Richard Basehart
Acting • Born 1914-08-31 – Died 1984-09-17
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.
Filmography
115 credits
La Strada
Movie • 1954
Il 'Matto'
Being There
Movie • 1979
Vladimir Skrapinov
Moby Dick
Movie • 1956
Ishmael
Decision Before Dawn
Movie • 1951
Lt. Dick Rennick
He Walked by Night
Movie • 1949
Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Movie • 1977
Sayer of the Law
Tension
Movie • 1949
Warren Quimby
Reign of Terror
Movie • 1949
Maximilian Robespierre
The Satan Bug
Movie • 1965
Dr. Gregor Hoffman
They've Killed President Lincoln!
Movie • 1971
Host / Narrator
Mansion of the Doomed
Movie • 1976
Dr. Leonard Chaney
The House on Telegraph Hill
Movie • 1951
Alan Spender
The Swindle
Movie • 1955
Carlo
Repeat Performance
Movie • 1947
William Williams
The Brothers Karamazov
Movie • 1958
Ivan Karamazov
Cry Wolf
Movie • 1947
James Caldwell Demarest
Titanic
Movie • 1953
George S. Headley
Time Limit
Movie • 1957
Maj. Harry Cargill
The Good Die Young
Movie • 1954
Joe Halsey
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
Movie • 1982
Wilton Knight
Portrait in Black
Movie • 1960
Howard Mason
Fixed Bayonets!
Movie • 1951
Cpl. Denno
City Beneath the Sea
Movie • 1971
The President
Kings of the Sun
Movie • 1963
Ah Min
Los Angeles Plays Itself
Movie • 2004
Roy Morgan/Roy Martin in He Walked By Night (archive footage)
21 Hours at Munich
Movie • 1976
Willy Brandt
Fourteen Hours
Movie • 1951
Robert Cosick
Outside the Wall
Movie • 1950
Larry Nelson
Sole Survivor
Movie • 1970
Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
Canyon Crossroads
Movie • 1955
Larry Kendall
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Movie • 2002
Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Intimate Stranger
Movie • 1956
Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
Miracles of Thursday
Movie • 1957
Martino
Rage
Movie • 1972
Dr. Roy Caldwell
Hitler
Movie • 1962
Adolf Hitler
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
Movie • 1975
George Latimer
The Great Bank Hoax
Movie • 1978
Manny Benchly
The Savage Guns
Movie • 1961
Steve Fallon
Four Days In November
Movie • 1964
Narrator (voice)
Flood!
Movie • 1977
John Cutler
Cartouche
Movie • 1955
Il conte Jacques de Maudy
Hans Brinker
Movie • 1969
Dr. Boeker
Visa to Canton
Movie • 1960
Don Benton
The Birdmen
Movie • 1973
Schiller
Roseanna McCoy
Movie • 1949
Mounts Hatfield
The Extra Day
Movie • 1956
Joe Blake
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
Movie • 1965
Narrator (voice)
Marilyn: The Untold Story
Movie • 1980
Johnny Hyde
The Yanks Are Coming
Movie • 1963
Narrator (voice)
The Death of Me Yet
Movie • 1971
Robert Barnes
Maneater
Movie • 1973
Carl Brenner
The Stranger's Hand
Movie • 1954
Joe Hamstringer
Jons und Erdme
Movie • 1959
Wittkuhn
The Andersonville Trial
Movie • 1970
Henry Wirz
Five Branded Women
Movie • 1960
Eric Reinhardt
Jailbirds
Movie • 1954
Doctor Stefano Luprandi
Love Is a Funny Thing
Movie • 1969
Acteur
Land of Celtic Ghosts
Movie • 1979
Himself
The Golden Vein
Movie • 1955
Ing. Stefano Manfredi
Love and Troubles
Movie • 1958
Paolo Martelli
Time Travelers
Movie • 1976
Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
Assignment: Munich
Movie • 1972
Maj. Barney Caldwell
The Ambitious One
Movie • 1959
George Rancourt
...And Millions Die!
Movie • 1973
Dr Douglas Pruitt
For the Love of Mike
Movie • 1960
Father Phelan
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Movie • 1968
Narrator
The Bounty Man
Movie • 1972
Angus Keough
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Movie • 1978
King Arthur
Chato's Land
Movie • 1972
Nye Buell
Valley Forge
Movie • 1975
Trial at Nuremberg
Movie • 1964
Narrator
Planet Mars
Movie • 1979
Narrator
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
Movie • 1977
Elliott Osborn
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
Movie • 1982
Self
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
Movie • 1982
Narrator (Self)
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
Movie • 1967
The First Woman President
Movie • 1974
Woodrow Wilson
So Soon to Die
Movie • 1957
Lionel Amblin
The Hiding Place
Movie • 1960
Martin Lambert
Columbo
TV • 1971
Nicholas Framer
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
TV • 1964
Adm. Harriman Nelson
Little House on the Prairie
TV • 1974
The Love Boat
TV • 1977
Stan Ellis
Hawaii Five-O
TV • 1968
Murdock
Knight Rider
TV • 1982
Wilton Knight
Route 66
TV • 1960
Tales of the Unexpected
TV • 1979
Slade
Naked City
TV • 1958
Lester Bergson
Arrest and Trial
TV • 1963
Gunsmoke
TV • 1955
Captain Aron Sligo
Studio One
TV • 1948
Matt Donovan
Combat!
TV • 1962
Capt. Steiner
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Conway
Rawhide
TV • 1959
Tod Stone
Vega$
TV • 1978
Mr. Merlin
TV • 1981
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
W.E.B.
TV • 1978
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
TV • 1956
David Manning
Medical Story
TV • 1975
Joe Forrester
TV • 1975
The Twilight Zone
TV • 1959
Adam Cook
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
General Washington
National Geographic Specials
TV • 1965
Narrator (voice)
Ironside
TV • 1967
Noel Seymour
Marcus Welby, M.D.
TV • 1969
Professor Andrew Kirkcastle
The Critical List
TV • 1978
Matt Kinsella
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Philip Townsend
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV • 1962
Miles Crawford
How the West Was Won
TV • 1977
Colonel Flint
Marcus Welby, M.D.
TV • 1969
Reece Sutton
Dan August
TV • 1970
Prof. Theodore Rye
The Streets of San Francisco
TV • 1972
Bishop Tim Farrow
Masada
TV • 1981
Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
The Rebels
TV • 1979
Duke of Kentland