Professor Charles Kingsfield

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John Houseman, who portrayed Professor Kingsfield in the movie and in the television series

Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. was one of the key characters in the John Jay Osborn, Jr. novel, The Paper Chase, and in the subsequent film and television versions of that story. Portrayed by John Houseman, Kingsfield was an imperious professor of contracts at Harvard Law School, known for his unrelenting use of the Socratic method on his students. He was also noted for his own scrupulous work ethic, laboring from early into the morning into the late hours of the night to perfect his knowledge of contract law, that he might better teach his students. Kingsfield himself was a law student at Harvard, as shown by the presence of his own class notes - doodles and all - in the institutions archives. Kingsfield had a daughter with a fiercely independent personality, although she is shown to love her father very much.

In modern parlance, law students are quick to compare their most challenging professors to Kingsfield.

Inspiration

There are several possible inspirations for the character. Retired Harvard Law professor Clark Byse is said to be the inspiration for the character. [link]

Harvard law professor Arthur Miller claims to have been the model for Kingsfield. Miller, on the other hand, was the model for the character Professor Perini in the book "One L" which is also about Harvard Law School.

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