William Alland

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William Alland (born March 4, 1916 in Delmar , Delaware , † November 11, 1997 in Long Beach , California ) was an American actor and film producer who gained fame through his collaboration with Orson Welles .

Life

Alland began his career in show business in the 1920s in New York, where he worked as an actor under the pseudonym Vakhtangov . During this time he met Orson Welles , a year older , who hired him for his Mercury Theater . Here Alland worked as an actor and stage worker and also took on minor roles in Welles' productions on the radio and in feature films.

He played his greatest role under the direction of Welles in his award-winning work Citizen Kane . Alland acted as a reporter trying to trace the life of the late media tsar "Charles Foster Kane" and interviewing many of his former companions without being able to solve the mystery of Kane's last word. His face is seldom seen; instead, the viewer usually only gets to see his shoulder or back in the form of suggestive camera work, whereas his voice is present throughout the film. Alland also took on the fictitious obituary as a production of the fictitious “News on the March” news program in the film.

After his military service in World War II, Alland worked again with Welles. He played in his films The Lady of Shanghai and Macbeth before he gave up his acting career and worked as a producer for Universal Studios . Here he was v. a. Responsible for horror and science fiction productions and supervised classics of the genre such as Danger from Space , The Horror of the Amazon and Metaluna IV does not answer .

William Alland spent his retirement in Long Beach, where he built sailing ships.

Filmography

As a producer (selection)

As an actor

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Alland, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vakhtangov (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Delmar , Delaware , United States
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1997
Place of death Long Beach , California , United States