Richard Basehart
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.
Fotos
Películas (79)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002 · Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
Save the Panda
1983 · Narrator (Voice)
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
1982 · Self
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
1982 · Wilton Knight
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
1982 · Narrator (Self)
Marilyn: The Untold Story
1980 · Johnny Hyde
Being There
1979 · Vladimir Skrapinov
Land of Celtic Ghosts
1979 · Himself
Planet Mars
1979 · Narrator
The Great Bank Hoax
1978 · Manny Benchly
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1978 · King Arthur
The Island of Dr. Moreau
1977 · Sayer of the Law
Flood!
1977 · John Cutler
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
1977 · Elliott Osborn
21 Hours at Munich
1976 · Willy Brandt
Mansion of the Doomed
1976 · Dr. Leonard Chaney
Time Travelers
1976 · Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
Valley Forge
1975 · Gen. Washington
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
1975 · George Latimer
The First Woman President
1974 · Woodrow Wilson
Maneater
1973 · Carl Brenner
The Birdmen
1973 · Schiller
...and millions will die!
1973 · Dr Douglas Pruitt
Rage
1972 · Dr. Roy Caldwell
The Bounty Man
1972 · Angus Keough
Chato's Land
1972 · Nye Buell
Assignment: Munich
1972 · Maj. Barney Caldwell
The Death of Me Yet
1971 · Robert Barnes
City Beneath the Sea
1971 · The President
They've Killed President Lincoln!
1971 · Host / Narrator
The Andersonville Trial
1970 · Henry Wirz
Sole Survivor
1970 · Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
Hans Brinker
1969 · Dr. Boeker
Love Is a Funny Thing
1969 · Acteur
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
1968 · Narrator
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
1967
The Satan Bug
1965 · Dr. Gregor Hoffman
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
1965 · Narrator (voice)
Trial at Nuremberg
1964 · Narrator
Four Days In November
1964 · Narrator (voice)
Kings of the Sun
1963 · Ah Min
The Yanks Are Coming
1963 · Narrator (voice)
Hitler
1962 · Adolf Hitler
The Savage Guns
1961 · Steve Fallon
Visa to Canton
1960 · Don Benton
For the Love of Mike
1960 · Father Phelan
Portrait in Black
1960 · Howard Mason
Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place
1960 · Martin Lambert
Five Branded Women
1960 · Eric Reinhardt
The Ambitious One
1959 · George Rancourt
Jons und Erdme
1959 · Wittkuhn
Love and Troubles
1958 · Paolo Martelli
The Brothers Karamazov
1958 · Ivan Karamazov
Time Limit
1957 · Maj. Harry Cargill
Miracles of Thursday
1957 · Martino
So Soon to Die
1957 · Lionel Amblin
Moby Dick
1956 · Ishmael
The Intimate Stranger
1956 · Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
The Extra Day
1956 · Joe Blake
The Swindle
1955 · Carlo
The Golden Vein
1955 · Ing. Stefano Manfredi
Cartouche
1955 · Il conte Jacques de Maudy
Canyon Crossroads
1955 · Larry Kendall
La Strada
1954 · Matto
Jailbirds
1954 · Doctor Stefano Luprandi
The Good Die Young
1954 · Joe Halsey
The Stranger's Hand
1954 · Joe Hamstringer
Titanic
1953 · George S. Headley
Decision Before Dawn
1951 · Lt. Dick Rennick
Fixed Bayonets!
1951 · Cpl. Denno
The House on Telegraph Hill
1951 · Alan Spender
Fourteen Hours
1951 · Robert Cosick
Outside the Wall
1950 · Larry Nelson
Tension
1949 · Warren Quimby
Reign of Terror
1949 · Maximilian Robespierre
Roseanna McCoy
1949 · Mounts Hatfield
He Walked by Night
1949 · Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
Cry Wolf
1947 · James Caldwell Demarest
Repeat Performance
1947 · William Williams
Series (33)
Knight Rider
1982 · Wilton Knight
Mr. Merlin
1981
Masada
1981 · Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
The Rebels
1979 · Duke of Kentland
Tales of the Unexpected
1979 · Slade
Vega$
1978
W.E.B.
1978
The Critical List
1978 · Matt Kinsella
Vacaciones en el mar
1977 · Stan Ellis
How the West Was Won
1977 · Colonel Flint
Joe Forrester
1975
Medical Story
1975 · Dr. Charles Galpin
Little House on the Prairie
1974 · Hannibal Applewood
The Streets of San Francisco
1972 · Bishop Tim Farrow
Colombo
1971 · Nicholas Framer
Dan August
1970 · Prof. Theodore Rye
Marcus Welby, M.D.
1969 · Professor Andrew Kirkcastle, Reece Sutton
Hawaii Five-O
1969 · Murdock
Ironside
1967 · Noel Seymour
National Geographic Specials
1965 · Narrator (voice)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1964 · Adm. Harriman Nelson
Arrest and Trial
1963
Combat!
1962 · Capt. Steiner
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962 · Philip Townsend, Miles Crawford
Ben Casey
1961
Route 66
1960
The Twilight Zone
1959 · Adam Cook
Rawhide
1959 · Tod Stone
Naked City
1958 · Lester Bergson
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956 · David Manning
Gunsmoke
1955 · Captain Aron Sligo
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · Conway, General Washington
Studio One
1948 · Matt Donovan