Before his celebrated appearance as Charles Foster Kane's best friend, Jed Leland, in Citizen Kane (1941), he appears as one of the reporters in the March of Time parody sequence early in the film. He is seated in the back of the projection room, in the last row at the far left, and is only clearly visible in one shot, but his voice along with that of Everett Sloane's (who plays Bernstein) can often be heard in the darkness on the soundtrack.
Despite their mercurial relationship, he and Orson Welles remained friends until Welles' death.
Had a step-daughter from first marriage.
He was a lifelong Republican and conservative who was a solid supporter of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.
His brother, Sam, passed away on February 27, 2010 in Winchester, Virginia, at the age of 90.
His first film appearance is in 1937 in "Seeing the World, Part One: A Visit to New York", a 10-minute silent film directed & photographed by Rudy Burkhardt, in which he is credited as "Joseph Cotton", acting briefly in a bar scene.
Like Orson Welles, he has appeared in the top films of both the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute; for AFI it was Citizen Kane (1941) as Jedediah Leland and for BFI, its The Third Man (1949) as Holly Martins.
Retired from acting in the early 1980s after a stroke and a laryngectomy.
Served as best man at Orson Welles's wedding to Rita Hayworth.
Uncle of Joseph Cotten.
Was cast as C.K. Dexter Haven in the original 1939 Broadway production of Philip Barry's play Philadelphia StoryZ with Katharine Hepburn. When Hepburn, who owned the rights, sold the story to MGM, Cary Grant was cast in the part.