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Richard Basehart

Richard Basehart

Actor · 1914 – 1984 · Zanesville, Ohio, USA

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.

Movies24

  • Movie7.1

    Moby Dick

    1956 · 488 votes

  • Movie7.6

    Being There

    1979 · 1.2K votes

  • Movie5.7

    The Island of Dr. Moreau

    1977 · 178 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Chato's Land

    1972 · 172 votes

  • Movie7.9

    La strada

    1954 · 1.2K votes

  • Movie6.6

    Titanic

    1953 · 159 votes

  • Movie6.7

    He Walked by Night

    1949 · 109 votes

  • Movie7.3

    Fourteen Hours

    1951 · 53 votes

  • Movie6.1

    The Satan Bug

    1965 · 58 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Un Homme Qui Me Plaît

    Love Is a Funny Thing

    1969 · 52 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Kings of the Sun

    1963 · 50 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Brothers Karamazov

    1958 · 52 votes

  • Movie5.7

    Portrait in Black

    1960 · 26 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Mansion of the Doomed

    1976 · 37 votes

  • Movie6.3

    21 Hours at Munich

    1976 · 23 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Time Travelers

    1976 · 16 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Assignment: Munich

    1972 · 1 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Decision Before Dawn

    1951 · 50 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Time Limit

    1957 · 28 votes

  • Movie6.4
  • Movie6.1

    Repeat Performance

    1947 · 40 votes

  • Movie4.5

    City Beneath the Sea

    1971 · 17 votes

  • Movie5.1

    Flood!

    1977 · 15 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Valley Forge

    1975 · 1 votes

Series24

  • TV8.1

    Columbo

    1971 · 858 votes

  • TV6.3

    The Love Boat

    1977 · 199 votes

  • TV7.5

    Knight Rider

    1982 · 1.5K votes

  • TV8.0
  • TV6.8

    Ironside

    1967 · 71 votes

  • TV7.9
  • TV7.2

    Hawaii Five-O

    1969 · 164 votes

  • TV5.4

    Studio One

    1948 · 13 votes

  • TV8.5

    The Twilight Zone

    1959 · 1.1K votes

  • TV7.9

    Combat!

    1962 · 119 votes

  • TV6.7

    Tales of the Unexpected

    1979 · 54 votes

  • TV5.7

    Naked City

    1958 · 13 votes

  • TV5.9

    Ben Casey

    1961 · 15 votes

  • TV6.2
  • TV6.7

    Route 66

    1960 · 20 votes

  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV6.6

    Marcus Welby, M.D.

    1969 · 20 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.8
  • TV7.1
  • TV6.9

    Vega$

    1978 · 25 votes

  • TV7.0

    How the West Was Won

    1977 · 35 votes

  • TV8.3

    Arrest and Trial

    1963 · 4 votes

  • TV7.0

    Joe Forrester

    1975 · 4 votes