by Rachel Dominic

翻译：海月

电影天才奥逊·威尔斯

Orson Welles: a Potted History

by Rachel Dominic

翻译：海月

奥逊·威尔斯是美国历史上罕见的具有重要文化意义的电影家，集演员、导演、编剧、制片人等多种角色于一身的电影天才。作为演员，他参演了一百多部电影（包括配音）；作为编剧，他写了42个剧本；作为导演，他执导了近40部影片。1975年，美国电影学会授予威尔斯终身成就奖。

Orson Welles was born on the 6thof May,1915, in Wisconsin, far smaller than the 6’1” overweight man he would one day become.His parents were both successful in two very different careers: his father Richard Welles was an inventor and his mother Beatrice Welles was an accomplished concert pianist.However, their relationship did notmimic[模仿]this success and when he was just six, Orson’s parents separated.If notdistressing[使痛苦的]enough to a child so young, Orson lost his mother tohepatitis[肝炎]when he was just nine.Then only three years later, at twelve, his father also died after taking Orson on a trip around the world.

1915年5月6日，奥逊·威尔斯出生于美国威斯康星州。与日后身高达到6英尺1英寸（相当于1.86米）的重量级人物相比，当时的他还只是一个小小的婴儿。威尔斯的父母从事着迥然不同的事业，但都很成功。他的父亲理查德·威尔斯是一位发明家，母亲比阿特丽斯·威尔斯则是一位才华横溢的钢琴演奏家。然而他们之间的关系却不像其事业那样成功。在威尔斯只有六岁的时候，他的父母就分开了。对一个如此年幼的孩子而言，更令他痛心的打击是他在九岁时就失去了被肝炎夺走生命的母亲。而三年后，在他年仅十二岁时，他的父亲也在带他周游世界后去世了。

His love for the arts becameapparent[明显的]at The Todd School and he had the opportunity to write and perform his own plays.It was also the place were he produced his frst flm, a four minute short.This was a bigturnaround[转机]for Welles who up until now, like most children, had disliked school.However, he did not choose to continue in education and after graduating hedeclined[拒绝]offers[提供的工作]from colleges to chase a career in thetheatre[影院].Unfortunately he had a hard timegetting a break[时来运转], but finally did in 1934 through connections.Welles made his stagedebut[初次登台]in New York playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet.This role tells of his passion for Shakespeare as he went on to play thetitle roles[剧名角色]in flm versions of Macbeth (1948), Othello (1952), and King Lear (1953).Welles was after all first andforemost[最重要的]an actor, playing close to a hundred roles in hisonscreen[银幕上的]career compared to the 16 films he directed (two of which, Don Quixote and The Other Side of the World were never completed).

在托德学校读书时，有机会撰写和表演自己剧本的威尔斯逐渐表现出对艺术的热爱。他也是在这里拍出了他的第一部电影，一部四分钟的短片。对于像大多数孩子一样不喜欢学校的威尔斯来说，这是一个很大的转机。不过他并没有选择继续深造，同时在毕业后也拒绝了几家学院提供的工作机会，去追逐电影事业。……