| Orson Welles and the Oscars |
At the 1942 Academy Awards, Orson Welles won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his work on "Citizen Kane." Actually, Welles shared the award with Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was apparently the primary author of the screenplay, and many have argued that Welles’ contribution to the writing of "Citizen Kane" was minor. Also, John Houseman seems to have been an uncredited contributor to the development of the screenplay.
Welles potentially could have won four statuettes at the 1942 Academy Awards for his work on "Citizen Kane," but his only win was in the Best Original Screenplay category. He was nominated for Best Director, but lost to John Ford, who won for "How Green Was My Valley." Welles was also nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Gary Cooper, who won for "Sergeant York." "Citizen Kane" was also a Best Picture nominee, and as its producer Welles would have taken home that Oscar if his film had won, but instead the Best Picture statuette went to the producer of "How Green Was My Valley."
There’s not much doubt that the controversy over "Citizen Kane" hurt Welles’ chances of winning anything at the 1942 Academy Awards. "Kane" was inspired by the life of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, and the film presented unflattering portraits of characters who were surrogates for him and his mistress, actress Marion Davies. Hearst and Davies were popular in the movie community, and this probably influenced the voting of some Academy members. Still, the Academy might have preferred well-done conventional films like "How Green Was My Valley" and patriotic fare like "Sergeant York" over the innovative, downbeat "Citizen Kane" anyway.
Outside of "Citizen Kane," there was only one other occasion when Welles was nominated for an Oscar for a specific film: Welles was the producer of "The Magnificent Ambersons," which was one of the Best Picture nominees at the 1943 Academy Awards. But the winner that year for Best Picture was "Mrs. Minniver."
After 1943 Welles went on to make several good movies, including "The Lady from Shanghai" (1948), "Touch of Evil" (1958), and "Chimes at Midnight" (1967), but no specific film was ever again to bring him an Oscar nomination. However, in 1971 the Academy awarded Welles an honorary Oscar "for superlative artistry and versatility in the creation of motion pictures."
