Orson Welles with an entirely African American cast, and the political musical "The Cradle Will Rock". In 1937 he and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre, an independent repertory theatre company that presented a series of productions on Broadway through 1941. Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel "The War of the Worlds" performed for his radio anthology series "The Mercury Theatre on the Air". It reportedly caused widespread panic when listeners thought that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was actually occurring. Although some contemporary sources say these
Orson Welles In 1984, Welles wrote the screenplay for a film he planned to direct, an autobiographical drama about the 1937 staging of "The Cradle Will Rock". Rupert Everett was slated to play the young Welles. However, Welles was unable to acquire funding. Tim Robbins later directed a similar film, but it was not based on Welles's script. At the time of his death, Welles was in talks with a French production company to direct a film version of the Shakespeare play "King Lear", in which he would also play the title role. "" was an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel. Welles