Beatrice Welles Biography

Beatrice Giuditta Welles (Beatrice Mori di Gerfalco Welles; born November 13, 1955, Manhattan, New York) is a former child actress, known for her roles in the film Chimes at Midnight (1966) and the documentary travelogue In the Land of Don Quixote (1964). The daughter of filmmaker Orson Welles and Italian countess Paola Mori, she is a former model, radio and TV personality, founder of a cosmetics line and designer of handbags and jewelry. She administers the Orson Welles estate.

Biography

Beatrice Giuditta Welles (also known as Beatrice Mori di Gerfalco Welles) was born in Manhattan November 13, 1955, to Orson Welles and his third wife, Paola Mori. A countess from a royal Italian family that dates back to 400 AD, Welles is the half-sister of Chris Welles Feder and the late Rebecca Welles Manning (1944-2004), from her father's previous two marriages. She was named after her paternal grandmother, concert pianist Beatrice Ives Welles. She was baptized at the Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church in Beverly Hills, with Frank Sinatra and actress Mercedes McCambridge serving as godparents.

Raised and educated in Europe with private tutors, Welles spent her childhood in the close company of her parents. She appeared on stage at the age of five in an Irish stage production of Chimes at Midnight, and later in the 1966 film of the same name. Her father's 1968 film, The Immortal Story, was shot at the Welles family home outside Madrid, Spain, and she spent countless hours with him in the editing room.

A severe injury during her teenage years ended Welles's hopes for an equestrian career. She turned to modeling and appeared in layouts in Vogue, as well as runway work in Paris, Milan, London and New York, wearing the clothes of Valentino, Halston and Chanel.

She became the news director at KAZM-AM radio in Arizona in the early 1970s and later a regional television personality and longtime spokeswoman for a major Southwestern automotive dealership.

Within a span of 10 months in the mid 1980s, she lost her father, mother and maternal grandmother. At the same time, a longtime romantic relationship came to a sudden end.

Influenced by her association with makeup icons Kevin Aucion and Barbara Daly, Welles developed her own line of cosmetics and counted Diana, Princess of Wales, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Rivers and Oprah Winfrey among her clients. She also created a line of designer handbags and jewelry sold exclusively through Goldenstein Gallery in Sedona, Arizona.

A Nevada resident, Welles has been twice married and divorced: from Christopher F. Smith (1987-1995), and Jonathan M. O'Donoghue (1997-2004). She is a passionate animal rights crusader and helped to establish one of the first low-cost spaying and neutering clinics in the United States.

Orson Welles estate

Orson Welles died October 10, 1985. His widow, Paola Mori, died 10 months later, following a car crash. After the death of her parents, Welles untangled a convoluted estate and complicated rights issues, which involved her father's longtime partner Oja Kodar. The two signed a settlement on November 7, 1986, in a Clark County, Nevada courthouse.

She collaborated with producer Julian Schlossberg on the restoration of her father's film, Othello, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1992 - 40 years after its release

Six years later, she protested a re-edit of her father's film, Touch of Evil (1958). She objected to the film being re-edited and marketed as a director's cut without her being allowed to screen it in advance. She said her actions were prompted by a disastrous edit of Don Quixote several years earlier.

After years of blocking various attempts to complete her father"?s unfinished final film, The Other Side of the Wind, Welles embraced and campaigned for a project spearheaded by Polish-born filmmaker Filip Jan Rymsza and producer Frank Marshall.

Welles has spoken at numerous film festivals and screenings about her father's work and protecting his legacy.

In 2016, she began talks for a gallery exhibit of his paintings in New York and is collaborating on a book based on her father's early letters and unpublished sketches.