John Houseman

Did You Know?

• Houseman was born Jacques Haussmann in Bucharest, Romania, and changed his name when he entered the theatre.
• He worked as a grain speculator on the Chicago Board of Trade before the 1929 stock market crash.
• He wrote three volumes of memoirs: Run Through (1972), Front and Center (1979), and Final Dress (1983).

Theatre producer

Houseman co-wrote the Broadway plays Three and One (1933) and And Be My Love (1934). Composer Virgil Thomson recruited him to direct Four Saints in Three Acts (1934), a collaboration with Gertrude Stein. He also directed The Lady from the Sea (1934) and Valley Forge (1934). In 1934, while producing Panic, based on an Archibald MacLeish drama about a Wall Street financier ruined by the 1929 crash, Houseman became convinced that the young Orson Welles, whom he had seen in Katharine Cornell's Romeo and Juliet, was the only person to play the lead role.

Welles agreed, leaving his current play after one night to take the part. Panic opened at the Imperial Theatre on March 15, 1935, with Houseman's ex-wife Zita Johann in the cast. The play received indifferent notices and ran for only three performances, but it began a fruitful yet stormy partnership; Houseman later said Welles 'was the teacher, I, the apprentice.' He supervised the direction of Walk Together Chillun in 1936.

In 1936, the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration hired unemployed theatre workers. Houseman and Rose McClendon headed the Negro Theatre Unit. Houseman later wrote that within a year the Federal Theatre had over fifteen thousand employees earning about twenty dollars weekly, and its productions reached more than thirty million people in over two hundred theatres, portable stages, school auditoriums, and public parks.

Film producer

While teaching at Vassar College, Houseman produced Welles' never-completed second short film, Too Much Johnson (1938). No print was thought to have survived until footage was rediscovered in 2013. The Welles-Houseman collaboration continued in Hollywood. In spring 1939, Welles began talks with RKO's head of production George Schaefer, resulting in a two-picture deal giving Welles full creative control.

For his film debut, Welles first considered adapting Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; a 200-page script was written, models were built, and test footage was shot, but little progress was made on budget or filming. When RKO threatened to stop salary payments by December 31 if no progress occurred, Welles said he would pay the cast from his own pocket. Houseman stated there was not enough money in their business account. At a corporate dinner, Welles called Houseman a 'bloodsucker' and a 'crook,' and threw dish heaters at him as Houseman tried to leave, ending their partnership and friendship.

Houseman later played a pivotal role in Citizen Kane (1941). Welles asked him to return to Hollywood to 'babysit' screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and keep him from alcohol. Houseman agreed. Although Welles took credit for the screenplay, Houseman said the credit belonged to Mankiewicz, a claim that caused a final break with Welles.

Houseman took some credit for shaping the story line and editing the script. In 1975, Houseman said film critic Pauline Kael's essay 'Raising Kane' had caused an 'idiotic controversy,' adding that the argument was Welles's own fault because 'he's a hog.'

Teaching

Houseman was the founding director of the Drama Division at the Juilliard School from 1968 to 1976. The first graduating class in 1972 included Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone; later classes under his leadership included Christopher Reeve, Mandy Patinkin, Kevin Conroy, and Robin Williams. Unwilling to see that first class disband, Houseman and Juilliard colleague Margot Harley formed them into an independent touring repertory company called the 'Group 1 Acting Company,' later renamed The Acting Company.

Houseman served as producing artistic director through 1986. He continued producing theatre, including The School for Wives (1971), The Three Sisters (1973), The Beggar's Opera (1973), Scapin (1973), Next Time I'll Sing to You (1974), The Robber Bridegroom (1975), Edward II (1975), and The Time of Your Life (1975). He directed The Country Girl (1972), Don Juan in Hell (1973), Measure for Measure (1973), and Clarence Darrow (1974) with Henry Fonda.

Acting

Houseman acted occasionally early in his career and had a brief but important part in Seven Days in May (1964). He first became widely known for his Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning role as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in The Paper Chase (1973), which launched an unexpected late career as a character actor. He played Energy Corporation Executive Bartholomew in Rollerball (1975) and appeared in the thrillers Three Days of the Condor (1975) and St. Ives (1976).

On television, he appeared in Fear on Trial (1975), The Adams Chronicles (1976), Truman at Potsdam (1976), Hazard's People (1976), and Six Characters in Search of an Author (1976). He was reunited with Paper Chase co-star Lindsay Wagner in 1976's 'Kill Oscar,' a three-part joint episode of The Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man, playing Dr. Franklin. He continued in Captains and the Kings (1976), The Displaced Person (1977), a version of Our Town (1977), Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977), The Best of Families (1977), Aspen (1978), The Last Convertible (1978), The French Atlantic Affair (1978), and The Associates (1980).

In films, he parodied Sydney Greenstreet in The Cheap Detective (1978) and appeared in Old Boyfriends (1979), John Carpenter's The Fog (1980), Wholly Moses! (1980), and My Bodyguard (1980). He acted in The Babysitter (1980), A Christmas Without Snow (1980), Ghost Story (1981), Mork & Mindy, Murder by Phone (1982), Marco Polo (1982), and American Playhouse (1982). Later film appearances included Bright Lights, Big City (1988) and Another Woman (1988).

His last two roles were cameos in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and Scrooged, both released after his death. He reprised his Paper Chase role in a television series of the same name, running from 1978 to 1979 and 1983 to 1986, earning two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a TV Series—Drama.