Richard Wilson

• Active: '30s, '40s
• Genres: Spoken Word
• Instrument: Cast

Biography

Richard Wilson was an American producer and director best known for his connection with Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. At that he gets a kind of Wellesian medal of honor for his important involvement with the restoration of It's All True, an infamous Welles South American production that basically vanished for half a century. On recordings, Wilson logs a respectable discography as a result of the radio broadcast industry's spinoff success on soundtrack collections dedicated to the historic early days of the industry. Once again the UFO blimp of Welles comes into focus in the era when he hadn't assumed such portly proportions. Wilson's Mercury Theatre collaborations include the notorious War of the Worlds broadcast. Other radio fare this artist was involved with included detective serials, a popular Sherlock Holmes program evidence enough of the high production standards of the day. Holmes and associate Dr. Watson would come in handy as well in telling Welles' Wilson apart from all the other people with this name who likewise have entertainment industry credits. On the Hollywood scene, he should not be confused with the actor of the same name whose best known characterization is grocery store clerk Mr. Whipple. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide

• Born: Dec 25, 1915 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania
• Died: Aug 12, 1991
• Occupation: Director, Writer
• Active: '50s-'60s, '90s
• Major Genres: Action, Drama
• Career Highlights: The Lady from Shanghai, Raw Wind in Eden, Ma and Pa Kettle at Home
• First Major Screen Credit: The Lady from Shanghai (1948)

Biography

Fresh from the University of Denver, American actor Richard Wilson headed to Chicago and then New York, for the hectic life of a radio actor. He befriended fellow performer Orson Welles while both were making the radio-network rounds. In 1937, Welles invited Wilson to join his Mercury Theatre stage troupe, where Wilson functioned as actor, adaptor, production associate and assistant director. When Welles moved his Mercury troupe to Hollywood in 1940 for Citizen Kane, Wilson went along as jack-of-all-trades; if you look closely, you can see the angular Mr. Wilson as one of the shadowy reporters in Kane's closing scenes. After working as a production assistant on Welles' followup film The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Wilson joined Welles in Rio de Janeiro to work on the ill-fated Technicolor documentary It's All True (1942). Stories involving this disaster-prone effort have fallen into the realm of legend, making it difficult for the historian to separate fact from fancy in reporting on the film. Indeed, so many falsehoods concerning It's All True were repeated as gospel in one 1970 book on Welles that Wilson was moved to write a rebuttal article for Sight and Sound magazine, titled "It's Not Quite All True." While many of Welles' Mercury associates had scattered by the late '40s, Wilson remained loyal, acting as associate producer for Welles' The Lady From Shanghai (1947) and Macbeth (1948). On his own as a staff producer at Universal in the '50s, Wilson helmed everything from swashbucklers to Ma and Pa Kettle pictures. He began directing in the '50s, mostly program westerns like Man with the Gun (1955). Wilson did what he could to draw a performance from a burned-out Errol Flynn in The Big Boodle (1957), and coaxed a convincingly dramatic turn from aquatic star Esther Williams in Raw Wind in Eden (1958). Wilson deservedly won critical plaudits for his handling of a brace of brutal Allied Artists gangster pictures, Al Capone (1960) and Pay or Die (1961). Richard Wilson retired in 1968, making an unexpected return to the cameras in 1989 as an actor in the British satire How to Get Ahead in Business. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's All True Buy this Movie	I'd Climb the Highest Mountain Buy this Movie	The Lady from Shanghai Buy this Movie	Three in the Attic Buy this Movie
Invitation to a Gunfighter Buy this Movie	Al Capone Buy this Movie	The Kettles in the Ozarks Buy this Movie	Man With the Gun Buy this Movie

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