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Article: Razing Kane. (adapted from a new book on Orson Welles)
- Article from:
- Los Angeles Magazine
- Article date:
- April 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Emmis Publishing L.P. dba Los Angeles Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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He was alone on the night of October 9, 1985, which is not the same as lonely.
He was not well or strong. He was too heavy; he had diabetes; his heart was exhausted. He had his own mother lode of disappointment, rejection and failure. But that fragility is not the same as self-pity or even melancholy. He had always been the most important person in his own drama. His "failure" was a sustaining tragedy--his thing, his song. He was not a possessive man in obvious ways, not with money or people. He let those things slip through his hands. But some airs and attributes he kept: command, the magician's power, the rights on self-destruction.
He was uncommonly lucid ...