Name
Richard Basehart
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1914-08-31
Deathday
1984-09-17 (70 years old)
Place of Birth
Zanesville, Ohio, USA
Biography
John Richard Basehart (August 31, 1914 – September 17, 1984) was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.
One of his most notable film roles was the acrobat known as "the Fool" in the acclaimed Italian film La strada directed by Federico Fellini. He also appeared as the killer in the film noir classic He Walked by Night (1948), as a psychotic member of the Hatfield clan in Roseanna McCoy (1949), as Ishmael in Moby Dick (1956), and in the drama Decision Before Dawn (1951). He was married to Italian Academy Award-nominated actress Valentina Cortese, with whom he had one son before their divorce in 1960. Cortese and Basehart also costarred in Robert Wise's The House on Telegraph Hill (1951).
Basehart was also noted for his deep, distinctive voice and was prolific as a narrator of many television and movie projects ranging from features to documentaries. In 1980, Basehart narrated the mini-series written by Peter Arnett called Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War that covered Vietnam and its battles from the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945 to the final American embassy evacuation on April 30, 1975. He appeared in the pilot episode of the television series Knight Rider as billionaire Wilton Knight. He is the narrator at the beginning of the show's credits.
In 1971, Basehart played "Captain Sligo", a comical Irishman with a pet buffalo who negotiates a flawed but legal cattle purchase and unconventionally courts a widow with two children, played by Salome Jens, in CBS's western series, Gunsmoke, with James Arness. Basehart appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, and as Hannibal Applewood, an abusive schoolteacher in Little House on the Prairie in 1976.
In 1972, he appeared in the Columbo episode Dagger of the Mind in which he and Honor Blackman played a husband-and-wife theatrical team who were loose parodies of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In the feature realm, he played a supporting role as a doctor in Rage (1972), a theatrical feature starring and directed by George C. Scott. He made a few TV movies including Sole Survivor (1970) and The Birdmen (1971). Both were based on true stories during World War II.
He died at age 70 following a series of strokes. One month before his death, Basehart was an announcer for the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Known For
7.591
A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house ...
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A ship-wrecked man floats ashore on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is inhabite...
6.1
A US government germ warfare lab has had an accident. The first theory is that one of the ...
6.703
Roy Martin aka Roy Morgan is a burglar and former war-time Radio & Electronics Engineer wh...
6.554
In 1870s New Mexico, a half-breed kills a bigoted sheriff in self-defense but the posse th...
6
In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north acro...
7.2
Military investigator Colonel Edwards is assigned a case involving Major Cargill, a Korean...
- 1954 La Strada as Matto
- 1979 Being There as Vladimir Skrapinov
- 1956 Moby Dick as Ishmael
- 1951 Decision Before Dawn as Lt. Dick Rennick
- 1949 He Walked by Night as Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
- 1977 The Island of Dr. Moreau as Sayer of the Law
- 1949 Tension as Warren Quimby
- 1949 Reign of Terror as Maximilian Robespierre
- 1965 The Satan Bug as Dr. Gregor Hoffman
- 1971 They've Killed President Lincoln! as Host / Narrator
- 1976 Mansion of the Doomed as Dr. Leonard Chaney
- 1951 The House on Telegraph Hill as Alan Spender
- 1955 The Swindle as Carlo
- 1947 Repeat Performance as William Williams
- 1958 The Brothers Karamazov as Ivan Karamazov
- 1947 Cry Wolf as James Caldwell Demarest
- 1953 Titanic as George S. Headley
- 1957 Time Limit as Maj. Harry Cargill
- 1954 The Good Die Young as Joe Halsey
- 1982 Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix as Wilton Knight
- 1960 Portrait in Black as Howard Mason
- 1951 Fixed Bayonets! as Cpl. Denno
- 1971 City Beneath the Sea as The President
- 1963 Kings of the Sun as Ah Min
- 1976 21 Hours at Munich as Willy Brandt
- 1951 Fourteen Hours as Robert Cosick
- 1950 Outside the Wall as Larry Nelson
- 1970 Sole Survivor as Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
