Biography
Joseph Cheshire Cotten (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair. He is associated with Orson Welles, leading to appearances in Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Journey into Fear (1943), for which Cotten was also credited with the screenplay, and The Third Man (1949). He was a star in his own right with films such as Shadow...
Known For
Complete Filmography

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2018
as Self (archive footage)
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other...

Too Much Johnson
2013
as Augustus Billings
This film was not intended to stand by itself, but was designed as the cinematic aspect of Welles' Mercury Theatre stage presentation of William Gille...

Beyond Doubt: The Making of Hitchcock's Favorite Film
2000
as Self
A short documentary about the Making Of Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943).
Frankenstein: A Cinematic Scrapbook
1991
as Baron Frankenstein (archive footage)
Documentary with a treasure trove of rare footage and vintage trailers, offering a rich and unusual look at the history of Frankenstein on the screen.

Hollywood Heaven: Tragic Lives, Tragic Deaths
1990
as (archive footage)
Welcome behind the closed doors of a Hollywood that only a select few will ever get to see -- a Hollywood of tragic lives and tragic deaths. Some of t...

The Survivor
1981
as Priest
When a 747 crashes shortly after take-off, the sole survivor is the pilot. Virtually unhurt, he and the investigators look for the answers to the disa...

Delusion
1981
as Ivar Langrock
Meredith Stone, a home care nurse, has been assigned the duty of looking after a wealthy invalid named Ivar Langrock. Cooped up in Langrock's stately ...

Heaven's Gate
1980
as The Reverend Doctor
Harvard graduate James Averill serves as the sheriff of prosperous Jackson County, Wyo., standing at the center of a conflict between impoverished imm...

Casino
1980
as Ed Booker
Mike Connors is a suave gambler who owns a floating hotel/casino which takes a turn when the passengers are stalked by a saboteur during the casino sh...

The Hearse
1980
as Walter Prichard
A schoolteacher moves into her deceased aunt’s house in a small Californian town, and is harassed by unfriendly locals and a mysterious hearse.

Churchill and the Generals
1979
as Gen. George C. Marshall
The complicated relationship between Winston Churchill and the leaders of the British army during World War II.

Guyana: Crime of the Century
1979
as Richard Gable
This horrific dramatization of the Guyana tragedy traces the steps of Reverend Jim Jones, a highly charismatic, but profoundly paranoid clergyman, who...

Concorde Affair
1979
as Milland
A reporter tries to stop the crash of an aircraft after uncovering an airline's plot to save their business by sabotaging Concorde flights and have th...

Island of the Fishmen
1979
as Prof. Ernest Marvin
After their prison ship sinks in the Caribbean, a group of prisoners and a doctor wash ashore on a seemingly deserted island. They soon discover a str...

The Perfect Crime
1978
as Sir Arthur Dundee
The death of a multinational company’s chairman induces the three candidates for the chairmanship to plot against one another for control of the busin...

Caravans
1978
as Crandall
This epic adventure-drama based on James Michener's best-selling novel concerns a young American embassy official who is sent into the Middle-Eastern ...

Last In, First Out
1978
as Foster Johnson
A woman on a train becomes the center of attention when she is mistaken for a spy by opposing factions who are traveling on the same line.

Return to Fantasy Island
1978
as Simon Grant
A second feature-length pilot film for the wish-fulfillment series sees six lucky people having their dreams fulfilled on the luxury resort island. Ca...

Airport '77
1977
as Nicholas St. Downs III
Flight 23 has crashed in the Bermuda Triangle after a hijacking gone wrong. Now the surviving passengers must brave panic, slow leaks, oxygen depletio...

Twilight's Last Gleaming
1977
as Arthur Renfrew - Secretary of State
A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 u...

A Whisper in the Dark
1976
as The Professor
Martino is a young child who claims to have an invisible friend called Luca. His parents assume it is just a game, but strange things start to happen.

Mysteries of the Gods
1976
as Narrator
William Shatner explores the theory that the U.S. government is involved in a cover-up of visiting alien spacecraft. Based on a book by Erich von Däni...

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case
1976
as Dr. Joseph Francis Condon
Fact-based story of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., son and namesake of the famed pilot, and ensuing trial of accused and convicted killer, B...

