo from 1948), reunited him with Alida Valli from The Third Man. It was a massive failure.

He appeared at Fox with Young (1951) and then went to MGM for The Man with a Cloak (1951) with Barbara Stanwyck. In Welles' Othello (1951), he had a cameo.

During the filming of which he was injured, Cotten did a Western at Universal, Untamed Frontier (1953). Andrew L. Stone, The Steel Trap (1952), reunited with Teresa Wright from Shadow of a Doubt, was a thriller.

He was in the Marilyn Monroe car in Niagara (1953), after James Mason resigned from his role at Fox. He narrated Egypt by three (1953) and was reunited with Stone in A Blueprint for Murder (1953).

Cotten appeared Linus Larrabee, Jr. in the original Broadway production of Sabrina Fair in 1953, opposite Margaret Sullavan. The production ran from November 11, 1953 to August 21, 1954, and was the basis for the Billy Wilder film Sabrina, which starred Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. Arthur Penn's production of State of the Union for Producers' Showcase starring He and Sullivan was filmed by him and Sullivan.

Cotten did a special delivery (1955) in West Germany, as part of Broadway's The Best of Broadway (1955) directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. He appeared on episodes of Celebrity Playhouse, The Ford Television Theatre, Star Stage, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (several times) and the General Electric Theater.

On television, Cotten hosted The 20th Century Fox Hour in 1955.

Cotten appeared in On Trial, the NBC anthology series (renamed at mid-season The Joseph Cotten Show) in 1956. It was a 41-episos series.

He returned to appearances with The Bottom of the Bottle (1956), The Killer Is Loose (1957) and The Halliday Brand (1957).

He appeared on Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre, Telephone Time, Playhouse 90, Schlitz Playhouse, Zane Grey Theater, Suspicion, and the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. He made a cameo appearance in Welles' Touch of Evil (1958) and a lead role in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon film adaptation (also 1958).

When Cotten appeared in Once More, With Feeling (1958–60) which ran for 263 performances, he had another success on Broadway. For the third time, Cotten appeared in a Broadway play, but Yul Brynner did not reprise his role in the film version.

Cotten appeared in the films The Angel Wore Red (1960) and The Last Sunset (1961), the latter directed by Robert Aldrich, and the guest appeared on The DuPont Show, June Allyson, Checkmate, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Theatre '62 (an adaptation of Notorious), Saints and Sinners.

Cotten performed in Calculated Risk (1962–63), which spanned 221 performances and resulted in him having to postpone a role in Harrigan's Halo. He appeared on The Great Adventure and 77 Sunset Strip, as did pilot Alexander the Great (1963).

After some time away from film, Cotten appeared in the horror film Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) for Aldrich, along with Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, and Agnes Moorehead.

Cotten was top-billed in The Great Sioux Massacre (1965) and The Tramplers (1965), but he returned to assist parts of The Money Trap (1965) and The Oscar (1966). He was top billed in Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1966), directed by Foster, The Cruel Ones (1967), Some May Live (1967) and Gangsters (1968).

He appeared on Cimarron Strip, Ironside, and Journey to the Unknown, as well as supporting roles in Jack of Diamonds (1967). In White Comanche (1968) and Latitude Zero (1969) (shot in Japan with his wife) and promoted in the television series The Lonely Profession (1969) Cutter's Trail (1970). He appeared on ROWAN AND MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN variety show as himself (1968).

Cotten was in The Name of the Game, It Takes a Robber, A.K. Playhouse, Cotten (1970), Tora!

Tora!

Tora!, Assault on the Wayne (1971), Issault on the Wayne (1971), Do You Take This Stranger? (1971), City Beneath the Sea (1971), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), Lady Frankenstein (1971), and The Screaming Woman (1972) with De Havilland.

He appeared in Doomsday Voyage (1972), Baron Blood (1972), and The Scope Game (1977), and was one of the Lost Boys (1976). The Hardy Boys (1979), A defia (1977), The Devil's Daughter (1978), Aspen, Cahn (1979), Monsday (1979), The Unknown and Fantasy Island

Later, he confessed to "I was in a lot of garbage." "I get anxious when I don't work."

The Hearse (1980), Casino (1980), Heaven's Gate (1980), The Love Boat (1981), Photograph of Australia (1981), and Delusion (1981). In 1981, Cotten suffered a stroke that caused him to temporarily lose his voice.

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