John Houseman
(September 22, 1902—October 31, 1988) was an Oscar-winning American actor and film producer.
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JOHN HOUSEMAN TICKETS
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Biography
Personal life
Houseman was born
Jacques Haussmann
in
Bucharest, the son of a
British mother of
Welsh and
Irish descent and an
Alsatian-born
Jewish father who ran a
grain business.
[1] [2] [3] [4] He was educated in
England at
Clifton College before emigrating to the
United States in 1925, where he took the
stage name of
John Houseman
. He became a citizen of the U.S. in 1943.
[5] Houseman died of
spinal cancer in 1988 at his home in
Malibu, California.
Career
Along with
Orson Welles, Houseman founded the
Mercury Theatre, best remembered for their 1938 radio adaptation of
H. G. Wells'
The War of the Worlds
. Their collaboration got portrayed in
Tim Robbins's
1999 movie Cradle Will Rock
.
During the Second World War, Houseman worked for the
Voice of America, managing its operations in New York.
[6]
Houseman produced more than two dozen films, including the 1946
film noir,
The Blue Dahlia
. He first became widely known to the public, however, for his
Golden Globe and
Academy Award-winning role as
Professor Charles Kingsfield in the 1973 film
The Paper Chase
, a role which he reprised in the
television series of the same name.
He was the
Executive Producer of
CBS' landmark
Seven Lively Arts series. Houseman also played Energy Corporation Executive Bartholomew in the 1975 film
Rollerball
and parodied
Sydney Greenstreet in the 1978
Neil Simon film,
The Cheap Detective
.
In the 1980s, Houseman became more widely known for his role as grandfather Edward Stratton II in
Silver Spoons
, which starred
Rick Schroder, and for his commercials for brokerage firm
Smith Barney, which featured the
catchphrase, "They make money the old fashioned way...they
earn
it." Another was Puritan brand cooking oil, with "less saturated fat than the leading oil", featuring the famous 'tomato test'. He also made a guest appearance in
John Carpenter's 1980 movie
The Fog
as Mr. Machen. He played the Jewish professor Aaron Jastrow in the 1983 miniseries
The Winds of War
.
Houseman taught acting at The
Juilliard School where his first graduating class included
Kevin Kline and
Patti LuPone. Unwilling to see his first class immediately disbanded by the testing world of stage and screen, he formed them into a touring repertory company appropriately named the Group 1 Acting Company. They later shortened their name simply to
The Acting Company and are still touring the country today.
In 1988, he appeared in
The Naked Gun
and
Scrooged
, which were released after his death.
In February 2008, filming began on the movie
Me and Orson Welles
. The film tells the story of Houseman's relationship with Orson Welles when running The Mercury Theatre in New York in the late 1930s. The film is using The Gaiety Theatre on the
Isle of Man to replicate The Mercury.
Filmography
| Year
| Film
| Role
| Other notes
|
| 1938
| Too Much Johnson
| Duelist
|
|
| 1964
| Seven Days in May
| Vice-Adm. Farley C. Barnswell
| uncredited
|
| 1973
| The Paper Chase
| Charles W. Kingsfield Jr.
| Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; Golden Globe
|
| 1975
| Three Days of the Condor
| Wabash
|
|
| Rollerball
| Bartholomew
|
|
| 1976
| St. Ives
| Abner Procane
|
|
| 1978
| The Cheap Detective
| Jasper Blubber
|
|
| 1979
| Old Boyfriends
| Doctor Hoffman
|
|
| 1980
| The Fog
| Mr. Machen
|
|
| My Bodyguard
| Mr. Dobbs
|
|
| Wholly Moses!
| The Archangel
|
|
| 1981
| Ghost Story
| Sears James
|
|
| 1982
| Rose for Emily
| Narrator
|
|
| Murder by Phone
| Stanley Markowitz
|
|
| 1988
| The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
| Driving Instructor
| uncredited
|
| Another Woman
| Marion's Father
|
|
| Bright Lights, Big City
| Mr. Vogel
|
|
| Scrooged
| Himself
|
References
- Survey of Contemporary Literature
- Run-Through: A Memoir
- ''John Houseman''. Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ''John Houseman'' New York Times Movies.
- ''John Houseman
- The Beginning: An American Voice Greets the World