John Houseman

John Houseman (1902-1988) was an entertainer known in his early years as a producer for stage, radio and film, and in later life as a character actor in film and television.

In the 1930s, Houseman and Orson Welles founded the Mercury Theatre, a stage company that later worked in radio. It was a Mercury Theatre adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds on 30 October 1938 that first garnered national attention for the company, though most of this was directed at Welles. During the making the radio play, Welles and Houseman encountered the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard. (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)

In later life, Houseman became renowned for playing stuffy, professorial characters, most notably in the film and TV series The Paper Chase and in a series of iconic TV commercials for the brokerage film Smith, Barney.