Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He first gained worldwide fame in the Orson Welles films Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay. He went on to become one of the leading Hollywood actors of the 1940s, appearing in films such as Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Love Letters (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948) and The Third Man (1949). One of his final films was the infamous Michael Cimino-directed film Heaven's Gate (1980).
Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Shadow of a Doubt, The Magnificent Ambersons, Duel in the Sun, Portrait of Jennie, Gaslight, Niagara, Journey into Fear, Soylent Green, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Since You Went Away, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Love Letters, Heaven's Gate, Under Ca...
TV Shows
Hollywood and the Stars, The Joseph Cotten Show, The 20th Century Fox Hour
[on Everett Sloane] You know how he was so ugly there was a certain beauty about him. But he had his nose altered, wore contact lenses instead of his thick glasses, had his hair straightened, and no one wanted him. He became so morose that he walked out into the middle of the road and killed himself.
2
In Hollywood, those stars who have been around a long while and seem to grow better with time are the ones who regard "stardom" merely as an opportunity to grow.
3
[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] I think we all wanted it to be a different picture than it was, especially Joan [Crawford]. She felt Bette [Davis] wasn't trying enough to life the script up to their level instead of simply playing down to it. She never came right out and said it to me but I could see it on her face. Joan wanted it to be a 'quality' picture. I think the movie works well enough for what it is, but it's no Gone with the Wind (1939) or anything resembling a true 'quality' picture.
4
[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] Bette [Davis] is determined to make her mark on this picture, and Joan [Crawford] is determined to do the same and not be, how shall I put it, gobbled up by Bette, but for heaven's sake, don't quote me.
[on making Citizen Kane (1941) with Orson Welles] Orson must have been about 22 then and I still think he's one of the greatest directors in the world. I don't know why people regard him as a difficult man. He was the easiest, most inspiring man I've ever worked with. He was the only one who seemed to know what he was doing because we were all virgins on that picture.
7
I was a so-called star because of my limitations and that was always the case. I couldn't do any accents. So I had to pretend. Luckily I was tall, had curly hair and a good voice. I only had to stamp my foot and I'd play the lead -- because I couldn't play character parts.
8
My wife told me one of the sweetest things one could hear: "I am not jealous. But I am truly sad for all the actresses who embrace you and kiss you while acting, for with them, you are only pretending."
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[on Orson Welles] I know a little about Orson's childhood and seriously doubt if he ever was a child.
He died of pneumonia at his home in Westwood, Los Angeles.
4
Cotten had suffered a debilitating stroke and heart attack in 1981, and fought for years to regain use of his baritone voice. Troubled intermittently by throat nodules, he had his larynx removed in 1990 because of cancer.
Worked with Alfred Hitchcock in one of his finest films, Shadow of a Doubt (1943). They worked again in Under Capricorn (1949) but the film flopped with Hitch disowned it. Cotton never was asked to appear in any subsequent Hitchcock film.
8
Grew up in Petersburg, Virginia, the oldest of three brothers.
His first film appearance is in 1937 in "Seeing the World, Part One: A Visit to New York", a 10-minute silent film directed & photographed by Rudy Burkhardt, in which he is credited as "Joseph Cotton", acting briefly in a bar scene.
11
His brother, Sam, passed away on February 27, 2010 in Winchester, Virginia, at the age of 90.
Before his celebrated appearance as Charles Foster Kane's best friend, Jed Leland, in Citizen Kane (1941), he appears as one of the reporters in the March of Time parody sequence early in the film. He is seated in the back of the projection room, in the last row at the far left, and is only clearly visible in one shot, but his voice along with that of Everett Sloane's (who plays Bernstein) can often be heard in the darkness on the soundtrack.
15
Was cast as C.K. Dexter Haven in the original 1939 Broadway production of Philip Barry's play Philadelphia StoryZ with Katharine Hepburn. When Hepburn, who owned the rights, sold the story to MGM, Cary Grant was cast in the part.
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Despite their mercurial relationship, he and Orson Welles remained friends until Welles' death.
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Like Orson Welles, he has appeared in the top films of both the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; for AFI it was Citizen Kane (1941) as Jedediah Leland and for BFI, its The Third Man (1949) as Holly Martins.
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Had a step-daughter from first marriage.
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Retired from acting in the early 1980s after a stroke and a laryngectomy.
$8 Million
