Orson Welles had a bizarre obsession with his nose

Orson Welles used false noses throughout his acting career, partly because he felt his own nose was too small and partly to transform himself into different characters. The article presents the habit as both a personal insecurity and a practical part of his approach to performance.

Welles said he often chose the largest false nose he could find. In a 1955 television series, he recounted one falling off during a stage scene in Dublin, prompting the audience to laugh when he accidentally said “nose” instead of “throne”. Director Lewis Gilbert later recalled that Welles arranged his own prosthetic nose for the 1959 film *Ferry to Hong Kong*; a short documentary about the habit was released by the Criterion Collection in 2017.