page_title: John Houseman
section_title: The Juilliard School and The Acting Company
hierarchical_section_title: John Houseman / Teaching / The Juilliard School and The Acting Company
caption_attribution_description: English: Publicity photograph of producer John Houseman
context_page_description: John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane and his collaboration, as producer of The Blue Dahlia, with writer Raymond Chandler on the screenplay. He is perhaps best known for his role as Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the film The Paper Chase, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised his role as Kingsfield in the 1978 television series adaptation.
  Houseman was also known for his commercials for the brokerage firm Smith Barney. He had a distinctive English accent, a product of his schooling.
context_section_description: Houseman became the founding director of the Drama Division at The Juilliard School, and held this position from 1968 until 1976. The first graduating class in 1972 included Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone; subsequent classes under Houseman's leadership included Christopher Reeve, Mandy Patinkin, and Robin Williams.
  Unwilling to see that very first class disbanded upon graduation, Houseman and his Juilliard colleague Margot Harley formed them into an independent, touring repertory company they named the "Group 1 Acting Company."  The organization was subsequently renamed The Acting Company, and has been active for more than 40 years. Houseman served as the producing artistic director through 1986, and Harley has been the Company's producer since its founding.  Writing in The New York Times in 1996, Mel Gussow called it "the major touring classical theater in the United States."
caption: Houseman in 1973
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