Original photo by Uber Bilder/ Alamy Stock Photo

Orson Welles is among the most influential filmmakers of all time, but his impact isn’t confined to the world of cinema and radio. The multihyphenate behind Citizen Kane has even made a splash among biologists — there’s a genus of giant spiders named after him. In total, there are 13 species in the Orsonwelles genus, all of which are found in the Hawaiian islands: six on Kauai, three on Oahu, two on Molokai, and one each on Maui and Hawaii itself (the Big Island). Gustavo Hormiga, the arachnologist who discovered them, explained their name thus: “[Welles] was gigantic in a way in terms of moviemaking. These guys are very unique. They’re also very gigantic. So I just said, OK, I'm going to name them Orson Welles.”

Orson Welles never won an Oscar.

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Welles won Best Original Screenplay for “Citizen Kane” in 1942 and an Honorary Award in 1971. He also received Best Actor and Best Director nominations for “Kane,” losing to Gary Cooper and John Ford, respectively.

Several of the creepy-crawlies are named after movies Welles directed and roles he performed: Orsonwelles macbeth, Orsonwelles bellum (named for War of the Worlds, with bellum meaning “war”), Orsonwelles othello, Orsonwelles falstaffius, and Orsonwelles ambersonorum. (The last of these is named for The Magnificent Ambersons, which some say is Welles’ greatest film — sorry, Citizen Kane!) If you consider yourself an arachnophobe, try not to fret too much over the description of these eight-legged creatures as “giant”: They’re only about the size of a thumbtack.

Numbers Don't Lie

Numbers Don't Lie

Cups of coffee Welles is said to have drunk every day while filming “Citizen Kane”
30
Stars Welles has on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (one for film, one for radio)
2
Rank of “Citizen Kane” on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest films ever made
1
Welles’ rank on the British Film Institute’s list of the greatest directors of all time
1

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Orson Welles’ last role was in 1986’s “______.”

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Orson Welles’ last role was in 1986’s “Transformers: The Movie.”

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Welles’ final film was completed decades after his death.

When he died in 1985, Welles had nearly as many uncompleted projects as he did finished films and television programs. The most notable of these was The Other Side of the Wind, about a maverick filmmaker who returns to Hollywood to complete his passion project (life imitates art!), which Welles worked on intermittently between 1970 and 1976 but had to abandon due to insufficient funding as well as legal and other complications. Any chance of the “Holy Grail for zealous film buffs” ever being finished seemed to die along with Welles — except it didn’t. Peter Bogdanovich, who starred in the film and was a hugely influential filmmaker in his own right, helped oversee its completion beginning in 2014, after Royal Road Entertainment acquired the project and more than $400,000 was crowdfunded. Netflix eventually stepped in to distribute the film once it was completed, and after decades of uncertainty, The Other Side of the Wind premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival to enthusiastic reviews.

Michael Nordine
Staff Writer

Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.