Ashes of Orson Welles Buried in Spanish Well

RONDA, Spain (AP) _ The ashes of Orson Welles were buried on the Spanish farm of bullfighter Antonio Ordonez, an old friend of the actor and film director.

Thursday’s simple ceremony took place on what would have been Welles’ 72nd birthday. His daughter, 31-year-old Beatrice, wept as Ordonez lowered the urn into a dry well between two oak trees. A priest prayed briefly.

Welles, who directed and starred in the classic 1941 film, ″Citizen Kane,″ died in October 1985 at his home in California. He had requested that his ashes be buried on Ordonez’s farm in the mountains near this southern Spanish town.

Ordonez threw sand from the Ronda bullring into the well, a gesture he said symbolized their friendship and ″the love Welles felt for the bullfight world.″

Welles was a frequent visitor to Spain and lived there in 1966 while filming ″Falstaff, or Chimes at Midnight,″ in the village of Chinchon, south of Madrid.