Biografía

Former acting teacher of Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve.

During his teaching days at Julliard School of Fine Arts, one of his students was Robin Williams, whom Houseman admired. The actor later advised the future comedian that he should quit Julliard since he was wasting his talent, and strike out on his own as a comedian which Williams soon did.

Formerly a close friend and collaborator of Orson Welles during their theater days, they had two blow-ups as Welles began his screen career. Welles originally planned to make his screen debut with an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness", starring himself as Kurtz. It was to have been made by RKO Radio Pictures, but a host of production problems caused the studio to tell Welles that if no progress had been made by December 31, 1939, none of the cast would be paid. Welles offered to pay the cast himself if that happened. Houseman told him during a studio dinner that their production company did not have enough money to pay them all. Welles called him a bloodsucker and crook. Houseman began to leave, and Welles started throwing dinnerware at him. The two later reconciled during the writing of El Ciudadano Kane (1941), when Welles asked Houseman to "babysit" Herman J. Mankiewicz, meaning to keep him from drinking too much. After Mankiewicz delivered his script, Welles made a few changes before going into production. Welles later publicly claimed to have substantially re-written the script. Houseman, based on having been with Mankiewicz during the writing, publicly disagreed, saying that most of the credit belonged to Mankiewicz, with a little guidance from himself. This led Welles to permanently end their friendship.

He and Orson Welles were the founders of the famous Mercury Theatre Players.

His hatred for former partner Orson Welles was notorious, and Houseman never passed up an opportunity to attack him, often on very personal grounds. He is known to have given a great deal of information, most of it false or misleading, to Pauline Kael for her much-criticized essay, "Raising Kane". However, he could never escape from Welles' shadow, and even managed to die on the 50th anniversary of the famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. On his deathbed, he admitted to Welles' biographer, Simon Callow, that "meeting Welles was the most important event of my life".