Sources and Influences

Orson Welles was influenced by William Randolph Hearst's real life.

William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California. Son of a multimillionaire miner and rancher. In 1887, he became "Proprietor" of the San Francisco Examiner. Also, he turned the newspaper into a combination between reformist investigative reporting and lurid sensationalism. He employed the best journalists of the time.

In the 1920s William built a huge castle on a ranch at San Simeon, California, where all celebrities gathered.

Hearst died in Beverly Hills, California, on August 14th, 1951.

ORSON WELLES V/S WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST

A Titan's fight

It was a huge clash. William Randolph Hearst, the multimillonaire of San Simeon, and Orson Welles, the ambitious young man, who set out the fight.

At a preview screening of the movie the leading gossip columnist of the day hated the movie, calling it "a vicious and irresponsible attack on a great man." Citizen Kane was considered as a cruel representation of the magnate's newspaper. When Hearst heard about the film, in order to protect his reputation, he shutted the film down, and tried to buy Citizen Kane so as to burn the negative; the confrontation over Orson Welles.