Timber Tramps
1975
as Greedy sawmill mogul
A tough, hard-drinking Alaska logging foreman likes fighting only slightly less than working.

Syndicate Sadists
1975
as Paternò
A biker's brother is killed while investigating the kidnapping of a young boy, the byproduct of a war between two crime families. The biker vows to ge...

A Delicate Balance
1973
as Harry
In their finely appointed Connecticut home, Agnes and Tobias have grown used to the imperfection and fragility of their marriage. Quietly nursing thei...

F for Fake
1973
as Self
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his nam...

Soylent Green
1973
as William R. Simonson
In the year 2022, overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer i...

The Devil's Daughter
1973
as Judge Weatherby
A young girl whose mother had sold her soul to Satan when she was born is told by Satan that she must marry a fellow demon.
Police Dog
1973
as Narrator
Narrated by Joseph Cotten, this two-part film shows how police dogs are trained and how they help police officers in many ways from cornering suspects...

The Scopone Game
1972
as George
An aging American millionairess journeys to Rome each year with her chauffeur George to play the card game scopone with destitute Peppino and his wife...

Baron Blood
1972
as Baron Otto von Kleist / Alfred Becker
A young man, Peter, returns to Austria in search of his heritage. There he visits the castle of an ancestor, a sadistic Baron who was cursed to a viol...

Doomsday Voyage
1972
as Captain Jason
A political extremist on the run after assassinating a corrupt politician, poses as a French sailor in hopes of fleeing the country.

The Screaming Woman
1972
as George Tresvant
A wealthy former mental patient goes home to her estate to rest and recuperate. While walking the grounds one day she hears the screams of a woman com...

Lady Frankenstein
1971
as Baron Frankenstein
When Dr. Frankenstein is killed by a monster he created, his daughter and his lab assistant continue his experiments.

City Beneath the Sea
1971
as Dr. Ziegler
A group of 21st-century colonists inhabit an underwater city called Pacifica. Originally intended as a purely scientific installation, the U. S. gover...

The Abominable Dr. Phibes
1971
as Dr. Vesalius
After a team of surgeons botches his beloved wife's operation, the distraught Dr. Phibes unleashes a score of Old-Testament atrocities on his enemies.

Do You Take This Stranger?
1971
as Dr. Robert Carson
A social climber/con artist schemes to inherit one million dollars by trading identities with a dying man.

Assault on the Wayne
1971
as Admiral
The U.S. submarine Anthony Wayne is underway for a top-secret mission. Onboard is a highly classified device that will give the Americans a decided nu...

Journey to Murder
1971
as Jeff Wheeler
Television movie that consists of two episodes from the UK TV series Journey to the Unknown (1968): Do Me a Favor and Kill Me (1968) and The Killing B...

The Grasshopper
1970
as Richard Morgan
A British Columbia teenager dreams of show business but winds up as a call girl in Las Vegas.

Cutter's Trail
1970
as General Spalding
The Marshal of Santa Fe returns home to find his town almost wiped out by Mexican bandits and enlists the help of a young Mexican boy and his mother t...

Tora! Tora! Tora!
1970
as Henry L. Stimson
In the summer of 1941, the United States and Japan seem on the brink of war after constant embargos and failed diplomacy come to no end. "Tora! Tora! ...

The Lonely Profession
1969
as Martin Bannister
Private investigator Leo Gordon is hired to trail Karen Mendaros, the mistress of a reclusive billionaire. When they meet, Gordon and Mendaros hit it ...

Latitude Zero
1969
as Capt. Craig McKenzie / Cmdr. Glenn McKenzie
A massive underwater volcano erupts and puts a group of investigative scientists in danger. They are rescued by an atomic super submarine named The Al...

Split Second to an Epitaph
1968
as Dr. Ben Stern
In the second "Ironside" movie, the Chief has his spine jolted during a hospital encounter with a narcotics pusher, not only raising the possibility f...

White Comanche
1968
as Sheriff Logan
William Shatner plays two roles: cowboy Johnny Moon and his ruthless Indian twin brother, Notah. Notah likes peyote and gets the crazy idea that he's ...

Petulia
1968
as Mr. Danner
Dr. Archie Bollen is having a midlife crisis. He's just divorced his wife and is establishing a new life for himself. One night, he catches the eye of...

