When Orson Welles was a Transformer
The new "Transformers" movie boasts a good cast, but it's got nothing on the original.
In a classic bit of movie trivia, the little-seen 1986 animated film "Transformers: The Movie" was Orson Welles' last film. Yes, that Orson Welles.
The filmmaking legend who remade cinema with "Citizen Kane" (which just again topped AFI's list of 100 greatest movies), directed "Touch of Evil," starred in "The Third Man," impeccably adapted Shakespeare to the screen and panicked the nation with his infamous radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" -- concluded his career by playing Unicron, an evil shape-shifting planet moon.
Welles was 70 at the time and in poor health. His last released film was 1987's "Someone to Love," but that was shot before Welles lent his voice to "Transformers." Late in his career, Welles often took to commercials and narration work as a source of income.
Author Barbara Leaming spent many days with Welles in his last three years for her book, "Orson Welles: A Biography." She recalls Welles telling her shortly before he died that he had spent the day "playing a toy."
In his later decades, Welles had great difficulty gaining financing for his film projects. Leaming says he used to refer to parts like "Transformers" as "a job of work," but says he was nevertheless full of ideas and spoke passionately of plans for various movies even on his deathbed. He died of a heart attack in October 1985.
"He was absolutely the same man who made 'Citizen Kane,' " says Leaming of the aged Welles.