John Houseman

John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann, September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer. Academy Award-winning actor John Houseman's main contribution to American culture was not his own performances on film but rather, his role as a midwife to one of the greatest actor-directors-cinematic geniuses his adopted country ever produced (Orson Welles) and as a midwife to a whole generation of actors as head of the Julliard School.

Houseman was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1902, the son of a British mother of Welsh and Irish descent and a Jewish father of Romanian ancestry who ran a grain business. He was educated in England at Clifton College, became a British citizen and worked in the grain trade in London before emigrating to the United States in 1925, where he took the stage name of John Houseman. He became an American citizen in 1943.

He directed "Four Saints in Three Acts" for the theater in 1934. Houseman joined with Orson Welles (whom he affectionately called "The Dog-Faced Boy") in 1937 to mount startling productions of the classics in their avant-garde Mercury Theater. Their most important success was a modern-dress version of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," in which the spectre of Hitler and Mussolini's Fascist states were evoked. The Mercury Theatre on the Air subsequently became famous for its notorious 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, which had put much of the country in a panic.

As a producer assigned to Unit 891 of the Federal Theater Project funded by the government's Works Progress Administration, he produced the legendary production "Cradle Will Rock," a musical about the tyranny of capitalism. On Broadway, apart from the Mercury Theatre and the WPA, Houseman directed "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1939) and "Liberty Jones" and produced "Native Son" (1941). During World War Two, Houseman went to work for the Office of War Information and was involved in broadcasting radio propaganda for the Voice of America. After the war, Houseman returned to directing and produced Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1953 version of Julius Caesar (1953).

Toward what looked like the end of a long career, when he was 66 years old, Mr. Houseman helped establish the school of drama at the Juilliard School and also became the co-founder and longtime artistic director of the Acting Company, the touring repertory group whose alumni include Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone. He resigned as artistic director last summer.

He helped establish the acting program at New York's famous Julliard School for the Arts, where he influenced a new generation of actors. Ironically, he had appeared in only one major movie, in a supporting role, before being tapped to replace James Mason in The Paper Chase (1973). He won an Oscar for the role and began a 15-year career as a highly sought after supporting player (Three Days of the Condor, Rollerball, The Cheap Detective, Ghost Story, My Bodyguard, Naked Gun, Winds of War, Noble House, and many others). Houseman, who wrote three volumes of memoirs, Run-Through (1972), Front and Center (1979) and Final Dress (1983), died in 1988 after making major contributions to the theater and film.

Sir Blues

Valerian "Sir Blues" Răcilă is a Romanian actor, psychologist, and musician. After a career of 22 years as actor at "Mihai Eminescu" Theater in Botoşani, Vali Răcilă worked as psychologist for children with special needs in Răcăciuni, Bacău County. Now, he lives in Sighişoara.

Vali Răcilă is not a star, but he is a legend among music connoisseurs. The non-conformist singer plays almost all forms of Blues, has an amazing technique and a special feeling for this kind of music.

Valeriu Lazarov

Valeriu Lazarov (also known as Valerio Lazarov; December 20, 1935, Bârlad, Romania - August 11, 2009, Madrid, Spain), was a well-known TV producer, director, writer, actor.


He made his debut at the Romanian public television, then went to Spain, where he received Spanish citizenship in 1972. In 1979, Lazarov reached the Italian national TV channel, RAI, to produce a series of shows, called "Tilt". Shortly after, he started working for Silvio Berlusconi at Canale 5, where he became production director, president of the administration board and director of the production center Videotime. In 1985 he got back to Spain, where he worked as producer at the Spanish National Television, as well as general manager and delegate adviser to TV station Telcinco, till 1994, when he was replaced by Maurizio Carlotti. In 1995 he set up his own production company, Prime Time Communications.


