Richard Basehart

 ( 1914 Births ) 

John Richard Basehart (August 31, 1914 – September 17, 1984) was an American actor. Known for his "deep, resonant baritone voice and craggy good looks," he was active in film, theatre and television from 1947 until 1983. He won two National Board of Review Awards, for his performances in Fourteen Hours (1951) and Moby Dick (1956), and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Time Limit (1957).

Basehart was known to television viewers for starring as Admiral Harriman Nelson on the television science-fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964–68). He also portrayed Wilton Knight in the pilot episode of the TV series Knight Rider (1982), and provided the narration that was heard during the opening credits throughout the entire series. He appeared in a number of British and Italian films in the mid-1950s, including Federico Fellini's La Strada and Il Bidone. He also narrated a wide range of television and film projects.

In 1960, Basehart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the motion-picture industry.

---

Early life and education Basehart was born in Zanesville, Ohio, one of five children born to Mae (née Wetherald) and Harry T. Basehart, a former actor turned editor of The Zanesville Times-Signal. He worked as a reporter at his father's newspaper and as a radio announcer in Zanesville and Columbus, Ohio, before entering a stage career at the Hedgerow Theatre in Pennsylvania, where he met his first wife Stephanie Klein, a costume designer.

---

Career

---

Theatre and film Basehart made his Broadway theatre debut in 1938. He won the 1945 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Young Actor for his starring role in John Patrick's play The Hasty Heart, which was adapted into a 1949 film of the same name. He made his film debut with Repeat Performance (1947). So confident was Eagle-Lion Films in his performance that the film was first screened in his hometown.

He soon appeared as the killer in the film noir classic He Walked by Night (1948) for Eagle-Lion, then he appeared as a psychotic member of the Hatfield clan in Roseanna McCoy (1949), as Maximilien Robespierre in the period film noir Reign of Terror (1949), as a timid husband in Tension (1950), as Ishmael in Moby Dick (1956), in the drama Decision Before Dawn (1951), George S. Healey in Titanic (1953) and as Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov (1958).

One of his most notable film roles was the acrobat and clown known as "the Fool" in the acclaimed Italian film La Strada (1954), directed by Federico Fellini. He starred in a French-Australian drama The Restless and the Damned, portrayed the Adolf Hitler in Hitler (1962), and a high priest in Kings of the Sun (1963).

Basehart played a supporting role as a doctor in the feature film Rage (1972), a theatrical feature starring and directed by George C. Scott. Also in the 1970s, he co-starred in Chato's Land (1972) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). In 1979, he appeared as a Russian diplomat with Peter Sellers in Being There.

---

Television From 1964 to 1968, Basehart played the lead role, Admiral Harriman Nelson, on Irwin Allen's first foray into science-fiction television, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Basehart 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. He accepted the Adolf Hitler in the 1962 film Hitler. He appeared in "Probe 7, Over and Out", 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, Basehart appeared in the Columbo episode "Dagger of the Mind", in which Honor Blackman and he played a husband-and-wife theatrical team who accidentally kill Sir Roger Haversham, the producer of their rendition of Macbeth.

(2026). 9780786448197, McFarland & Company. . ISBN 9780786448197

Basehart made a few TV movies, including Sole Survivor (1970) and The Birdmen (1971). Both were based on true stories during World War II.

---

Narration Basehart narrated a wide range of television and movie projects. As well as appearing onscreen as Ishmael, he also read extended passages of Herman Melville's prose while relating the abridged story for John Huston and Ray Bradbury's version of Moby Dick.

In 1964, he narrated the David Wolper documentary about the Kennedy assassination, Four Days in November. In 1980, Basehart narrated the miniseries written by Peter Arnett called that covered Vietnam and its battles from the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, to the final American embassy evacuation on April 30, 1975.

One month before his death, Basehart narrated a poem during the extinguishing of the flame at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics.

---

Personal life Basehart was married three times. His first wife, Stephanie Klein, died following a brain operation in July 1950. He next married Italian actress Valentina Cortese in 1951, with whom he had one son, actor Jackie Basehart; the couple divorced in 1960.

