When people ask me which of my some ten thousand interviews I enjoyed the most, there’s one that always comes to mind.
That day in the fall of 1986, when I had the chance to meet and talk with a personal hero — the actor and producer John Houseman.
Over five decades in theater, radio, television and movies, John Houseman built his reputation the old-fashioned way. He earned it.
In the acting role that, for many, defined him, John Houseman played the wizened and crusty Professor Charles W. Kingsfield in the 1973 movie “The Paper Chase.” He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, then returend to the role for the TV series in 1978:
But long, long before he became a TV pitchman, John Houseman worked with the legendary Orson Welles, most famously collaborating with him on the 1938 radio drama that terrorized America, “The War Of the Worlds.”