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Paola Mori

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Paola Mori
Paola Mori and Orson Welles (May 1955)
Born
Paola di Gerfalco, Contessa di Gerfalco

(1928-09-18)18 September 1928
Italy
Died12 August 1986(1986-08-12) (aged 57)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
NationalityItalian
OccupationActress
Years active1953–1962
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1955; died 1985)​

ChildrenBeatrice Welles

Paola di Gerfalco, Contessa di Gerfalco (18 September 1928 – 12 August 1986), better known by her professional name Paola Mori, was an Italian actress and aristocrat, and the third and last wife of Orson Welles.[1]

Biography

Paola Mori was born in 1928 to an Italian aristocratic family. During World War II, she spent eights months in a concentration camp, Her father, a colonel in the Italian army under King Victor Emmanuel III, was a member of the anti-Mussolini resistance. [2]

By 1953, she had begun carving out a career for herself as a film actress, playing supporting roles in several Italian films.

In 1953, Mori met Orson Welles,[3] and he cast her as the female lead of his film Mr. Arkadin (1955). Mori 's voice was dubbed by Billie Whitelaw to conceal her Italian accent.

The couple embarked on a passionate affair, and married at her parents' insistence.[4]: 168  The couple's wedding ceremony was held in London on 8 May 1955, and their daughter, Beatrice Welles, was born in New York on 13 November 1955.[5]: 417, 419 

Following her marriage, Mori acted in only a handful of projects - all directed by her husband - and then withdrew from acting altogether. [6]

She assisted Welles with The Trial by picking the musical score and appearing in a bit part. Mori scouted locations for Chimes at Midnight and Don Quixote. She also helped with costume designs for Chimes at Midnight. [2] Much of Welles's 1968 film The Immortal Story was shot in the couple's home, located outside of Madrid, Spain.[7]

Mori and Welles moved from Europe to Sedona, Arizona, in 1976. They lived there for two years before purchasing a home in Las Vegas. The move to Las Vegas provided easier access to an airport for Welles. [8]

Gary Graver, Welles' cameraman for the last fifteen years of his life, wrote in a book co-authored with film historian Andrew J. Rausch that "the couple was estranged from the mid-1960s through [to] Welles's death in 1985."[9] His description is at odds with accounts given by Beatrice Welles, who says her mother provided a loving, stable home life for the film-maker for much of their thirty-year marriage;[10] Welles' close friend, film-maker Juan Cobos;[11] and Chimes at Midnight co-star Keith Baxter.[12]

Although British tabloids reported Welles's affair with Oja Kodar as early as 1969 (which was a factor in his moving permanently to the United States in 1970), neither Mori nor her daughter were aware of the relationship until 1984. In the early 1980s, Welles divided his time between his Las Vegas home with Mori and their daughter, and a Los Angeles home with Kodar, and the two women never met during his life. When Mori found out about Kodar in 1984, she threw Welles out of their Nevada house, and neither Mori nor Beatrice Welles saw him for much of the last year of his life, although they still talked regularly on the telephone. Beatrice stated: "They sort of separated toward the end because he had a girlfriend. My mother found out about it, and he denied it. She told him he could come back home as soon as he stopped lying to her. He didn't come home during that last year of his life, but he and my mother talked on the phone every day."[13]

This situation had serious ramifications for the copyright status of Welles' work after his death. Welles left Kodar his Los Angeles home and the rights to his unfinished films, and turned the rest of the estate over to Mori. His widow questioned several deals signed by Welles in his final weeks that greatly benefited Kodar and had never been reviewed by his lawyer.[14] A year after Welles' death, Mori and Kodar agreed on the settlement of his will. However, Mori was killed in a car accident in Las Vegas on August 12, 1986 before the agreement was signed. Mori's portion of the estate was inherited by Beatrice, who signed an agreement with Kodar in December 1986.[15] She cited her unhappiness with a Kodar-led restoration of the unfinished film Don Quixote in 1992.[16] Legal wranglings between the two women persisted for over twenty-five years, leading to litigation over Welles' unfinished films - legal action by Beatrice on at least three occasions prevented Welles' final film, The Other Side of the Wind, from being completed, though she joined producers in October 2014 in an effort to finish the film.[17]

Death

Mori was in an automobile accident in Las Vegas on August 12, 1986, when a car driven by a family friend pulled into cross traffic and was broadsided. She died from head injuries at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas several hours later at the age of 57.[18][19][20]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 98. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
  2. ^ a b "Beatrice Welles online chat transcript". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Paola Mori". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  4. ^ Feder, Chris Welles (2009). In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books. ISBN 9781565125995.
  5. ^ Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1992). This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
  6. ^ "Paola Mori". IMDb. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  7. ^ "THE IMMORTAL STORY | American Cinematheque". americancinemathequecalendar.com. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  8. ^ "Sedona's Citizen Welles | Sedona Monthly Magazine". Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  9. ^ Gary Graver with Andrew J. Rausch, Making Movies With Orson Welles: A Memoir (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2008) p.13
  10. ^ "Beatrice Welles interview – Part 1: Treasures to be auctioned..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  11. ^ wellesnet (3 May 2016). "Juan Cobos recalls 'Chimes at Midnight' 50 years after Cannes showing". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  12. ^ wellesnet (28 September 2015). "Keith Baxter recalls Orson Welles, 'Chimes at Midnight' at BFI event". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  13. ^ Lois Armstrong, 'Once Moor with Feeling: Orson Welles's Daughter Beatrice Restores His Lost Masterpiece, Othello', People magazine interview, April 27, 1992 Vol. 37 No. 16
  14. ^ wellesnet (14 March 2016). "Unraveling the complex Estate of Orson Welles; court records..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  15. ^ wellesnet (14 March 2016). "Unraveling the complex Estate of Orson Welles; court records..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  16. ^ "Beatrice Welles interview – Part 1: Treasures to be auctioned..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  17. ^ Carvajal, Doreen (28 October 2014). "Orson Welles's Last Film May Finally Be Released". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  18. ^ "Widow of Orson Welles Dies After Car Crash". AP NEWS. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Paola Mori; Widow of Actor Orson Welles". Los Angeles Times. 14 August 1986. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  20. ^ Ap (14 August 1986). "Paola Welles Dead in Crash (Published 1986)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
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