Short answers, pulled from the story.
Orson Welles is best known for directing Citizen Kane (1941), which he also co-wrote, produced, and starred in. The film has been consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made and topped the Sight and Sound poll of the Greatest Films of All Time from 1962 to 2012.
On the 30th of October 1938, Welles directed and narrated a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's novel The War of the Worlds for The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Listeners who tuned in after the introduction heard what sounded like news bulletins reporting a Martian invasion, and panic reportedly spread. The event was reported as fact around the world and was disparagingly mentioned by Adolf Hitler in a speech.
Welles received an Academy Award, three Grammy Awards, the Golden Lion in 1947, the Palme d'Or in 1952, the Academy Honorary Award in 1970, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1975, and the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1983. British Film Institute polls in 2002 voted him the greatest film director ever.
Welles had traveled to Brazil to film the Carnaval segment of It's All True, leaving editor Robert Wise in charge of postproduction. RKO, under new management and without Welles's principal studio sponsor George Schaefer, authorized cuts after preview audiences responded negatively. Wise removed nearly fifty minutes from Welles's cut, reducing the film from 131 minutes to 88 minutes.
Welles made his stage debut at the Gate Theatre in Dublin on the 13th of October 1931, appearing in Ashley Dukes's adaptation of Jud Suss as Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg. He had walked in claiming to be a Broadway star; manager Hilton Edwards later said he had not believed Welles but was impressed by his brashness and audition.
Welles and John Houseman founded the Mercury Theatre in 1937 after breaking with the Federal Theatre Project. Named after the magazine The American Mercury, it was a repertory company whose original members included Joseph Cotten, Vincent Price, and Norman Lloyd. It opened on the 11th of November 1937 with a modern-dress adaptation of Julius Caesar.