Richard Basehart
Acting
Born: August 31, 1914 · Zanesville, Ohio, USA
Died: September 17, 1984 (aged 70)
Highest Rated
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
Knight Rider
1982
La Strada
1954
Being There
1979
The Twilight Zone
1959
Little House on the Prairie
1974
Columbo
1971
Moby Dick
1956
The Swindle
1955
The Love Boat
1977
The Island of Dr. Moreau
1977
Chato's Land
1972
Hawaii Five-O
1968
Photos (3)
Movies (75)
Moby Dick
Ishmael
Chato's Land
Nye Buell
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Sayer of the Law
Being There
Vladimir Skrapinov
Titanic
George S. Headley
The Satan Bug
Dr. Gregor Hoffman
Fourteen Hours
Robert Cosick
La Strada
Il 'Matto'
Repeat Performance
William Williams
The Brothers Karamazov
Ivan Karamazov
The Savage Guns
Steve Fallon
21 Hours at Munich
Willy Brandt
He Walked by Night
Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
Mansion of the Doomed
Dr. Leonard Chaney
Cry Wolf
James Caldwell Demarest
Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place
Martin Lambert
...and millions will die!
Dr Douglas Pruitt
Love Is a Funny Thing
Acteur
Time Limit
Maj. Harry Cargill
Valley Forge
Gen. Washington
Kings of the Sun
Ah Min
The House on Telegraph Hill
Alan Spender
Fixed Bayonets!
Cpl. Denno
Decision Before Dawn
Lt. Dick Rennick
The Swindle
Carlo
Flood!
John Cutler
Time Travelers
Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
Portrait in Black
Howard Mason
The Golden Vein
Ing. Stefano Manfredi
Reign of Terror
Maximilian Robespierre
The Birdmen
Schiller
Tension
Warren Quimby
Marilyn: The Untold Story
Johnny Hyde
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
George Latimer
Five Branded Women
Eric Reinhardt
The Great Bank Hoax
Manny Benchly
The Intimate Stranger
Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
Assignment: Munich
Maj. Barney Caldwell
City Beneath the Sea
The President
Sole Survivor
Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
The Andersonville Trial
Henry Wirz
Hitler
Adolf Hitler
The Good Die Young
Joe Halsey
Rage
Dr. Roy Caldwell
Love and Troubles
Paolo Martelli
Outside the Wall
Larry Nelson
The Bounty Man
Angus Keough
Visa to Canton
Don Benton
The Extra Day
Joe Blake
Roseanna McCoy
Mounts Hatfield
So Soon to Die
Lionel Amblin
Jons und Erdme
Wittkuhn
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Death of Me Yet
Robert Barnes
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
Wilton Knight
Cartouche
Il conte Jacques de Maudy
The Ambitious One
George Rancourt
The Stranger's Hand
Joe Hamstringer
Canyon Crossroads
Larry Kendall
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
King Arthur
Miracles of Thursday
Martino
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
Elliott Osborn
Hans Brinker
Dr. Boeker
For the Love of Mike
Father Phelan
Maneater
Carl Brenner
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
1967
Jailbirds
Doctor Stefano Luprandi
Four Days In November
Narrator (voice)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Narrator
The First Woman President
Woodrow Wilson
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
Narrator (voice)
Trial at Nuremberg
Narrator
Planet Mars
Narrator
They've Killed President Lincoln!
Host / Narrator
Save the Panda
Narrator (Voice)
TV Shows (35)
Columbo
Nicholas Framer · 1 eps
The Love Boat
Stan Ellis · 1 eps
Ironside
Noel Seymour · 1 eps
Hawaii Five-O
Murdock · 1 eps
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Philip Townsend · 1 eps
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Miles Crawford · 1 eps
Knight Rider
Wilton Knight · 1 eps
Little House on the Prairie
Hannibal Applewood · 1 eps
The Twilight Zone
Adam Cook · 1 eps
Combat!
Capt. Steiner · 2 eps
Rawhide
Tod Stone · 1 eps
The Streets of San Francisco
Bishop Tim Farrow · 1 eps
Studio One
Matt Donovan · 2 eps
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Professor Andrew Kirkcastle · 1 eps
Marcus Welby, M.D.
Reece Sutton · 1 eps
Tales of the Unexpected
Slade · 1 eps
Route 66
1 eps
Gunsmoke
Captain Aron Sligo · 1 eps
Naked City
Lester Bergson · 1 eps
Ben Casey
1 eps
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Adm. Harriman Nelson · 110 eps
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
David Manning · 1 eps
Vega$
1 eps
How the West Was Won
Colonel Flint · 2 eps
Arrest and Trial
1 eps
Joe Forrester
1 eps
Dan August
Prof. Theodore Rye · 1 eps
National Geographic Specials
Narrator (voice) · 1 eps
Masada
Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited) · 2 eps
Medical Story
Dr. Charles Galpin · 1 eps
Mr. Merlin
1 eps
The Rebels
Duke of Kentland · 2 eps
The Critical List
Matt Kinsella · 2 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Conway · 1 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
General Washington · 1 eps
