| Orson Welles | Charles Foster Kane |
| Joseph Cotten | Jedediah Leland/Newsreel Reporter |
| Ruth Warrick | Emily Norton Kane |
| Everett Sloane | Bernstein |
| Agnes Moorehead | Mrs. Mary Kane |
| Dorothy Comingore | Susan Alexander |
| Ray Collins | Boss James 'Jim' W. Gettys |
| George Coulouris | Walter Parks Thatcher |
| William Alland | Jerry Thompson/"News on the March" Narrator |
| Paul Stewart | Raymond |
| Erskine Sanford | Herbert Carter/Newsreel Reporter |
When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane's friend and colleague Jedediah Leland, and his mistress, Susan Alexander, shed fragments of light on Kane's life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man's final word, ''Rosebud.''