Joseph Cotten is a universal Hollywood actor. He brilliantly coped with the roles of bandits and goodies. Most of the films in which he played are recognized as classics of cinema.
The tall attractive actor has starred in hundreds of films of various genres for forty years. Despite the merits, the only award of the performer was the Volpi Cup. It was awarded to Joseph at the 1949 Venice Film Festival for The Portrait of Jenny. There's Cotten's personal star on Hollywood Boulevard of Glory.
Time of childhood and adolescence
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was born into a wealthy southern family in Petersburg on May 15, 1905. Of the three sons of his parents, he became the eldest. Whit, Sam and Joe spent the summer months on the coast with their aunt and uncle. From an early age, Joe happily recited poetry, played scenes in front of his family.
In Washington, the young man graduated from Hickman Acting School. In 1924, the aspiring performer moved to New York. For some time after his studies, Joseph worked there as a clerk.
Slava was in no hurry to see the young actor. A year later, he left for Miami, where he worked as a lifeguard, advertising agent, seller of Tip-Top potato salad.
The critic's subsequent work inspired him to take part in theatrical performances. During this time, Joseph took part in local theater productions several times. In 1929, in Boston, he worked an entire season, playing in thirty plays. A year later, the actor was completely ready for his Broadway debut.
Its premiere took place in 1930. He met Orson Welles. The two soon became friends.
Vocation
In 1937, Cotten joined the Orson theater group, where he played the main roles.
In 1938, Joseph starred in his radio play The War of the Worlds. Working in this role helped the artist gain the attention of the RKO Pictures film studio and conclude a contract with it.
A year later, the film premiered. Cotten starred in Wells' film Too Much Jackson
In 1939, Joseph co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the successful Broadway production of The Philadelphia Story. However, in the film adaptation of the production, he was replaced by Cary Grant.
Cotten played Linus Larrabee brilliantly in Sabrina. However, for the film version in 1954, Humphrey Bogart was cast in the lead role. In 1940, filming began for the iconic painting Citizen Kane.
Joseph was offered the role of Jediah Leland. In her acting film career, she became iconic. Despite the devastating reviews from critics, the film entered the list of the brightest premieres of the forties.
Although Orson Welles was called a very difficult person, he remained on an excellent relationship with Joe Cotten for many years. In 1942, the artist again starred in his drama The Magnificent Ambersons.
Film career
Friends wrote the script for Travel into Fear together. In the thriller, Joe got one of the key characters. One of the last major joint projects in 1949 was The Third Man.
In addition to filming Orson's films, Joseph has established himself as a versatile performer in Hollywood. The images of bandits were also brilliantly given to him.
He played superbly the serial killer Charlie in Hitchcock's Shadow of Doubt in 1943. The positive characters were equally great. The actor performed Brian Cameron's detective in Cukor's Gaslight in 1944.
By the mid-forties, Jennifer Jones often starred with Cotten. They worked in four films. The first was the family-war drama Since You Left in 1944.
It was followed by the romantic film Love Letters in 1945. The next was the Western Duel in the Sun, and the tandem finished with the fantastic Portrait of Jenny in 1948.
By the end of the decade, the performer again worked with Hitchcock. He starred in the 1949 thriller Under the Sign of Capricorn. The artist reincarnated as an Australian landowner with a dubious past.
Family life and cinema
By the time the fifties came, Cotten was being offered smaller heroes. In the 1950 September Scam and Niagara with Marilyn Monroe, Joseph went to David Lawrence and George Loomis.
By the end of the fifties, the actor changed the big screen to a television one. For a while he hosted his own show. The actor returned to the big cinema again in 1958 in the episodes "Seal of Evil" and "From Earth to the Moon".
Family life was going well. In 1931 the artist married the pianist Lenore La Montt. They spent three decades together. However, Lenora died of leukemia.
After her loss, Cotten married a second time. His chosen one was the actress Patricia Medina. The wife remained with her husband until his death.
Often, a couple starred together or appeared on the stage of the theater. Joseph did not have joint children in either his first or second marriage.
In 1964, Cotten was offered the main character in the thriller Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. He worked alongside Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland.
Until the end of the decade, the actor also appeared on television, where he became a frequent guest of The Ed Sullivan Show. Finally, Joe switched to minor characters in the seventies. He starred in Horrible Doctor Fibes, Green Soylent, Airport with a whole galaxy of Hollywood stars.
Doctor Reverend from The Gates of Heaven became his final work. Western 1980 was received negatively by the public. The picture was removed from the box office a week after the show began.
Last years
Unexpectedly, the tape received prestigious awards. Along with the Oscar, she was awarded the Palme d'Or in Cannes. The seventy-five-year-old actor completely retired in 1981.
After a heart attack in 1981, he practically lost his speech. She recovered after several years of therapy. With his wife, the performer retired in the town of Westwood in his own house.
By 1987, he had published an autobiography. The book immediately became a bestseller. Cotten died in 1994, at the beginning of February.
From his second marriage, he only had a stepdaughter. According to Cotten, both Wells, Hitchcock and Reed have named Citizen Kane, Shadow of Doubt, and The Third Man as their best films. All of these films starred Joseph.
In 2008, the premiere of the drama Me and Orson Welles took place. The role of Cotten in the film was played by James Tupper, a Canadian actor.
