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Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
August 31, 1914
Died
September 17, 1984
Place of Birth
Zanesville, Ohio, USA
Also Known As
- Ричард Бейсхарт
- Ричард Бэйзхарт
- John Richard Basehart
Richard Basehart
0.7 Popularity
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.
Known For
7.6
Roy Morgan/Roy Martin in He Walked By Night (archive footage)
Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004
5.8
Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002
0.0
Self
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
1982
7.5
Wilton Knight
Knight Rider
1982
5.5
Wilton Knight
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
1982
6.3
Narrator (Self)
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
1982
4.7
Mr. Merlin
1981
7.0
Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
Masada
1981
6.8
Johnny Hyde
Marilyn: The Untold Story
1980
7.6
Vladimir Skrapinov
Being There
1979
Credits
Los Angeles Plays Itself
as Roy Morgan/Roy Martin in He Walked By Night (archive footage)
2004
7.6
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
as Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
2002
5.8
Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
as Self
1982
0.0
Knight Rider
as Wilton Knight
1982
7.5
Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
as Wilton Knight
1982
5.5
Egypt: Quest for Eternity
as Narrator (Self)
1982
6.3
Mr. Merlin
1981
4.7
Masada
as Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
1981
7.0
Marilyn: The Untold Story
as Johnny Hyde
1980
6.8
Being There
as Vladimir Skrapinov
1979
7.6
Land of Celtic Ghosts
as Himself
1979
0.0
The Rebels
as Duke of Kentland
1979
0.0
Tales of the Unexpected
as Slade
1979
6.7
Planet Mars
as Narrator
1979
0.0
The Great Bank Hoax
as Manny Benchly
1978
4.4
Vega$
1978
7.0
🎬
W.E.B.
1978
5.0
The Critical List
as Matt Kinsella
1978
0.0
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
as King Arthur
1978
0.0
The Love Boat
as Stan Ellis
1977
6.3
The Island of Dr. Moreau
as Sayer of the Law
1977
5.6
Flood!
as John Cutler
1977
4.9
How the West Was Won
as Colonel Flint
1977
6.9
Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
as Elliott Osborn
1977
0.0
21 Hours at Munich
as Willy Brandt
1976
6.2
Mansion of the Doomed
as Dr. Leonard Chaney
1976
6.1
Time Travelers
as Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
1976
6.2
Valley Forge
1975
0.0
Joe Forrester
1975
7.0
Medical Story
1975
3.0
Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
as George Latimer
1975
3.5
Little House on the Prairie
1974
7.9
The First Woman President
as Woodrow Wilson
1974
0.0
Maneater
as Carl Brenner
1973
0.0
The Birdmen
as Schiller
1973
7.5
...And Millions Die!
as Dr Douglas Pruitt
1973
4.0
Rage
as Dr. Roy Caldwell
1972
6.5
The Bounty Man
as Angus Keough
1972
5.5
The Streets of San Francisco
as Bishop Tim Farrow
1972
7.0
Chato's Land
as Nye Buell
1972
6.5
Assignment: Munich
as Maj. Barney Caldwell
1972
0.0
The Death of Me Yet
as Robert Barnes
1971
6.7
Columbo
as Nicholas Framer
1971
8.1
City Beneath the Sea
as The President
1971
4.1
🎬
They've Killed President Lincoln!
as Host / Narrator
1971
0.0
Dan August
as Prof. Theodore Rye
1970
6.8
The Andersonville Trial
as Henry Wirz
1970
6.7
Sole Survivor
as Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
1970
6.4
Hans Brinker
as Dr. Boeker
1969
6.5
Love Is a Funny Thing
as Acteur
1969
6.3
Marcus Welby, M.D.
as Professor Andrew Kirkcastle
1969
6.5
Marcus Welby, M.D.
as Reece Sutton
1969
6.5
Hawaii Five-O
as Murdock
1968
7.1
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
as Narrator
1968
8.0
Ironside
as Noel Seymour
1967
6.8
Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
1967
0.0
National Geographic Specials
as Narrator (voice)
1965
6.9
The Satan Bug
as Dr. Gregor Hoffman
1965
6.1
Let My People Go: The Story of Israel
as Narrator (voice)
1965
0.0
Trial at Nuremberg
as Narrator
1964
7.0
Four Days In November
as Narrator (voice)
1964
6.0
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
as Adm. Harriman Nelson
1964
7.7
Kings of the Sun
as Ah Min
1963
6.1
🎬
The Yanks Are Coming
as Narrator (voice)
1963
0.0
Arrest and Trial
1963
7.7
Combat!
as Capt. Steiner
1962
7.7
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Philip Townsend
1962
7.8
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Miles Crawford
1962
7.8
Hitler
as Adolf Hitler
1962
5.7
The Savage Guns
as Steve Fallon
1961
3.3
Ben Casey
1961
5.6
Visa to Canton
as Don Benton
1960
4.7
Route 66
1960
6.3
For the Love of Mike
as Father Phelan
1960
5.0
Portrait in Black
as Howard Mason
1960
5.5
The Hiding Place
as Martin Lambert
1960
0.0
Five Branded Women
as Eric Reinhardt
1960
6.0
The Ambitious One
as George Rancourt
1959
6.5
The Twilight Zone
as Adam Cook
1959
8.5
Jons und Erdme
as Wittkuhn
1959
0.0
Rawhide
as Tod Stone
1959
7.2
Love and Troubles
as Paolo Martelli
1958
5.9
Naked City
as Lester Bergson
1958
5.5
The Brothers Karamazov
as Ivan Karamazov
1958
6.6
Time Limit
as Maj. Harry Cargill
1957
7.1
Miracles of Thursday
as Martino
1957
6.8
So Soon to Die
as Lionel Amblin
1957
0.0
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as David Manning
1956
6.0
Moby Dick
as Ishmael
1956
7.0
The Intimate Stranger
as Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
1956
5.8
The Extra Day
as Joe Blake
1956
6.6
The Swindle
as Carlo
1955
7.3
The Golden Vein
as Ing. Stefano Manfredi
1955
5.5
Gunsmoke
as Captain Aron Sligo
1955
6.6
Cartouche
as Il conte Jacques de Maudy
1955
5.0
Canyon Crossroads
as Larry Kendall
1955
6.0
La Strada
as Il 'Matto'
1954
7.9
Jailbirds
as Doctor Stefano Luprandi
1954
4.0
The Good Die Young
as Joe Halsey
1954
6.3
The Stranger's Hand
as Joe Hamstringer
1954
6.8
Titanic
as George S. Headley
1953
6.6
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as Conway
1951
8.6
Hallmark Hall of Fame
as General Washington
1951
8.6
Decision Before Dawn
as Lt. Dick Rennick
1951
6.7
Fixed Bayonets!
as Cpl. Denno
1951
6.5
The House on Telegraph Hill
as Alan Spender
1951
6.4
Fourteen Hours
as Robert Cosick
1951
7.2
Outside the Wall
as Larry Nelson
1950
5.8
Tension
as Warren Quimby
1949
6.8
Reign of Terror
as Maximilian Robespierre
1949
6.8
Roseanna McCoy
as Mounts Hatfield
1949
5.6
He Walked by Night
as Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
1949
6.7
Studio One
as Matt Donovan
1948
5.0
Cry Wolf
as James Caldwell Demarest
1947
5.9
Repeat Performance
as William Williams
1947
6.0