Character: Orson Welles' megalomaniacal Charles Foster Kane Reputedly based on: William Randolph Hearst How does writing, directing, and starring in a film considered to be one of the greatest of all time ruin your career? You make that movie one giant potshot at the most powerful man in media: muckraking publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst. As arrogant as he was talented, 26-year-old prodigy Welles fashioned his sad, lonely, self-destructive Chuck Kane after Hearst, even allegedly naming the character's most prized possession—the sleigh Rosebud—after the pet name Hearst had given his wife's, um, hoohah. But Hearst had the last laugh; after being virtually blacklisted in Hollywood, Welles ended his once-illustrious career drunkenly stumbling through wine commercials.
