Orson Welles Family Album

[Le Chiffre]

Check out Ray Kelly's great new feature, the "Orson Welles Family Album" at the Wellesnet Main Page!:

http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=3128

[jbrooks]

I stumbled upon this comment on a random webpage, found it interesting --

http://thewhole9.com/blogs/question/201 ... ackground/

I was very surprised to learn that one of my favorite VO talent guys who I used to hire a lot (Tim McIntire) was not only a former movie star (“American Hot Wax”, “The Sterile Cukoo”, “Brubaker”), but composed the soundtracks for “Jeremiah Johnson” and “A Boy and His Dog”. He looked like a strung out biker in leathers and Hells Angels vest and would always come into the studio on his harley half in the bag, but he had an incredible voice and was always very friendly and easy to direct. He never talked about his past, so I had no idea (even though I’d seen some of his movies, he looked a lot different and I didn’t recognize him). He died a couple years later (drugs and alcohol) and I learned at his funeral that he was also almost certainly Orson Welles’ illegitimate son by the actress, Jeanette Nolan.

McIntire can be seen in "American Hot Wax" here and his resemblance to Welles in both looks and mannerisms is uncanny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_viO-iTa2v4

[Terry]

Good heavens. Yes, he does.

As does polymath Dave McKean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkgMs8omHoQ

[Roger Ryan]

...his resemblance to Welles in both looks and mannerisms is uncanny...

Tim McIntire's forehead, nose and mouth certainly resembled Welles's, but his eyes looked just like John McIntire's!

[jbrooks]

Roger:

I don't know. I don't see the resemblance in the eyes to John McIntire.



And I think it's telling that if one scrolls through Google Images of Tim from the 1960s through the 1980s, he looks a lot like Welles in almost all of them -- though in different ways at different times.







But the thing that most convinces me far more than looks is the mannerisms. McIntire as Allan Freed in "American Hot Wax" walks, and smokes, and blinks like Welles. If he were playing Welles, I'd say it were an ingenious impersonation.

[Le Chiffre]

We've known about Tim McIntire for years, and IMO, the proof is in the pudding: his strong resemblance to Welles is beyond question. But Dave McKean is a new one on me. I've never seen him before, and yes, he does resemble Welles a lot.


There's not much info about his parentage online, but he was born in 1963, when Welles was 48, so the idea is less implausible than it would be if McKean was born in 1973 or 1983. I've actually had one of his books with Neil Gaiman in my collection for years, THE TRAGICAL COMEDY OR COMICAL TRAGEDY OF MR. PUNCH (1995),
https://www.amazon.com/Tragical-Comedy- ... 1563892464
which is fascinating, although quite dark. I think Mr. Punch and puppet shows is a minor theme that ran tangentially throughout Welles's career, but I digress...

So let's suppose that Tim McIntire was indeed Welles's son. That would of course mean that in 1944 Welles had two women pregnant at the same time; one his wife (Rita Hayworth) and the other a professional associate (Jeannette Nolan). Oh well, shit happens.

[jbrooks]

Has anyone seriously suggested that Dave McKean is really related to Welles or is he just a celebrity who resembles him?

[Terry]

Seems possible, given the resemblance. I couldn't find any evidence, but he was born 20 miles from London and would have been conceived between two of Welles' appearances on BBC TV in London.

[Roger Ryan]

Well, McKean appears to naturally have the "fake nose" that Welles favored in Kane and other screen roles!

[Le Chiffre]

He must have gotten that nose from his mother.

[SteveOrsonShay]

Wonderful! Does anyone here have any photos or details of Rebecca Welles living in Tacoma, Wa? Wellesnet does have a terrific 2014 article referencing this and it has gotten me even more intrigued as a Seattle fan.