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2 unusual facts about John Houseman


Federal Theatre Project

Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, John Houseman, Martin Ritt, Elia Kazan, Joseph Losey, Marc Blitzstein, Arthur Arent and Abe Feder all became established, in part, through their work in the FTP.

Tony Azito

Azito was part of Juilliard's famous "Group I," the first students admitted to the drama program administered by John Houseman.


American Shakespeare Theatre

Actors involved with American Shakespeare Theatre include Alex Cord, Earle Hyman, David Groh, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Gwynne, Morris Carnovsky, Will Geer, John Houseman, James Earl Jones, Christopher Plummer, Hal Miller Lynn Redgrave, Christopher Walken, Rene Auberjonois, David Birney, Meredith Baxter, Michael Moriarty, Jan Miner, Kate Reid, Fritz Weaver, Dirk Benedict and Charles Siebert.

Gideon's Trumpet

A made-for-TV movie based on the book was released in 1980, starring Henry Fonda as Clarence Earl Gideon, José Ferrer as Abe Fortas and John Houseman as Earl Warren (though Warren's name was never mentioned in the film; he was billed simply as "The Chief Justice").

South Mountain Road

Members of the group included Maxwell Anderson, the playwright (in later years, actor Barry Bostwick lived in Anderson's house, selling it in 2005); composer Kurt Weill and his wife, singer/actress Lotte Lenya; actor/director/producer John Houseman, and architect/potter/painter Henry Varnum Poor.

Voodoo Macbeth

John Houseman, the director of the NTP, invited the young white director Orson Welles to direct a production of Macbeth.


see also

Tony DeSare

DeSare was also featured in New York TV personality Bill Boggs’s Off-Broadway show Talk Show Confidential at the John Houseman Theater.