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