Joseph Cotten

Joseph Cotten served as best man at Orson Welles's wedding to Rita Hayworth.

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Despite their volatile relationship, Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles remained friends until Welles's death.

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Joseph Cotten worked with Alfred Hitchcock on one of his best films, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). They worked together again on Under Capricorn (1949), but the film failed after Hitchcock disowned it. Cotten never appeared in another Hitchcock theatrical film, though he did appear in several episodes of Hitchcock's TV series, including one of the few episodes Hitchcock himself directed.

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After a stroke and a laryngectomy, Joseph Cotten retired from acting in the early 1980s.

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Before his famous appearance as Charles Foster Kane's best friend Jed Leland in Citizen Kane (1941), Joseph Cotten appears as one of the reporters in the March of Time parody sequence at the start of the film. He sits in the last row on the far left at the back of the projection room and is clearly visible in only a single shot, but his voice, along with that of Everett Sloane (who plays Bernstein), can often be heard in the darkness of the film's soundtrack.

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Like Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten appeared in films on both the American Film Institute's and the British Film Institute's lists of the best films; for the AFI it was Citizen Kane (1941) for his role as Jedediah Leland, and for the BFI it was The Third Man (1949) for his role as Holly Martins.

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After his marriage to Patricia Medina in 1960, Joseph Cotten lived at 17800 Tramonto Drive in Pacific Palisades. The house is on the ocean side of the street and has a commanding view of the Santa Monica Bay. It is still known by locals as the "Cotten House."

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Joseph Cotten was cast as C. K. Dexter Haven in the original 1939 Broadway production of Philip Barry's play The Philadelphia Story, alongside Katharine Hepburn. When Hepburn, who owned the rights, sold the story to MGM, Cary Grant was cast in the role for the film.

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In the 1940s alone, Joseph Cotten appeared in four Best Picture nominees: Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Gaslight (1944) and Since You Went Away (1944).

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In 1981, Joseph Cotten suffered a debilitating stroke and a heart attack, and he struggled for years to use his baritone voice again. The man, who was intermittently troubled by nodules on his throat, had his larynx removed in 1990 because of cancer.

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Joseph Cotten was a lifelong Republican and conservative, and a staunch supporter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

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Joseph Cotten appeared in four films with Jennifer Jones: Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946) and Portrait of Jennie (1948). Cotten also narrated The Wild Heart (1950), in which Jones starred.

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Joseph Cotten grew up in Petersburg, Virginia, as the eldest of three brothers.

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Joseph Cotten won the Best Actor award at the 1948 Venice Film Festival for Portrait of Jennie (1948).

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Joseph Cotten died of pneumonia at his home in Westwood, Los Angeles.

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Joseph Cotten was portrayed by Matthew Glave in the FX series Feud (2017).

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Joseph Cotten's brother Sam died on February 27, 2010, in Winchester, Virginia, at the age of 90.

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Joseph Cotten was awarded the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in Portrait of Jennie.

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Joseph Cotten had a stepdaughter from his first marriage.

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Joseph Cotten was named Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival in 1948 for Portrait of Jennie.

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