Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. was an American actor who appeared in film, stage, radio, and television. He rose to prominence on Broadway as the principal actor in Sabrina Fair and The Philadelphia Story, the original theatrical versions. Cotten starred in and co-wrote the screenplays for his next three films, Journey into Fear, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Citizen Kane, all of which he co-wrote with Orson Welles and helped him gain international recognition.
Cotten performed in a variety of films during the 1940s, including Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, Love Letters, Duel in the Sun, The Farmer's Daughter, Portrait of Jennie (for which he got the Volpi Cup for Best Actor), The Third Man (co-starring with Orson Welles), and Niagara. Michael Cimino directed his last picture, Heaven's Gate.
Critics and media outlets frequently identify him as one of the finest performers who never received an Academy Award nomination.
Early years
Model Joseph Cotten was on The American Magazine's list.
Tenant on horse consumes hat.
While filming sequences for Too Much Johnson, a theatrical production, Cotten and Edgar Barrier
Katharine Hepburn and Cotten feature in the Broadway musical The Philadelphia Story.
The Citizen Kane teaser introduces us to Cotten.
Cotten, Ray Collins, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, and Agnes Moorehead appear in The Magnificent Ambersons.
Cotten and Dolores del Rio co-star in the film Journey into Fear.
The Mercury Wonder Show stars Orson Welles, George Chirello, Cotten, and assistant Eleanor Counts.
Cotten acts as best man during Rita Hayworth's wedding to Orson Welles.
The film Shadow of a Doubt stars Cotten.
Members of the Arts and Sciences Independent Voting Committee pay the president a visit. From left to right: Dr. Harlow Shapley, Dorothy Gish, Cotten, Jan Kiepura, Jo Davidson, Hannah Dorner, and Van Wyck Brooks.
Jennifer Jones and Cotten feature in the film Duel in the Sun.
Sally Willson Cotten and Joseph Cheshire Cotten Sr. had three sons; the eldest, Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr., was born on May 15, 1905, in Petersburg, Virginia, United States. Joseph Sr. was the assistant postmaster. Whitworth "Whit" Cotten and Samuel "Whit" Cotten are his brothers. They were both engineers. Cotten has a natural flair for storytelling and acting as a youngster in the Tidewater area.
In 1923, when Cotten was eighteen years old, his family paid for individual instruction at Washington, D.C.'s Hickman School of Expression. During WWII, Cotten served in the United States Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit.
Playing professional football on Sundays for $25 each quarter allowed Cotten to earn some extra money. He was able to return his family's debt, plus interest, after graduating from college by working as a lifeguard at Wilcox Lake.4-7 in In 1925, he moved to Miami and started working as a $35-per-week advertising salesperson for The Miami Herald. He began his career as an actor at the Miami Civic Theatre, where he spent five years while simultaneously writing play reviews for the Miami Herald.
Debuts on Broadway and in cinema from 1932 to 1939.
Following his relocation to New York, Cotten worked as David Belasco's assistant stage manager. He worked on almost 30 plays at Boston's Copley Theatre after shadowing Melvyn Douglas in Tonight or Never. Cotten resorted to appearing in industrial films and modeling for the Walter Thornton Model Agency during the Great Depression since she couldn't get employment anywhere else. He also performed on the radio. Absent Friends, Cotten's Broadway debut in 1932, ran for 88 performances. Following that, he organized a brief run of Jezebel, directed by Guthrie McClintic and starring Katherine Cornell. He featured in eight performances of Loose Moments.
In 1934, Cotten met Orson Welles, a co-star of CBS Radio's The American School of the Air, and the two became friends.:?30-31 Welles chose Cotten as the lead in his Federal Theatre Project comedy Horse Eats Hat because he believed the actor was funny. Cotten was confident that his performance in Horse Eats Hat piqued the interest of Katharine Hepburn, who would eventually co-star with him on Broadway. Curly hair, a thin physique, and a tall stature are all blessings, Welles allegedly said Cotten later. Moving around the stage without falling over any of the furniture is also an option. These are only advantages, and I doubt you'll ever have a successful acting career. However, I feel you have a decent chance of making it as a celebrity.
Caesar, a Broadway production by Welles' Mercury Theatre company that Cotten joined in 1937 and performed in as Publius, had 157 performances. Later, he composed Danton's Death and The Shoemaker's Holiday for Welles. Cotten appeared in radio dramas sponsored by The Campbell Playhouse and The Mercury Theatre on Air. Too Much Johnson, a short comedy produced by Orson Welles and intended to complement the Mercury Theater's 1938 unsuccessful staging of William Gillette's 1894 play, was Cotten's first appearance in a feature film that year. After never having a public showing, the film went lost in 2008.
In 1939, Cotten made her Broadway comeback in Philip Barry's original production of The Philadelphia Story, portraying C. K. Dexter Haven opposite Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord. MGM opted to make a film adaptation of the play in the months leading up to its enormous national tour, and the Shubert Theatre hosted 417 performances. After gaining success on stage in The Philadelphia Story, Cotten headed to Hollywood, where he had the problem of "spending a solid year creating the Cary Grant role," as his agent Leland Hayward described it. Hayward recommends contacting Orson Welles, who is close friends with Cotten. "He's been making big waves out here" was the saying about Hayward. "Maybe no one in Hollywood has ever heard of New York's Shubert Theatre, but everyone is familiar with the Mercury Theatre"