British actor training has always been linked closely with the names of particular schools or conservatories. American actor training, however, has at least until recently been associated with the names of charismatic individuals – star teachers who conceived it as their function to prepare their pupils to be star actors, whether in film or on stage. Now that generation of teachers has died, and in the following article Richard Hornby explores the legacy of their teaching, in terms both of the training methods now practised and the expectations about a future career they are framed to meet. Richard Hornby is Professor of Theatre at the University of California, Riverside, and for over twenty years has been regular theatre critic for The Hudson Review. He is the author of five books and over a hundred articles on theatre. Notable books include Script into Performance, Mad about Theatre, and The End of Acting.