Want to know the best John Houseman movies? How about the worst John Houseman movies? Curious about John Houseman box office grosses or which John Houseman movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which John Houseman movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place…as we have that information and lots moree.
John Houseman (1902-1988) was an Oscar® winning British-American actor and producer. 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. His acting career really got going AFTER he turned 70. His IMDb page shows 48 acting credits. This page will rank 16 John HousemanMovies in 6 different statistical categories. Television roles, shorts and uncredited roles are not included in the rankings.
John Houseman Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
John Houseman Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
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Ten Possibly Interesting Facts About John Houseman
1. Jacques Haussmann was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1902.
2. John Houseman and Orson Welles founded the Mercury Theater in 1937.
3. John Houseman and Orson Welles’s two most famous works from the Mercury Theater were the radio broadcast of War of the Worlds and the 1941 movie Citizen Kane.
4. During the writing of Citizen Kane (1941), Orson Welles asked John Houseman to “babysit” Herman J. Mankiewicz, meaning to keep him from drinking too much. After Mankeweicz 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 Mankeweicz during the writing, publicly disagreed, saying that most of the credit belonged to Mankeweicz, with a little guidance from himself. This led Welles to permanently end their friendship.
5. John Houseman has 30 producer credits on IMDb. Some of his most famous movies include 1946’s The Blue Dahlia,1952’s The Bad and the Beautiful, 1956’s Lust for Life and 1953’s Julius Caesar.
6. During World War II, John Houseman went to work for the Office of War Information and was involved in broadcasting radio propaganda for the Voice of America.
7. John Houseman replaced James Mason in 1973’s The Paper Chase even though he had only one major acting role on his resume. It worked out well….as Houseman won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for the role.
8. John Houseman was a famous acting teacher. 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.
9. John Houseman was married twice…..he had two children.
10. Check out John Houseman’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
HI BRUCE Thanks for the feedback. In Washington Behind Closed Doors fictitious names are used for real-life characters. For example Jason Robards’ Nixon is called Richard Monkton, Andy Griffith’s LBJ is called Esker Scott Anderson and Robert Vaughn’s H R “Bob” Haldeman [Nixon’s Chief of Staff] is called Frank Flaherty .
John Randolph played real-life John Mitchell, Nixon’s crooked Attorney General during Watergate who went to jail for 19 months and Cliff Robertson [the main lead] played Direct of Central Intelligence Richard Helms. Their screen names in the series were respectively Bennett Lowman and William Martin.
Audiences back then had great fun trying to work out who was who and whilst I got most of them there were so many creepy characters who seemed to surround Richard Nixon that I could never really identify precisely which one of them Houseman’s scary Myron Dunn was. [Journalists in real life nicknamed Nixon’s Committee to Re-elect The president CREEP!]
FLAHERTY [ie Haldeman] to assistant: How are our polling numbers in the swing states holding up?
ASSISTANT starts pointing at the states on a large map and begins to speak but is nastily interrupted by Flaherty.
FLAHERTY I KNOW where they are – just give me the numbers!
I have long thought that John Houseman’s best performance was in the 1977 television mini-series Washington Behind Closed Doors about the Watergate scandal.
IMDB credits Houseman with 3 movie awards and 8 nominations and his net worth at time of death in 1988 is said to have been $2.5 million, which equates to about $5.4 million in today’s dollars according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For me Houseman’s compelling voice and smooth mannerisms made him a joy to hear and watch so I warmly welcome this new page with a “Vote Up!”
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA ABOUT HOUSEMAN’s WIDER INFLUENCE
Challenged, almost dared by producer John Houseman to portray Marc Anthony in a film version of Julius Caesar, to be populated with British Shakespearean actors, Marlon Brando fearlessly accepted. He then proceeded to give the definitive version of Anthony, stunning critics, and audiences, shocking everyone but his fellow actors.
Watch his scene with the bloody body of Caesar, “o pardon me thy bleeding piece of earth…” the tenderness with which he speaks, growing angry, leading to “Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war”. He then takes command of the funeral, turning the crowd against Brutus and the murderers, gently, wisely with his passionate oration.
Brando is superb as a cunning, smart warrior who knows exactly what to say and when to say it. His command of iambic pentameter, Shakespeare speak was perfection, crisp, fine diction. And every British actor involved sung his praises. [JOHN H FOOTE – FOOTE & FRIENDS ON FILM]
Hey Bob….I have not seen Washington Behind Closed Doors, but I have heard of that mini-series. I will have to check that one out in the near future. Thanks for a Vote Up. Another Joel subject off the board…getting closer and closer to 300 of his book subjects. Interesting trivia about Houseman, Brando and Julius Caesar. Good stuff.
I’ve seen 8 of the 16 films on the chart, favorites are – Rollerball, Three Days in May, Seven Days of the Condor, Ghost Story, The Fog and The Naked Gun.
I’ve also seen St. Ives and Scrooged.
Most memorable for me is his role in Rollerball, trying to convince star player James Caan to retire, for the good of the game. A film I’ve watched numerous times on the big screen and at home.
Nice work Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….thanks for checking out our John Houseman page…another Joel subject that gets some UMR love. I have seen 12 of his movies. My top 3 would be very close to yours….RollerCondor, Seven Days in Bali and Three Rolls of the Condor. I used to watch his television show The Paper Chase…so when I finally saw the movie it was strange…but still good. Good feedback as always.
“John Goodman is marvelously hammy, the way Charles Laughton used to be. Laughton had more acting strings to his bow, but Houseman is flamboyant and entertaining. Occasionally, as in The Paper Chase, his amusing one-upmanship can show humility and vulnerability as well.”
Rating the Movie Stars’ John Houseman 4 Star Performances
1973’s The Paper Chase
Love included the voice of Joel and his editors from the book Rating the Movie Stars.
I have seen 7 John Houseman movies. Five of them are in the top 6.
The HIGHEST ranked movie I have seen is Three Days of the Condor.
The highest ranked movie I have NOT seen is Rollerball.
The LOWEST ranked movie I have seen is St. Ives.
Favourite John Houseman Movies:
Three Days of the Condor
The Cheap Detective
Seven Days in May
Other John Houseman Movies I Have Seen:
The Naked Gun
Scrooged
Bright Lights, Big City
St. Ives
Hey Flora….thanks for the visit, comment and tally to our John Houseman page. I have seen 12 of the movies listed or 75%. So that is 12 for me and 7 for you. Of the seven you have seen….I have missed St. Ives and The Cheap Detective. I would like to see The Cheap Detective…just have never seen it available to watch anywhere. Three Days of the Condor, Ghost Story and Seven Days In May would be my favorites. I actually saw Wholly Moses and Scrooged in theaters. The original Rollerball is a nice science fiction movie…way better than the recent remake (actually not too recent…it is probably already over a decade old). Good feedback as always.