- 1955 Canyon Crossroads as Larry Kendall
- 2002 The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller as Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1956 The Intimate Stranger as Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
- 1957 Miracles of Thursday as Martino
- 1972 Rage as Dr. Roy Caldwell
- 1962 Hitler as Adolf Hitler
- 1975 Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley as George Latimer
- 1978 The Great Bank Hoax as Manny Benchly
- 1961 The Savage Guns as Steve Fallon
- 1964 Four Days In November as Narrator (voice)
- 1977 Flood! as John Cutler
- 1955 Cartouche as Il conte Jacques de Maudy
- 1969 Hans Brinker as Dr. Boeker
- 1960 Visa to Canton as Don Benton
- 1973 The Birdmen as Schiller
- 1949 Roseanna McCoy as Mounts Hatfield
- 1956 The Extra Day as Joe Blake
- 1965 Let My People Go: The Story of Israel as Narrator (voice)
- 1980 Marilyn: The Untold Story as Johnny Hyde
- 1963 The Yanks Are Coming as Narrator (voice)
- 1971 The Death of Me Yet as Robert Barnes
- 1973 Maneater as Carl Brenner
- 1954 The Stranger's Hand as Joe Hamstringer
- 1959 Jons und Erdme as Wittkuhn
- 1970 The Andersonville Trial as Henry Wirz
- 1960 Five Branded Women as Eric Reinhardt
- 1954 Jailbirds as Doctor Stefano Luprandi
- 1969 Love Is a Funny Thing as Acteur
- 1979 Land of Celtic Ghosts as Himself
- 1955 The Golden Vein as Ing. Stefano Manfredi
- 1958 Love and Troubles as Paolo Martelli
- 1976 Time Travelers as Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
- 1972 Assignment: Munich as Maj. Barney Caldwell
- 1959 The Ambitious One as George Rancourt
- 1973 ...and millions will die! as Dr Douglas Pruitt
- 1960 For the Love of Mike as Father Phelan
- 1968 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as Narrator
- 1972 The Bounty Man as Angus Keough
- 1978 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as King Arthur
- 1972 Chato's Land as Nye Buell
- 1975 Valley Forge as Gen. Washington
- 1964 Trial at Nuremberg as Narrator
- 1979 Planet Mars as Narrator
- 1977 Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? as Elliott Osborn
- 1982 Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet as Self
- 1982 Egypt: Quest for Eternity as Narrator (Self)
- 1967 Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
- 1974 The First Woman President as Woodrow Wilson
- 1957 So Soon to Die as Lionel Amblin
- 1960 Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place as Martin Lambert
- 1983 Save the Panda as Narrator (Voice)
- 1971 Columbo ( 1 episode ) as Nicholas Framer
- 1964 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea ( 110 episodes ) as Adm. Harriman Nelson
- 1974 Little House on the Prairie ( 1 episode ) as Hannibal Applewood
- 1977 The Love Boat ( 1 episode ) as Stan Ellis
- 1969 Hawaii Five-O ( 1 episode ) as Murdock
- 1982 Knight Rider ( 1 episode ) as Wilton Knight
- 1960 Route 66 ( 1 episode )
- 1979 Tales of the Unexpected ( 1 episode ) as Slade
- 1958 Naked City ( 1 episode ) as Lester Bergson
- 1963 Arrest and Trial ( 1 episode )
- 1955 Gunsmoke ( 1 episode ) as Captain Aron Sligo
- 1948 Studio One ( 2 episodes ) as Matt Donovan
- 1962 Combat! ( 2 episodes ) as Capt. Steiner
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Conway
- 1959 Rawhide ( 1 episode ) as Tod Stone
- 1978 Vega$ ( 1 episode )
- 1981 Mr. Merlin ( 1 episode )
- 1961 Ben Casey ( 1 episode )
- 1978 W.E.B. ( 8 episodes )
- 1956 Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre ( 1 episode ) as David Manning
- 1975 Joe Forrester ( 1 episode )
- 1959 The Twilight Zone ( 1 episode ) as Adam Cook
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as General Washington
- 1965 National Geographic Specials ( 1 episode ) as Narrator (voice)
- 1967 Ironside ( 1 episode ) as Noel Seymour
- 1969 Marcus Welby, M.D. ( 1 episode ) as Professor Andrew Kirkcastle
- 1978 The Critical List ( 2 episodes ) as Matt Kinsella
- 1962 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ( 1 episode ) as Philip Townsend
- 1962 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour ( 1 episode ) as Miles Crawford
- 1977 How the West Was Won ( 2 episodes ) as Colonel Flint
- 1969 Marcus Welby, M.D. ( 1 episode ) as Reece Sutton
- 1970 Dan August ( 1 episode ) as Prof. Theodore Rye
- 1972 The Streets of San Francisco ( 1 episode ) as Bishop Tim Farrow
- 1981 Masada ( 2 episodes ) as Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
- 1979 The Rebels ( 2 episodes ) as Duke of Kentland
- 1975 Medical Story ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Charles Galpin
