
Richard Basehart
Born August 31, 1914 · 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.
Notable Appearances
Movies

Moby Dick

Being There

Fourteen Hours

Love Is a Funny Thing

The Island of Dr. Moreau

Titanic

The Brothers Karamazov

La Strada

Repeat Performance

Chato's Land

Valley Forge

The Savage Guns

Assignment: Munich

He Walked by Night

Flood!

The Satan Bug

The Intimate Stranger

Kings of the Sun

...and millions will die!

Decision Before Dawn

The Golden Vein

Maneater

Portrait in Black

Time Travelers

Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place

The House on Telegraph Hill

The Andersonville Trial

Time Limit
TV Shows

The Twilight Zone

Ironside

Little House on the Prairie

Rawhide

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Studio One

Tales of the Unexpected

Combat!

Naked City

Gunsmoke

Ben Casey

Route 66

Marcus Welby, M.D.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

The Streets of San Francisco

Vega$

Arrest and Trial

How the West Was Won

National Geographic Specials

Joe Forrester

Dan August

Mr. Merlin

Medical Story

Masada

Hallmark Hall of Fame

The Rebels

The Critical List
More Movies

The Bounty Man

Tension

Reign of Terror

Mansion of the Doomed

21 Hours at Munich

Love and Troubles

Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix

Five Branded Women

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Rage

City Beneath the Sea

The Good Die Young

The Stranger's Hand

Sole Survivor

So Soon to Die

The Swindle

Fixed Bayonets!

Marilyn: The Untold Story

Cry Wolf

The Death of Me Yet

Canyon Crossroads

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

Outside the Wall

The Birdmen

The Great Bank Hoax

Let My People Go: The Story of Israel

Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet

Visa to Canton

Roseanna McCoy

Hitler

Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley

Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?

The First Woman President

The Extra Day

Four Days In November

Jons und Erdme

They've Killed President Lincoln!

Hans Brinker

Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls

Miracles of Thursday

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

For the Love of Mike

Cartouche

The Ambitious One

Land of Celtic Ghosts

Trial at Nuremberg

Egypt: Quest for Eternity




