The Man, the voice, the legend did adverts…
Four TV adverts where Orson Welles lent his presence, voice and gravitas to the wee screen.
Directors, actors (and actresses), producers and writers often ask for us mere mortals help in funding their movies using a few notable websites. One man who was well known for appearing in a number of adverts in the late 70s and 80s for just this cause was Orson Welles.
This for his unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind which he hoped to complete. Welles was not just an actor with many off-screen talents. He was also remembered for films such as Citizen Kane (1941), The Third Man (1949) and Voyage of the Damned (1976).
Welles also lent his voice and gravitas to cartoons such as The Transformers: The Movie (1986), films, documentaries and TV and more famously a War of the World‘s radio broadcast which panicked America. He also was heard but not seen as the voice of Robin Masters in Magnum PI (1981-83) and in Shogun (1980).
His voice, however, was so recognisable that this sadly cost him the role that could have helped him to complete his movie, with George Lucas not hiring him as his Darth Vader in that film trilogy set far, far away.
However, after much research, it is believed that his advertising career was just as varied as his film career with his adverts including these gems from the wee screen…
Board Games
Dark Tower TV Commercial with Orson Welles, magisterrex
There’s something quite nice about Orson Welles mansplaining on how to play this game from the early eighties. Welles tells us with a wee hint of glee when he tells us he won this game, which I’ve never played (and chances are he hadn’t either). But I’d definitely want to play if he mansplained all the ins and outs of this game with that voice that could melt butter.
Of course, when this advert came out in the 1980s I wouldn’t have known who this narrator was. Welles does come over as quite an avuncular – but sinister – character in this ad for this electronic game. Shortly after this game’s release, it was the subject of a law case. The game was then removed from the shelves with only a small number of these games sold.
The original copies of these games can be now bought for about 180 euros for the full game or 9 to 10 euros for a wee playing piece. Looking into it on the internet, it appears this game is hoping to make a return, but would you want to “return back in time to the medieval dark tower”?
Wine
Orson Welles 1970s Paul Masson Wine Commercial, Paul Mc
With his wee catchphrase, telling how this particular wine company “will sell no wine before its time”. Welles’s dulcet velvety tones are used here to full effect. Welles used as the spokesman for this product in a bid to rebrand the wine.
This particular advert – seen above – was reportedly filmed in Orson Welles’ back garden. It’s also an advert that Welles improvised himself after “dismissing” the original script which compared the wine to a Stradivarius violin. Wikipedia quotes Karp who tells Welles was not complementary about this brand offset saying;
Come on, gentlemen, now really! You have a nice, pleasant little cheap wine here. You haven’t gotten the presumption to compare it to a Stradivarius violin. It’s odious.
However, he is reported to have preferred the red wine in this range. As a spokesman for this particular brand for 3 years between 1978 and 1981, Welles reportedly increased sales of this wine by 30%.
He stopped fronting this campaign after he appeared on a chat show and told how he lost weight by dropping wine from his diet. For this campaign, he was paid $500,000 a year plus residuals and he continued to be paid this for a short time after he left the campaign and was replaced by John Gielgud.
Whisky
Orson Welles – Nikka Whisky, deconstructionist66
Orson Welles, one of many actors who put his face to a Japanese whisky commercial. With big names including Sean Connery (!), Peter Falk, Mickey Roarke and the fictional actor, Bob Harris (Bill Murray) in Lost in Translation (2000) also selling this famous alcoholic beverage.
Orson Welles gives us a wee introduction to himself to this whisky created in Japan (but with a Scottish twist). Since then, he has paved the way for others to follow him to make big bucks in the Japanese advertising world including Rod Stewart, Leonardo DiCaprio and Keanu Reeves.
Photocopiers
Orson Welles’ Last Ever Performance, lewisduckworth
Shakespeare and photocopiers. Only the presence of an actor like Orson Welles could make this not sound like a tenuous link. Literally quoting some Shakespeare, as you do. Another advertisement where his Orson-splaining on just how to use this machine would help millions of harassed employees. Not his oddest product plugging surprisingly with that honour going to a cement company.
Surely to god there’s someone in your little agency who knows what my voice sounds like?
The Orson Welles Some Kind of Man Blogathon, 2019 No 89
Love it! I actually played The Dark Tower back in the 80s. It was a pretty cool game. Thanks so much for taking part in the blogathon!
Thanks for having me, was great fun checking out those adverts – and putting a name to that wine advert I saw as a kid!
[…] Welles’s Television Ads of the 1970s and 80s (Examined by Gill of ReelWeegieMidget) […]