Name
Basil Hoffman
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1938-01-18
Deathday
2021-09-17 (83 years old)
Place of Birth
Houston, Texas, USA
Biography
Basil Harry Hoffman (January 18, 1938 — September 17, 2021) was an American actor with a film and television career spanning five decades, mostly in supporting roles. He starred in films with many award-winning directors, including Alan Pakula and Robert Redford. He has also authored two books about acting, including Acting and How to Be Good at It.
Hoffman was born in Houston, Texas in January 1938, the son of Beulah (née Novoselsky) and David Hoffman, an antique dealer. He graduated from Tulane University; and he spent two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, receiving a scholarship for the second, graduating year.
His thirteen years of work in New York included many plays, some roles in episodic television, a recurring character on One Life to Live on ABC, hundreds of commercials and a film role in Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren, directed by Mario Monicelli.
He made his first trip to Los Angeles in 1974. In that season, he filmed a theatrical feature, At Long Last Love, for Peter Bogdanovich. In the years that followed he appeared in two television movies, television episodes of Kung Fu, The Rockford Files, Sanford and Son (2 roles), Police Woman, Columbo, Kojak, M*A*S*H (2 roles), Barney Miller and several TV commercials. He had recurring roles as the fingerprint technician on Ellery Queen and as Principal Dingleman on Square Pegs.
Although most of his work was in film and television, he made a few stage appearances, most notably in Sand Mountain, by Romulus Linney, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award, the first staged reading of Martin E. Brooks’ Joe and Flo at the Actors Studio, and the world premiere of William Blinn's Walking Peoria.
He was best known for his work with distinguished film directors, including Peter Bogdanovich, Mario Monicelli, Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner (twice), Peter Medak (six times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice); Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, Paolo Sorrentino, Michel Hazanavicius, Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice as director); and others. His films include: All the President's Men, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, My Favorite Year, The Box, The Electric Horseman, Night Shift, Lucky Lady, Switch, The Milagro Beanfield War, Rio, I Love You, The Pineville Heist, and the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures Ordinary People and The Artist, among many others.
A long-time private acting teacher and coach, he was also a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious professional and academic institutions, including the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson College, the University of Southern California, Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in Beirut, Lebanon.
In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand's Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques. ...
Source: Article "Basil Hoffman" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
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- 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind as Longly (uncredited)
- 2003 Down with Love as C. W. (uncredited)
- 1982 My Favorite Year as Herb Lee
- 1978 Love’s Dark Ride as Dr. Kanlan
- 1978 Comes a Horseman as George Bascomb
- 1982 Night Shift as Drollhauser
- 1980 Ordinary People as Sloan
- 2023 Lucky Louie as Wilbert Moser
- 1979 Jennifer: A Woman’s Story as Neil Turner
- 2011 The Artist as Auctioneer
- 1990 Lambada as Superintendent Leland
- 2013 3 Geezers! as Victor
- 1975 At Long Last Love as Movie Theatre Manager
- 1999 Hefner: Unauthorized as Lawyer
- 2010 When Life Gives You Lemons as Calvin Adams
- 1997 Culture as Editor
- 1971 Lady Liberty as Willett (uncredited)
- 1988 The Milagro Beanfield War as In the Governor's Office
- 1975 Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects as Fingerprint Expert
- 2022 Third Act as Uncle Paul
- 2014 Throwdown as Judge Eller
- 1975 Cage Without a Key as Judge
- 2015 The French American as Monsieur Tissot
- 1982 Games Mother Never Taught You as Dwayne Hilson
- 2011 Surreal Estate as Mr. Black
- 2014 Rio, I Love You as James
- 1980 Scout's Honor as Alexander
- 1976 All the President's Men as Assistant Metro Editor
- 1984 Welcome Home, Jellybean as Mr. Rasmussen
- 1991 Mimi & Me as Professor Sauer
- 1984 The Ratings Game as Frank Friedlander
- 2016 The Pineville Heist as Principal Parker
- 1989 Communion as Dr. Friedman
- 1992 The Ice Runner as J.C. Kruck
- 1976 America on Parade
- 2023 Discovering Ella as Bob Stephens
- 2016 Hail, Caesar! as Stu Schwartz (Accounting)
- 2017 The Last Word as Christopher Georrge
- 1979 Love at First Bite as Hotel Manager (uncredited)
- 1979 The Electric Horseman as Toland
- 1974 The Great Ice Rip-Off as Richards
- 2009 The Box as Don Poates
- 1991 Switch as Higgins
- 1984 All of Me as Court Clerk
- 2019 Mr. Roberts as Mr. Roberts
- 2017 Mommy I Didn't Do It as Otis Pell
- 1977 American Raspberry as Presidential Adviser
- 1984 Kidco as Sid Fein
- 1985 The Twilight Zone ( 1 episode ) as Mr. Steward (segment "Button, Button")
- 1972 M*A*S*H ( 1 episode ) as Major Pfiefer
- 1999 The West Wing ( 1 episode ) as Congressman
- 1986 Sledge Hammer! ( 1 episode ) as Sam Steinway
- 1997 The Practice ( 1 episode ) as Tucker's Atty. Art Hardiman (uncredited)
- 1984 Night Court ( 1 episode ) as Duane Sedgwick
- 1996 Kindred: The Embraced ( 1 episode ) as Charon the Coroner
- 1989 Seinfeld ( 1 episode ) as Wig Salesman
- 1973 Kojak ( 1 episode ) as Charlie Winston
- 1981 Hill Street Blues ( 1 episode ) as Ed Greenglass (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 1985 The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Michaels
- 1975 Barney Miller ( 1 episode ) as Allen Korbel
- 1997 Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction ( 1 episode ) as Gerald Stanley (segment "The Dresser")
- 1975 Ellery Queen ( 1 episode ) as Technical Print Man, Harry
- 1981 Maggie ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Louis Milton
- 1971 Columbo ( 1 episode ) as Jason Danziger
- 1972 Sanford and Son ( 1 episode ) as Store Owner
- 1979 Out of the Blue ( 1 episode ) as Herman Donaldson
- 1984 Murder, She Wrote ( 1 episode ) as Milton Overguard
- 1981 Falcon Crest ( 1 episode ) as Reverend Mustafa
- 1972 The Waltons ( 1 episode ) as Prof Ranney
- 1981 Hill Street Blues ( 1 episode ) as Ed Greenglass
- 1974 The Rockford Files ( 1 episode ) as Desk Clerk (uncredited)
- 1986 Matlock ( 1 episode ) as Gary Springer
- 1991 Eerie, Indiana ( 1 episode ) as Bert (uncredited)
- 2002 For the People ( 1 episode ) as Judge Olsen
- 1987 Beauty and the Beast ( 1 episode ) as Trask
- 1983 Ace Crawford, Private Eye ( 1 episode ) as Gentleman Bandit
