John H. Walker is a stage actor who has also acted in television and film for over forty years. His acting career stretches from New York City to Hollywood, California. More recently, among other projects, John has continued his voice over career narrating audiobooks by writers such as Anthony Esolen and Fr. George William Rutler for Catholic Audio Publishing, as well as writing and acting in “The Golden Key,” his one-man television play on the life of G. K. Chesterton that was filmed at EWTN studios.
Professor Walker holds an MFA in Acting which is the highest degree you can get for Professional Actor Training at the Conservatory level. He received these degrees from The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He received his BFA in Acting from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He also studied in London with members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Drama League. During his undergraduate studies, he was cast as Hamlet at The Boston Shakespeare Company.
After a season with said company, he decided to pursue his MFA. After graduate school, he went to Hollywood where he screen-tested for one film at Disney, one at Warner Brothers, and a TV series at Paramount. He continued working in Hollywood as an actor for the next ten years in TV, Film, and Theatre. Upon receiving the LA Times Theatre Acting Award in 1988, he got a lead role in a new play by Tony Award-winning director, Eric Simonson, titled, “Bang The Drum Slowly” at the Huntington Theatre in Boston with a planned run at the Lincoln Center in NYC.
Following this time, his career took him to NYC, where he again worked in TV, Film, and Theatre. In 2001, he moved to VT with his young family to teach college at Lyndon State University and later work at The Mary Theotokos Monastic Center working farm and retreat center, (marytheotokos.blogspot.com) where his family ran the local food shelf vegetable garden, raised all sorts of animals and hosted retreats for religious orders, parishes, offered housing for single moms who needed help, and took in animal rescues.
One retreat was a student household from Franciscan University. At that this, he was actively pursuing a college for his son to attend who was interested in theatre. After looking into Franciscan University Mr. Walker noticed a position for a professor of the theatre was available After much prayer and discernment, Mr. Walker interviewed and was fortunate enough to accept the position. He and his family live here in Steubenville, he teaches theatre courses, directs plays, and acts as G. K. Chesterton on ETWN in a series he created, and writes called “Chesterton Station.”
Professor Walker understands the Catholic Church’s tightly interwoven relationship with the art form of theater, since the Church resurrected theater for Western Civilization in 965 AD with the liturgical drama Quem Quaeritis. He believes that theater is an art form that when performed with authentic craft and resonating honesty unveils the truth, goodness, and beauty of the human condition. Here at Franciscan, Professor Walker states, our faith is still tightly woven to everything we do in this art form.
Professor Walker feels truly blessed to be a part of the Franciscan University of Steubenville faculty teaching courses and directing mainstages within the Theatre major. Professor Walker insists, “All my good fortune and every blessing in my life have come from a surrender to God’s will and my consecration to Mary.”
- BFA in acting from Roger Williams University.
- MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theatre.