In 1962, he married his third wife, Diana Lotery, with whom he had two children. He and Diana remained married until his death in 1984.

---

Death

Basehart died in Los Angeles on September 17, 1984, following a series of strokes. He was 70 years old. His body was cremated, and the ashes interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

---

Filmography

---

Film

1947	Repeat Performance	William Williams
	Cry Wolf	James Demarest
1948	He Walked by Night	Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
1949	Roseanna McCoy	Mounts Hatfield
	Reign of Terror	Maximilian Robespierre
1950	Tension	Warren Quimby / Paul Sothern
	Outside the Wall	Larry Nelson
	Side Street	Bank Teller	Uncredited
1951	Fourteen Hours	Robert Cosick
	The House on Telegraph Hill	Alan Spender
	Fixed Bayonets!	Corporal Denno
	Decision Before Dawn	Lieutenant Dick Rennick
1953	Titanic	George S.Healey / Father Thomas Byles
1954	The Stranger's Hand	Joe Hamstringer
	Angels of Darkness	Bit Part	Uncredited
	The Good Die Young	Joe Halsey
	La Strada	The Fool
	Avanzi di galera	Dr. Stefano Luprandi
1955	Canyon Crossroads	Larry Kendall
	Le avventure di Cartouche	Count Jacques de Maudy
	Golden Vein	Stefano Manfredi
	Il bidone	Raul "Picasso"
1956	The Extra Day	Joe Blake
	Moby Dick	Ishmael
	The Intimate Stranger	Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
1957	Miracles of Thursday	Martino
	Time Limit	Major Harry Cargill
1958	The Brothers Karamazov	Ivan Karamazov
	Love and Troubles	Paolo Martelli
1959	The Restless and the Damned	George Rancourt
	Jons und Erdme	Wittkuhn, der Schmied
1960	Five Branded Women	Captain Eric Reinhardt
	Portrait in Black	Howard Mason
	For the Love of Mike	Father Francis Phelan
	Passport to China	Don Benton
1962	Hitler	Adolf Hitler
	Savage Guns	Steve Fallon
1963	Kings of the Sun	Ah Min
1965	The Satan Bug	Dr. Gregor Hoffman
1969	Love Is a Funny Thing	Himself	Cameo appearance
	Giotto	Narrator (voice)
1972	Chato's Land	Nye Buell
	Rage	Dr. Roy Caldwell
1976	Mansion of the Doomed	Dr. Leonard Chaney
1977	The Island of Dr. Moreau	Sayer of the Law
1978	The Great Bank Hoax	Manny Benchly
1979	Being There	Vladimir Skrapinov