Gangsters '70
1968
as Destil
An elderly gangster just released from prison plans one last job, and gathers a small crew to do the job, but the plan goes sour when one of the crew ...

Alexander The Great
1968
as Antigonus
An historical film that follows the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king that united all ancient Greek tribes and led them against the vas...

Petulia: The Uncommon Movie
1968
as Himself
A short featurette on the making of "Petulia"

Jack of Diamonds
1967
as Ace
The protégé of a famous cat burglar reluctantly agrees to join forces with a lesser criminal in the daring heist of several famous jewels from a seemi...

The Hellbenders
1967
as Colonel Jonas
A Southern Colonel, his three sons, and a card shark embark on an odyssey through the Southwest carrying a coffin full of stolen money with which the ...

Some May Live
1967
as Colonel Woodward
During the Vietnam War U.S. decoder Kate Meredith is plagued with guilt when her husband coerces her to pass information to him and the Viet Cong.

Lionpower from MGM
1967
"Lionpower from MGM" (1967) is an exciting 60's promotional short subject, which showcases MGM's releases for the 1967-68 film season under a "five se...

Brighty of the Grand Canyon
1966
as Jim
At the turn of the century in the Southwest, Brighty the wild burro accompanies his friend, a prospector named Old Timer, on a hunt for gold. A claim ...

The Oscar
1966
as Kenneth Regan
An amoral lowlife accidentally stumbles into an acting career that sets him on a trajectory to Hollywood stardom. But everyone on whom he steps on the...

The Tramplers
1965
as Temple Cordeen
After the war of secession, the aging Cordeen, who owns thousands of acres in Texas, rules his numerous and quarrelsome sons with an iron hand. He sen...

The Money Trap
1965
as Dr. Horace Van Tilden
When half a million dollars disappears from a doctor office's safe, the cops assigned to the burglary case, Joe and Pete, decide to find the money and...

The Great Sioux Massacre
1965
as Major Marcus A. Reno
Colonel Custer, an outspoken believer in fair treatment for the Indians, is ousted from his post and forced into retirement. Fueled by ambition when a...

Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
1964
as Drew Bayliss
An aging, reclusive Southern belle plagued by a horrifying family secret descends into madness after the arrival of a lost relative.

Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961
as Self (uncredited)
Henry Fonda hosts this retrospective on the career and films of iconic filmmaker David O. Selznick, who epitomized the era of the auteur producer in t...

The Last Sunset
1961
as John Breckenridge
At a Mexican ranch, fugitive O'Malley and pursuing Sheriff Stribling agree to help rancher Breckenridge drive his herd into Texas where Stribling coul...

The Angel Wore Red
1960
as Hawthorne
A clergyman travels to Spain to join the Loyalist side during the Spanish Civil War and finds himself attracted to a beautiful entertainer.

From the Earth to the Moon
1958
as Victor Barbicane
Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane invents a new source of power called Power X. He plans to use it to p...

Touch of Evil
1958
as Coroner (uncredited)
When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas begins his investigation, along ...

The Edge of Innocence
1957
as Robert Rainey
An unscrupulous criminal lawyer falls in love with a wealthy widow and becomes involved with her brother's disappearance and murder.

The Halliday Brand
1957
as Daniel Halliday
Sheriff Halliday doesn't approve of his children dating or marrying half-breeds and his blind hate threatens to alienate his whole family.

The Killer Is Loose
1956
as Detective Sam Wagner
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam W...

The Bottom of the Bottle
1956
as Pat 'P.M.' Martin
An alcoholic escaped convict asks his Arizona lawyer brother to help him cross the Mexican border.

Special Delivery
1955
as John Adams
Complications ensue when a U.S. diplomat discovers that he has a baby on his hands and an undercover gal in his arms.

A Blueprint for Murder
1953
as Whitney 'Cam' Cameron
Whitney Cameron is in a quandary: he's attracted to his beautiful sister-in-law, Lynn, but also harbors serious suspicions about her. Her husband, Cam...
Egypt by Three
1953
as Narrator
Three tales of life on the Nile River reveal love and vengeance, religion and deception. Each atmospheric vignette offers an eye-opening take on the ...

