Template:Featured film (Week 46, 2005)

Citizen Kane is the first feature film directed by Orson Welles (he had directed two short films previously), and is loosely based on the lives of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the reclusive aerospace and movie mogul Howard Hughes, and the Chicago utilities magnate Samuel Insull. Welles maintained that the character is a composite of several historical individuals. Internally while it was under production, it was referred to as RKO 281. The film premiered on May 1, 1941. Endlessly discussed and dissected by critics and viewers alike, this innovative film is perhaps the most influential ever in film history.

The movie has some parallels to the 1933 movie The Power and the Glory.

Ruth Warrick was the last main cast member still living. She died on January 15, 2005. The only remaining living cast member is Sonny Bupp who played Kane's young son, Charles Foster Kane III.

Robert Wise, who died of heart failure on September 14, 2005, was the last living crew member.