In the final week of his life Orson Welles gave two interviews in which he reflected on his career and old age.
On October 3rd 1985, he described being able to make Citizen Kane (1941) as “a total piece of luck”, how he “always hated Hollywood”, why he couldn’t compromise and that he wanted to be remembered as “a good guy, rather than a difficult genius”:
Then on October 10th, he gave what would be his final interview on The Merv Griffin Show, where the pair talked about old age, Rita Hayworth, the funeral of Harry Cohn, Marlene Dietrich, soaps and his early career:
He died hours after the taping of the show and Entertainment Tonight did this obituary piece:
Rona Barrett mentioned that his last filmed piece was an intro for a special black and white episode of Moonlighting, which was dedicated to him:
Strangely he died on the same day as Yul Brynner.
> Find out more about Orson Welles at MUBi and Wikipedia
> The Orson Welles TV Show
> The infamous frozen peas advert outtakes