Niagara
1953
as George Loomis
Rose Loomis and her older, gloomier husband, George, are vacationing at a cabin in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The couple befriend Polly and Ray Cutler, who a...

The Steel Trap
1952
as Jim Osborne
Joseph Cotten plays an assistant bank manager who steals $1,000,000 from the safe late on a Friday and then plans to flee to Brazil over the weekend.

Untamed Frontier
1952
as Kirk Denbow
The Denbow family denies access across their land to homesteaders. To evade a murder charge, Glenn Denbow marries Jane, the only witness who's in love...

Othello
1951
as Senator (uncredited)
When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes ...

The Man with a Cloak
1951
as Dupin
Set in 19th-century New York, this mystery begins when a Frenchwoman shows up at the home of one of Napoleon's former marshals. The alcoholic man is b...

Peking Express
1951
as Michael Bachlin
A group of refugees fleeing Chinese Communist rule via train are beset by a gang of terrifying outlaws.

Half Angel
1951
as John Raymond Jr.
Nurse Nora Gilpin plans are to marry building contractor Tim McCarey and settle down. But one night a sleepwalking Nora slips into a provocative dress...

September Affair
1950
as David Lawrence
An industrialist and a pianist meet on a trip and fall in love. Through a quirk of fate, they are reported dead in a crash though they weren't on the ...

Walk Softly, Stranger
1950
as Chris Hale aka Steve
A petty crook moves to an Ohio town and courts a factory owner's disabled daughter.

Two Flags West
1950
as Col. Clay Tucker
A group of confedarate prisoners is sent to a unionist fort in the west to help the local garrison to fight the indians.

Beyond the Forest
1949
as Doctor Louis Moline
Rosa, the self-serving wife of a small-town doctor, gets a better offer when a wealthy big-city man insists she get a divorce and marry him instead. S...

Under Capricorn
1949
as Sam Flusky
A native Briton banished to Australia for murder, and his wife, Henrietta, the disturbed sister of the man he was convicted on killing, set out to hel...

The Third Man
1949
as Holly Martins
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he ...

Portrait of Jennie
1948
as Eben Adams
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
Our American Heritage
1947
as Narrator
Public service featurette shown in connection with the 1947-1949 biannual nation-wide tour of the Foundation Freedom Train, a government-endorsed camp...

The Farmer's Daughter
1947
as Glenn Morley
After leaving her family's farm to study nursing in the city, a young woman finds herself on an unexpected path towards politics.

Duel in the Sun
1946
as Jesse McCanles
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad...

Love Letters
1945
as Allen Quinton
When a man asks another man more facile with words to do his wooing for him, there are always complications. The man with no talent for writing marrie...

I'll Be Seeing You
1944
as Zachary Morgan
Mary Marshall, serving a six year term for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough from prison to visit her closest relatives, her uncl...

Since You Went Away
1944
as Lieutenant Tony Willett
In 1943, several people enter, re-enter, and exit the difficult life of a Midwestern family whose patriarch has been called up to war, leaving behind ...

Gaslight
1944
as Brian Cameron
A newlywed fears she's going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.

Hers to Hold
1943
as Bill Morley
Deanna Durbin is all grown up in Hers to Hold, the unofficial sequel to her "Three Smart Girls" films of the 1930s. Durbin plays Penelope Craig, the s...

Shadow of a Doubt
1943
as Uncle Charlie
Just when Charlie is feeling especially frustrated by the lack of excitement in her small town in California, she receives wonderful news: Her uncle a...

Journey into Fear
1943
as Howard Graham
An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers th...

Journey into Fear
1943
Screenplay
An American ballistics expert in Turkey finds himself targeted by Nazi agents. Safe passage home by ship is arranged for him, but he soon discovers th...

The Magnificent Ambersons
1942
as Eugene Morgan
The spoiled young heir to the decaying Amberson fortune comes between his widowed mother and the man she has always loved.

Lydia
1941
as Michael Fitzpatrick
Lydia MacMillan, a wealthy woman who has never married, invites several men her own age to her home to reminisce about the times when they were young ...

Citizen Kane
1941
as Jedediah Leland
Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, ty...

Seeing the World: Part One - A Visit to New York, N.Y.
1937
A sightseeing portrait of New York, with lively narration taking the viewer aboard the New York elevated and subway trains. Then the view from the win...