Today’s laughs: Orson Welles’ legacy of wine commercials
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985), better known as Orson Welles, was one of the most brilliant American film directors, writers, actors, and producers of his generation, perhaps even of all time. Noted for his innovative dramatic productions as well as his distinctive voice and personality, Wells was also known for his notoriously contentious relationship with Hollywood.
In 2002 he was voted the greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute’s poll of Top Ten Directors. Welles, who was also an extremely well regarded actor, was voted number 16 in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Stars list of the greatest film actors of all time.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Welles participated in a series of famous television commercial advertisements, acting as the on-camera spokesman for the Paul Masson wine company. The sign-off phrase of the commercials — “We will sell no wine before its time” — became a national catchphrase. During coverage of these commercials on Ads Infinitum, Victor Lewis-Smith, a critic of Masson wines, fondly remarked that Welles endorsements of the wine were proof he was “a genius, but a lying bastard” and promptly showed an outtake of Welles being impossible to work with in a commercial shoot.
The following videos from youtube are great fun and humour. In one or two of them Welles had to do so many takes that he found himself semi-drunk!
I guess that after a lot of soul searching, Welles must have realized that doing Paul Masson wine commericials was dangerous for his health, so he switched to plugging products that he would not be tempted to ingesting himself…