Wikipedia

Paola Mori

Paola di Gerfalco, Contessa di Gerfalco (18 September 1928 – 12 August 1986), better known by her professional name Paola Mori, was an Italian actress and aristocrat, and the third and last wife of Orson Welles.[1]

Paola Mori
Mori in May 1955
Born
Paola di Gerfalco, Contessa di Gerfalco

(1928-09-18)18 September 1928
Kingdom of Italy
Died12 August 1986(1986-08-12) (aged 57)
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
NationalityItalian
OccupationActress
Years active1953–1962
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1955; died 1985)​
ChildrenBeatrice Welles

Biography

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Paola Mori was born in 1928 to an Italian aristocratic family. During World War II, she spent eights months in a concentration camp. Her father, a colonel in the Italian army under King Victor Emmanuel III, was a member of the anti-Mussolini resistance.[2]

By 1953, she had begun carving out a career for herself as a film actress, playing supporting roles in several Italian films.

In 1953, Mori met Orson Welles,[3] and he cast her as the female lead of his film Mr. Arkadin (1955). Mori's voice was dubbed by Billie Whitelaw to conceal her Italian accent.

The couple embarked on a passionate affair, and married at her parents' insistence.[4]: 168  The couple's wedding ceremony was held in London on 8 May 1955, and their daughter, Beatrice Welles, was born in New York on 13 November 1955.[5]: 417, 419 

Mori and Welles were interviewed by journalist Edward R. Murrow for the CBS television program Person to Person, which aired in November 1955.[6]

Following her marriage, Mori acted in only a handful of projects, all directed by her husband, and then withdrew from acting altogether.[7]

She assisted Welles with The Trial by picking the musical score and appearing in a bit part. Mori scouted locations for Chimes at Midnight and Don Quixote. She also helped with costume designs for Chimes at Midnight.[2] The film's co-star, Keith Baxter, discussed Mori's involvement with Chimes at Midnight in his 2002 memoir, My Sentiments Exactly, her sparkling personality and relationship with her husband. He described Mori as the best influence on Welles's life.[8]

Much of Welles's 1968 film The Immortal Story was shot in the couple's home, located outside of Madrid, Spain.[9]

Mori and Welles moved from Europe to Sedona, Arizona, in 1976. They lived there for two years before purchasing a home in Las Vegas. The move to Las Vegas provided easier access to an airport for Welles.[10]

Her friend, Las Vegas Sun columnist Muriel Stevens said of Mori: "Paola was a rarity — elegant, dignified, without any pretense or airs. Her life had been privileged and glamorous. but simplicity was her style. She remained unimpressed by her aristocratic background. It was simply what was. She was an accomplished needleworker. Her gifts were always handmade treasures. And when Orson was home, she cooked wonderful foods for him. She scoured the city for delicacies. It pleased her to make him comfortable and happy. I’d never met a celebrity wife like her."[11]

Gary Graver, Welles's cameraman for the last fifteen years of his life, wrote in a book co-authored with film historian Andrew J. Rausch that "the couple was estranged from the mid-1960s through [to] Welles's death in 1985."[12] However, his description is at odds with accounts given by Stevens,[11] Beatrice Welles, who says her mother provided a loving, stable home during much of the couple's thirty-year marriage;[13] Welles' close friend, film-maker Juan Cobos;[14] and Baxter,[15] as well as personal correspondence from Mori archived at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema‘s Bibliomediateca in Turin, Italy.[16]

Mori was seated next to her husband when he was honored with the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in February 1975. [17]

In the early 1980s, Welles divided his time between his Las Vegas home with Mori and their daughter, and a Los Angeles home he shared with Oja Kodar, a Croatian actress he had begun an on-and off-again relationship with in the 1960s and 1970s.[18] When Mori found out about Kodar in 1984, she threw Welles out of their Nevada house, and neither Mori nor Beatrice Welles saw him for much of the last year of his life, although they still talked regularly on the telephone. Beatrice stated: "They sort of separated toward the end because he had a girlfriend. My mother found out about it, and he denied it. She told him he could come back home as soon as he stopped lying to her. He didn't come home during that last year of his life, but he and my mother talked on the phone every day."[19]

In his will, Welles bequeathed the bulk of his estate to Mori, though he left Kodar his Los Angeles home and the rights to many of his unfinished films. His widow questioned several deals signed by Welles in his final weeks that greatly benefited Kodar and had not been reviewed by his lawyer.[20] A year after Welles' death, a settlement was reached. However, Mori died in a car accident before it was signed. Mori's portion of the estate was inherited by Beatrice, who finalized the agreement in December 1986.[20]

Death

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Mori was in an automobile accident in Las Vegas on August 12, 1986, when a car driven by a family friend pulled into cross traffic and was broadsided. She died from head injuries at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas several hours later at the age of 57.[21][22][23] Her ashes were buried in Rome.[24]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
  2. ^ a b "Beatrice Welles online chat transcript". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Paola Mori". geni_family_tree. 18 September 1928. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  4. ^ Feder, Chris Welles (2009). In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books. ISBN 9781565125995.
  5. ^ Welles, Orson; Bogdanovich, Peter; Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1992). This is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
  6. ^ McBride, Joseph (2022). What ever happened to Orson Welles? : a portrait of an independent career. Lexington, Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-9682-4. OCLC 1295206833.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ "Paola Mori". IMDb. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  8. ^ Noh, David (21 January 2016). "Orson's Prince Hal Opens Up – Gay City News". gaycitynews.com. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  9. ^ "THE IMMORTAL STORY | American Cinematheque". americancinemathequecalendar.com. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Sedona's Citizen Welles | Sedona Monthly Magazine". Retrieved 18 January 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Paola Mori, Orson Welles' widow, recalled by Las Vegas friend". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. 6 August 2016. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  12. ^ Gary Graver with Andrew J. Rausch, Making Movies With Orson Welles: A Memoir (Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, 2008) p.13
  13. ^ "Beatrice Welles interview – Part 1: Treasures to be auctioned..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. April 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  14. ^ wellesnet (3 May 2016). "Juan Cobos recalls 'Chimes at Midnight' 50 years after Cannes showing". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  15. ^ wellesnet (28 September 2015). "Keith Baxter recalls Orson Welles, 'Chimes at Midnight' at BFI event". Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  16. ^ "The National Cinema Museum". The National Museum of Cinema. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  17. ^ "AFI Life Achievement Award Recipients". American Film Institute. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
  18. ^ Leaming, Barbara (1991). Orson Welles (3a. ed.). Barcelona: Tusquets. ISBN 9788472232310. OCLC 55308853.
  19. ^ Lois Armstrong, 'Once Moor with Feeling: Orson Welles's Daughter Beatrice Restores His Lost Masterpiece, Othello', People magazine interview, April 27, 1992 Vol. 37 No. 16
  20. ^ a b wellesnet (14 March 2016). "Unraveling the complex Estate of Orson Welles; court records..." Wellesnet | Orson Welles Web Resource. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  21. ^ "Widow of Orson Welles Dies After Car Crash". AP NEWS. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  22. ^ "Paola Mori; Widow of Actor Orson Welles". Los Angeles Times. 14 August 1986. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  23. ^ Ap (14 August 1986). "Paola Welles Dead in Crash (Published 1986)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  24. ^ "WELLES BURIED". UPI. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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