Cast
Richard Basehart
Acting
Cast
Richard Basehart
Known for
Acting
Born
1914-08-31
From
Zanesville, Ohio, USA
Died
1984-09-17
Also known as John Richard Basehart
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 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.
★6.3
MOVIE1969
Love Is a Funny Thing
as Acteur
★8.0
MOVIE1972
Assignment: Munich
as Maj. Barney Caldwell
★7.1
MOVIE1956
Moby Dick
as Ishmael
★5.0
MOVIE1961
The Savage Guns
as Steve Fallon
★7.0
MOVIE1975
Valley Forge
as Gen. Washington
★6.1
MOVIE1947
Repeat Performance
as William Williams
★7.3
MOVIE1951
Fourteen Hours
as Robert Cosick
★6.7
MOVIE1949
He Walked by Night
as Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
★6.6
MOVIE1953
Titanic
as George S. Headley
★7.6
MOVIE1979
Being There
as Vladimir Skrapinov
★5.1
MOVIE1977
Flood!
as John Cutler
★5.2
MOVIE1973
...and millions will die!
as Dr Douglas Pruitt
MOVIE1965
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
as Narrator (voice)
★6.5
MOVIE1958
The Brothers Karamazov
as Ivan Karamazov
★6.3
MOVIE1976
Time Travelers
as Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
★6.1
MOVIE1963
Kings of the Sun
as Ah Min
★7.9
MOVIE1954
La Strada
as Il 'Matto'
★5.7
MOVIE1977
The Island of Dr. Moreau
as Sayer of the Law
★6.5
MOVIE1972
Chato's Land
as Nye Buell
★6.1
MOVIE1965
The Satan Bug
as Dr. Gregor Hoffman
★6.2
MOVIE1956
The Intimate Stranger
as Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
★6.3
MOVIE1976
21 Hours at Munich
as Willy Brandt
★6.8
MOVIE1951
Decision Before Dawn
as Lt. Dick Rennick
★6.3
MOVIE1976
Mansion of the Doomed
as Dr. Leonard Chaney
★6.7
MOVIE1955
The Golden Vein
as Ing. Stefano Manfredi
★7.2
MOVIE1957
Time Limit
as Maj. Harry Cargill
★6.7
MOVIE1972
Rage
as Dr. Roy Caldwell
★6.5
MOVIE1951
Fixed Bayonets!
as Cpl. Denno
★6.3
MOVIE1958
Love and Troubles
as Paolo Martelli
★5.7
MOVIE1960
Portrait in Black
as Howard Mason
★5.8
MOVIE2002
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
★5.0
MOVIE1982
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
as Wilton Knight
★7.0
MOVIE1973
Maneater
as Carl Brenner
★7.0
MOVIE1957
So Soon to Die
as Lionel Amblin
★6.4
MOVIE1951
The House on Telegraph Hill
as Alan Spender
MOVIE1960
Playhouse 90: The Hiding Place
as Martin Lambert
★6.8
MOVIE1949
Reign of Terror
as Maximilian Robespierre
★6.1
MOVIE1950
Outside the Wall
as Larry Nelson
★6.1
MOVIE1960
Five Branded Women
as Eric Reinhardt
★6.8
MOVIE1949
Tension
as Warren Quimby
★6.4
MOVIE1954
The Good Die Young
as Joe Halsey
★4.5
MOVIE1971
City Beneath the Sea
as The President
★6.1
MOVIE1947
Cry Wolf
as James Caldwell Demarest
★5.0
MOVIE1978
The Great Bank Hoax
as Manny Benchly
★5.8
MOVIE1962
Hitler
as Adolf Hitler
★6.4
MOVIE1964
Four Days In November
as Narrator (voice)
★6.8
MOVIE1957
Miracles of Thursday
as Martino
★6.3
MOVIE1972
The Bounty Man
as Angus Keough
★5.3
MOVIE1975
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
as George Latimer
★6.3
MOVIE1970
The Andersonville Trial
as Henry Wirz
★7.5
MOVIE1971
The Death of Me Yet
as Robert Barnes
★6.3
MOVIE1970
Sole Survivor
as Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
★7.3
MOVIE1955
The Swindle
as Carlo
★6.9
MOVIE1980
Marilyn: The Untold Story
as Johnny Hyde
★7.7
MOVIE1973
The Birdmen
as Schiller
★9.0
MOVIE1982
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
as Self
★9.0
MOVIE1968
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
as Narrator
★6.0
MOVIE1960
For the Love of Mike
as Father Phelan
★6.1
MOVIE1949
Roseanna McCoy
as Mounts Hatfield
MOVIE1974
The First Woman President
as Woodrow Wilson
★8.0
MOVIE1967
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
★7.1
MOVIE1956
The Extra Day
as Joe Blake
★6.3
MOVIE1955
Canyon Crossroads
as Larry Kendall
★7.8
MOVIE1959
The Ambitious One
as George Rancourt
★6.8
MOVIE1982
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
as Narrator (Self)
★6.8
MOVIE1954
The Stranger's Hand
as Joe Hamstringer
★5.5
MOVIE1954
Jailbirds
as Doctor Stefano Luprandi
★5.0
MOVIE1960
Visa to Canton
as Don Benton
★9.0
MOVIE1977
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
as Elliott Osborn
★6.9
MOVIE1969
Hans Brinker
as Dr. Boeker
★10.0
MOVIE1963
The Yanks Are Coming
as Narrator (voice)
★9.0
MOVIE1959
Jons und Erdme
as Wittkuhn
MOVIE1971
They've Killed President Lincoln!
as Host / Narrator
★5.8
MOVIE1955
Cartouche
as Il conte Jacques de Maudy
★7.0
MOVIE1964
Trial at Nuremberg
as Narrator
MOVIE1979
Land of Celtic Ghosts
as Himself
★7.0
MOVIE1978
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
as King Arthur
MOVIE1979
Planet Mars
as Narrator