Matinee Classics - John Houseman Biography & Filmography

John Houseman ACTOR

PHOTOS

JOHN HOUSEMAN BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

John Houseman was born on September 22, 1902 as Jacques Haussmann in Bucharest, Rumania. His mother was British and his father Alsatian. After completion of college in England he began working for his father's grain business and soon after worked for a magazine as a translator translating plays from German and French. In 1924 he immigrated to the US and lived in New York and by his early thirties he was already writing, producing, and directing plays. In 1929, he married Zita Johann, an American actress best known for her role as Princess Ankhesenamón in Karl Freund's 1932 film version of “The Mummy”, co-starring Boris Karloff. They divorced in 1933 and John Houseman went on to further his career in the entertainment industry.

His first major job in the theater was as a director of Virgil Thompson's opera "Four Saints in Three Acts" in 1934. In 1937, along with Orson Welles, the two founded the Mercury Theater, where he produced radio specials and stage presentations. Welles' never-completed first film "Too Much Johnson" (1938) was produced by Houseman. He then proceeded to play a large role in Welles' first completed film "Citizen Kane" (1941). Shortly after the completion and success of this film Welles and Houseman had a falling out and went their separate ways. However, his association with Welles produced such events in American culture as a 1935 production of "Macbeth" which took place in Haiti with an all-black cast and the staging of the musical "The Cradle Will Rock", which was closed by the police in 1936. He was also responsible for the radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" that actually scared the public into thinking it was real.

Houseman then became a vice president of David O. Selznick Productions. However in 1941, right after Pearl Harbor, he was promoted to the chief of overseas radio division of the OWI where he broadcast radio programs for the Voice of America.

Upon his return to Hollywood, he produced many films and commuted back and forth to New York to produce and direct Broadway plays and television specials. In 1952 he married Joan Courtney and they remained married until his death. Between 1956 and 1959 he was the artistic director for the American Shakespeare Festival. He also co-founded the Professional Theater group for the University of California, Los Angeles. This later became part of the Mark Taper Forum and the acting company and New York city based group whose members have included Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, and William Hurt. The John Houseman Theatre was established in 1986 as a permanent home for the acting company.

The films John Houseman produced were nominated for twenty Oscars and won seven of those. He was the artistic director of the touring repertory group the Acting Company. At the age of 62, he made his first appearance on screen in "Seven Days in May" (1964), and then in the '70s and '80s played character roles in a number of films. In 1973 he played Kingsfield, a stern Harvard Law Professor in the film "The Paper Chase". This was his second screen appearance and he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. John Houseman, as a movie producer, was responsible for such films as "The Blue Dahlia" (1946), "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948), "They Live by Night" (1949), "Julius Caesar" (1953), and "Lust for Life" (1956).

Houseman was also responsible for helping establish the acting program at New York's famous Julliard School for the Arts, where he influenced a new generation of actors. He was even a writer of two autobiographies "Run Through" and "Front and Center". He also received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a TV Series, Drama. In the 1980s, Houseman became more widely known for his role as grandfather Edward Stratton II in the television show "Silver Spoons", which starred Rick Schroeder.

Houseman passed away October 31, 1988 in Malibu, California from spinal cancer. After his death the final two films he worked on were released -- "The Naked Gun" and "Scrooged". He left behind two sons, and a legacy to American culture. He was one of the greatest directors and producers in the entertainment industry. John Houseman shared his love for acting with many students as the head of the Julliard School. He will never be forgotten and he is looked upon by many as the midwife to a whole generation of actors.

FILMOGRAPHY:

DIRECTING

1983 Choices of the Heart Executive

1980 Gideon's Trumpet Executive

1966 This Property Is Condemned

1963 In the Cool of the Day

1962 All Fall Down

1962 Two Weeks in Another Town

1956 Lust for Life

1955 Moonfleet

1955 The Cobweb

1954 Executive Suite