
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994                   TAG: 9402070069
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium

DEBONAIR ACTOR COTTEN DIES AT 88

Joseph Cotten, the polished Virginian actor who became a star with "Citizen Kane" and went on to play opposite Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman and others, died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 88.

Cotten died at his suburban Westwood home with his wife, actress Patricia Medina, at his bedside, said Cotten's business manager and attorney, Hugh Robertson. He had been ill for several months, Robertson said.

He had a massive stroke in 1981 and lost his voice entirely. Speech therapy allowed him to talk again, but his acting career was over.

Cotten's debonair, low-key personality made him an ideal leading man for Hollywood's most famous actresses, and his versatility allowed him to play both villains ("Shadow of a Doubt") and heroes ("The Third Man"). He came to films via Orson Welles' Mercury Theater and appeared in Welles' first three movies: "Citizen Kane," "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Journey Into Fear."

Cotten played the cynical reporter to Welles' publisher Charles Foster Kane in the 1941 sensation, "Citizen Kane." When the Mercury Theater broke up, Cotten signed a contract with David O. Selznick, then riding the success of "Gone With the Wind."

Selznick cast Cotten in his own films: "Since You Went Away" (Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones), "I'll Be Seeing You" (Ginger Rogers), "Duel in the Sun" (Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones) and "The Third Man" (Welles).

The producer also profited by lending Cotten to other studios. Those films included "Gaslight" (Ingrid Bergman, Academy Award), "Love Letters" (Joan Fontaine), "The Farmer's Daughter" (Loretta Young, Academy Award), "Beyond the Forest" (Bette Davis) and "Niagara" (Marilyn Monroe).

Cotten's other credits include "Two Flags West," "September Affair," "Peking Express," "Touch of Evil," "The Last Sunset," "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," "Oscar," "Petulia," "Tora! Tora! Tora!," "Soylent Green," "Caravans" and "Airport 77." He also appeared in many television dramas, including the 1956 series, "The Joseph Cotten Theater."

Cotten was born May 15, 1905, in Petersburg, Va.

In his 1987 autobiography, which he humorously subtitled "Vanity Will Get You Somewhere," Cotton wrote that he knew in high school that he wanted to be an actor. He trained at a drama school in Washington, D.C. The experience rid him of his southern accent and strengthened his desire to act.

by CNB