Lazarov revolutionized TV entertainment shows in Romania at the end of the 1990s, producing successful shows, such as "Surprises, surprises", "Out of Love" or "The Star Rain" and many soap operas. Lazarov is called by the international press "one of the most respected TV professionals and part of the vanguard of his times". Highly respected in Romania and Spain, Lazarov was nicknamed “Mister Zoom” for the way he maneuvered TV cameras.

Romanians at Hollywood (Part 6)

Today we will talk about other great actors with Romanian origins.

Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz, October 29, 1971) is half-Romanian, his mother being the daughter of a family of Romanian immigrants.


Winona Ryder was born Winona Horowitz and named after her the town in which she was born, Winona Minnesota. She is the Goddaughter of Timothy Leary and her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady" an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature - this included one piece by Louisa May Alcott. Winona Ryder was later to star as Jo in this author's Little Women (1994). She moved with her parents to Petaluma (near San Francisco) when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At 13 she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom (1986), but didn't get the part. Director David Seltzer, however, spotted her and cast her in Lucas (1986). When telephoned to ask how she'd like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder album was playing the background. Her first significant role came in 1988 with Beetle Juice as Lydia Deetz, a Goth teenager, in a performance that gained her critical and commercial recognition. After making various appearances in film and television, Ryder continued her career with the cult film Heathers (1989) in a prominent and critically acclaimed performance. Ryder was selected for the part of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (1990), but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) and Mermaids (1990) back to back. She said she didn't want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence (1993) which was directed by Martin Scorsese, who she believes to be "the best director in the world".

Great Balls of Fire! (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth (1991), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Woody Allen's Celebrity (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999)... Her subsequent roles have won her not only critical praise but numerous film awards (Golden Globe, Oscar). In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.

Dustin Hoffmann (born August 8, 1937), one of the greatest actors of all-times, "...and particularly, I am a Russian, Romanian Jew. I love herring and vodka; I feel it comes from something in my DNA. I do love these things"


Hoffman began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse with Gene Hackman. After two years at the playhouse, Hackman headed for New York City, and Hoffman soon followed and worked a series of odd jobs. In 1960, Hoffman landed a role in an off-Broadway production and followed with a walk-on role in a Broadway production in 1961. Hoffman then studied at the famed Actors Studio and became a dedicated method actor. Through the early and mid-1960s, Hoffman made appearances in television shows and movies. Dustin's debut was in The Graduate (1967), and he received an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Hoffman's next roles were in Midnight Cowboy (his second Oscar nomination), while the film won the Best Picture honor, Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Papillon and Lenny in 1974, for which Hoffman received his third nomination for Best Actor in seven years.

Followed remarkable roles in All the President's Men, Marathon Man, Kramer vs. Kramer (his first Academy Award), Tootsie, Death of a Salesman (Emmy, Bafta), Barry Levinson's Rain Man (his second Academy Award). It was in the 1990s that Hoffman starred in Hook, Billy Bathgate, Dick Tracy, American Buffalo, Wag The Dog, Sphere. More recently, Hoffman played in Finding Neverland, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, and many others memorable movies.

Harvey Keitel (born May 13, 1939) the son of Miriam Klein and Harry Keitel, Jewish immigrants from Romania and Poland.


At the end of the 1970s, Keitel was mostly working in European films for directors such as Ridley Scott, usually in sinister character parts. Keitel came to prominence in the early films of Martin Scorsese after working in theatre for around ten years, particularly Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976).

Faded into anonymity in the eighties even though he turned in some impressive performances in films by some of America's leading directors. He re-emergered into star status in Thelma and Louise in 1991, with his role as Mr. White in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992), Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant (1992), The Piano (1993), Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn (1997), Cop Land (1997). Later roles were in U-571, National Treasure, Be Cool, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. He won important prizes at major film festivals.

"I don't want people to think that awards amount to the value of an actor. Real success means involvement - to engage oneself totally in something. Unless you become involved, you will stay uninvolved. If money is your god, you will accumulate money, but little else. If you seek out the experience of something... you have a good chance to have a full life".