Orson Welles was a thespian.
Orson Welles . Welles found national and international fame as the director and narrator of a 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells ' novel The War of the Worlds performed for his radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air . His first film was Citizen Kane ( 1941 ) , which he co-wrote , produced , directed , and starred in as Charles Foster Kane . The Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles , his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane .