Simon Callow
Orson Welles biographer Simon Callow revealed on Valentine’s Day that he is beginning work on his fourth and final book on the life and career of the late filmmaker.
He is traveling to Los Angeles this week to begin research on the as yet untitled book.
The celebrated 68-year-old British actor/director/author tweeted on Wednesday, “Off to Angel City tomorrow to begin the research for fourth – and LAAAAAST – volume of my Orson Welles Biography covering the frustrating but oddly inspiring final two decades of the great explorer. Los Angeles was to Welles what Paris was to Wagner: never kind, never accepting.”
Callow’s well-received Orson Welles, Volume 3: One-Man Band, the third in his planned four-book biographical series on the late actor-director, was published in Britain on November 25, 2015. The first volume, The Road to Xanadu, was published in 1996, and the followup, Hello Americans in 2006.
The fourth volume will cover the final 20 years of Welles’ life.
Callow tells Wellesnet that he hopes to see the fourth volume published in 2019. He researched Welles’ final years during the previous books and is currently adding to that research.
“They are in some ways the most fascinating years of his life,” Callow told Wellesnet in March 2016. “I want to go back to the sources. I now understand him so much better than when i did the initial research, conducted all those interviews. I want to re-interview a lot of people – though of course sadly many of them are gone – Gary Graver, most notably.”
Since the publication of Volume 3: One-Man Band a little more than two years ago, Callow has not slowed own. In addition to his stage work, he has appeared in six films, published the book Being Wagner and contributed his views on Welles to the Criterion Collection releases of Chimes at Midnight and Othello.
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