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Richard Basehart
Acting
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…
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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.
Biography expanded
BODY OF WORK
Richard Basehart's Filmography
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
Save the Panda
as Narrator (Voice)
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
as Self
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
as Wilton Knight
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
as Narrator (Self)
Marilyn: The Untold Story
as Johnny Hyde
Being There
as Vladimir Skrapinov
Land of Celtic Ghosts
as Himself
Planet Mars
as Narrator
The Great Bank Hoax
as Manny Benchly
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
as King Arthur
The Island of Dr. Moreau
as Sayer of the Law
Flood!
as John Cutler
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
as Elliott Osborn
21 Hours at Munich
as Willy Brandt
Mansion of the Doomed
as Dr. Leonard Chaney
Time Travelers
as Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
Valley Forge
as Gen. Washington
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
as George Latimer
The First Woman President
as Woodrow Wilson
Maneater
as Carl Brenner
The Birdmen
as Schiller
...and millions will die!
as Dr Douglas Pruitt
Rage
as Dr. Roy Caldwell
The Bounty Man
as Angus Keough
Chato's Land
as Nye Buell
Assignment: Munich
as Maj. Barney Caldwell
The Death of Me Yet
as Robert Barnes
City Beneath the Sea
as The President
They've Killed President Lincoln!
as Host / Narrator
The Andersonville Trial
as Henry Wirz
Sole Survivor
as Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
Hans Brinker
as Dr. Boeker
Love Is a Funny Thing
as Acteur
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
as Narrator
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
The Satan Bug
as Dr. Gregor Hoffman
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
as Narrator (voice)
Trial at Nuremberg
as Narrator
Four Days In November
as Narrator (voice)
Kings of the Sun
as Ah Min
No Poster
The Yanks Are Coming
as Narrator (voice)
Hitler
as Adolf Hitler
The Savage Guns
as Steve Fallon
Visa to Canton
as Don Benton
For the Love of Mike
as Father Phelan
Portrait in Black
as Howard Mason
Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place
as Martin Lambert
Five Branded Women
as Eric Reinhardt
The Ambitious One
as George Rancourt
Jons und Erdme
as Wittkuhn
Love and Troubles
as Paolo Martelli
The Brothers Karamazov
as Ivan Karamazov
Time Limit
as Maj. Harry Cargill
Miracles of Thursday
as Martino
So Soon to Die
as Lionel Amblin
Moby Dick
as Ishmael
The Intimate Stranger
as Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
The Extra Day
as Joe Blake
The Swindle
as Carlo
The Golden Vein
as Ing. Stefano Manfredi
Cartouche
as Il conte Jacques de Maudy
Canyon Crossroads
as Larry Kendall
La Strada
as Matto
Jailbirds
as Doctor Stefano Luprandi
The Good Die Young
as Joe Halsey
The Stranger's Hand
as Joe Hamstringer
Titanic
as George S. Headley
Decision Before Dawn
as Lt. Dick Rennick
Fixed Bayonets!
as Cpl. Denno
The House on Telegraph Hill
as Alan Spender
Fourteen Hours
as Robert Cosick
Outside the Wall
as Larry Nelson
Tension
as Warren Quimby
Reign of Terror
as Maximilian Robespierre
Roseanna McCoy
as Mounts Hatfield
He Walked by Night
as Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
Cry Wolf
as James Caldwell Demarest
Repeat Performance
as William Williams