---

Television

1957	Studio One	Matt Donovan	2 episodes
1957–60	Playhouse 90	Martin Lambert / David Connelly / Lionel Amblin / Himself - Host	4 episodes
1958	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	David Manning	Episode: "Medal for Valor"
1960	DuPont Show of the Month	Dr. George Ferguson	Episode: "Men in White"
	Shangri-La	Hugh Conway	Television film
1961	The Play of the Week	Stranger	Episode: "He Who Gets Slapped"
	The Light That Failed	Dick Heldar	Television film
	Rawhide	Todd Stone	Season 4 Episode 7: "The Black Sheep"
1962	The Paradine Case	Anthony Keane	Television film
	Theatre '62	Anthony Keane	Episode: "The Paradine Case"
	The DuPont Show of the Week	Narrator	Episode: "D-Day"
	Naked City	Lester Bergson	Episode: "Dust Devil on a Quiet Street"
	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Phillip Townsend / David Webber	Season 1 Episode 9: "The Black Curtain"
1963	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Miles Crawford	Season 2 Episode 7: "Starring the Defense"
	Route 66	Julian Roebuck	Episode: "You Can't Pick Cotton in Tahiti"
	The Dick Powell Theatre	Judge Zachary	Episode: "The Judge"
	Combat!	Captain Steiner	2 episodes
	Ben Casey	Mark Cassidy	Episode: "Light Up the Dark Corners"
	Arrest and Trial	Alexander Stafford	Episode: "Inquest Into a Bleeding Heart"
	The Twilight Zone	Adam Cook	Episode: "Probe 7, Over and Out"
1964–68	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Admiral Harriman "Harry" Nelson	110 episodes
1965	Lost in Space	Shakespeare-Reading Tape Recorder Voice	Episode: "The Derelict"
1968	The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich	Narrator	Documentary
1969	Hans Brinker	Dr. Boekman	Television film
1970	Sole Survivor	Brigadier General Russell Hamner
	The Andersonville Trial	Henry Wirz
	Ironside	Noel Seymour	Episode: "Noel's Gonna Fly"
	Dan August	Professor Theodore Rye	Episode: "Quadrangle for Death"
1971	Gunsmoke	Captain Aron Sligo	Episode: "Captain Sligo"
	City Beneath the Sea	the President	Television film
	They've Killed President Lincoln!	Host / Narrator
	The Birdmen	Schiller
	The Death of Me Yet	Robert Barnes
1972		Major Barney Caldwell
		Dr. Stephen McLayne	Episode: "Is This Operation Necessary?"
	The Bounty Man	Angus Keough	Television film
	Columbo	Nicholas Frame	Episode: "Dagger of the Mind"
1973	Hawaii Five-O	Bernard Murdock	Episode: "The Odd Lot Caper"
	And Millions Will Die	Dr. Douglas Pruitt	Television film
	Maneater	Carl Brenner
1974	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Reece Sutton / Professor Andrew Kirkcastle	2 episodes
	The First Woman President	Woodrow Wilson	Television film
1975	Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley	George Latimer
	The American Parade	Lambdin Milligan	Episode: "The Case Against Milligan"
	Medical Story	Dr. Charles Galpin	Episode: "The God Syndrome"
	Joe Forrester	Al Morgan	Episode: "No Probable Cause"
	Valley Forge	General George Washington	Television film
1976	The Streets of San Francisco	Bishop Tim Farrow	Episode: "Requiem for Murder"
	Little House on the Prairie	Hannibal Applewood	Episode: "Troublemaker"
	Time Travelers	Dr. Joshua Henderson	Television film
	21 Hours at Munich	Willy Brandt
	Flood!	John Cutler
1977		Elliott Osborn
1978	How the West Was Won	Colonel Harry Albert Flint	3 episodes
	Once Upon a Classic	King Arthur	Episode: "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"
	The Critical List	Matt Kinsella	Television film
	W.E.B.	Gus Dunlap	5 episodes
1979	The Rebels	Duke of Kentland	Television miniseries
	Greatest Heroes of the Bible	Johtan	Episode: "Tower of Babel"
	The Christmas Songs		Television film
1980		Johnny Hyde
1981	Vegas	J. Terrance Wainwright	Episode: "Set Up"
	Masada	Narrator, Modern Day Scene	Television miniseries
	The Love Boat	Stan Ellis	Episode: "Chef's Special/Beginning Anew/Kleinschmidt"
	Mr. Merlin	Herbert Montrose	Episode: "A Moment in Camelot"
1982–86	Knight Rider	Narrator (voice) / Wilton Knight	Episode: "" 83 episodes
1983	Tales of the Unexpected	Slade	Episode: "The Turn of the Tide"
	The Crowded Life	Narrator	Television film

---

Awards and nominations

1951	National Board of Review Awards	Best Actor	Fourteen Hours	rowspan=2
1956		Best Supporting Actor	Moby Dick
1958	BAFTA Awards	Best Foreign Actor	Time Limit
1960	Hollywood Walk of Fame	Motion Pictures	-

---

Notes

---

External links

Categories: 1914 Births, 1984 Deaths, People From Zanesville, Ohio, Male Actors From Ohio, American Male Film Actors, American Male Stage Actors, American Male Television Actors, Burials At Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, 20th Century Studios Contract Players, 20th-century American Male Actors

Post Comment