Acting · Zanesville, Ohio, USA · Born August 31, 1914
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.
MovieThe Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
2002
as Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited)
MovieBix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet
1982
as Self
MovieKnight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix
1982
as Wilton Knight
TVKnight Rider
1982
as Wilton Knight
MovieEgypt: Quest for Eternity
1982
as Narrator (Self)
TVMr. Merlin
1981
TVMasada
1981
as Modern-Day Narrator (voice, uncredited)
MovieMarilyn: The Untold Story
1980
as Johnny Hyde
MovieBeing There
1979
as Vladimir Skrapinov
MovieLand of Celtic Ghosts
1979
as Himself
TVThe Rebels
1979
as Duke of Kentland
TVTales of the Unexpected
1979
as Slade
MoviePlanet Mars
1979
as Narrator
MovieThe Great Bank Hoax
1978
as Manny Benchly
TVVega$
1978
W.E.B.
1978
TVThe Critical List
1978
as Matt Kinsella
MovieA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1978
as King Arthur
TVThe Love Boat
1977
as Stan Ellis
MovieThe Island of Dr. Moreau
1977
as Sayer of the Law
MovieFlood!
1977
as John Cutler
TVHow the West Was Won
1977
as Colonel Flint
MovieStonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?
1977
as Elliott Osborn
Movie21 Hours at Munich
1976
as Willy Brandt
MovieMansion of the Doomed
1976
as Dr. Leonard Chaney
MovieTime Travelers
1976
as Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871)
MovieValley Forge
1975
as Gen. Washington
TVJoe Forrester
1975
TVMedical Story
1975
as Dr. Charles Galpin
MovieJudgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley
1975
as George Latimer
TVLittle House on the Prairie
1974
as Hannibal Applewood
MovieThe First Woman President
1974
as Woodrow Wilson
MovieManeater
1973
as Carl Brenner
MovieThe Birdmen
1973
as Schiller
Movie...and millions will die!
1973
as Dr Douglas Pruitt
MovieRage
1972
as Dr. Roy Caldwell
MovieThe Bounty Man
1972
as Angus Keough
TVThe Streets of San Francisco
1972
as Bishop Tim Farrow
MovieChato's Land
1972
as Nye Buell
MovieAssignment: Munich
1972
as Maj. Barney Caldwell
MovieThe Death of Me Yet
1971
as Robert Barnes
TVColumbo
1971
as Nicholas Framer
MovieCity Beneath the Sea
1971
as The President
MovieThey've Killed President Lincoln!
1971
as Host / Narrator
TVDan August
1970
as Prof. Theodore Rye
MovieThe Andersonville Trial
1970
as Henry Wirz
MovieSole Survivor
1970
as Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner
MovieHans Brinker
1969
as Dr. Boeker
MovieLove Is a Funny Thing
1969
as Acteur
TVMarcus Welby, M.D.
1969
as Professor Andrew Kirkcastle
TVHawaii Five-O
1968
as Murdock
MovieThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
1968
as Narrator
TVIronside
1967
as Noel Seymour
MovieJacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls
1967
TVNational Geographic Specials
1965
as Narrator (voice)
MovieThe Satan Bug
1965
as Dr. Gregor Hoffman
MovieLet My People Go: The Story of Israel
1965
as Narrator (voice)
MovieTrial at Nuremberg
1964
as Narrator
MovieFour Days In November
1964
as Narrator (voice)
TVVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1964
as Adm. Harriman Nelson
MovieKings of the Sun
1963
as Ah Min
The Yanks Are Coming
1963
as Narrator (voice)
TVArrest and Trial
1963
TVCombat!
1962
as Capt. Steiner
TVThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962
as Philip Townsend
MovieHitler
1962
as Adolf Hitler
MovieThe Savage Guns
1961
as Steve Fallon
TVBen Casey
1961
MovieVisa to Canton
1960
as Don Benton
TVRoute 66
1960
MovieFor the Love of Mike
1960
as Father Phelan
MoviePortrait in Black
1960
as Howard Mason
MoviePlayhouse 90: The Hiding Place
1960
as Martin Lambert
MovieFive Branded Women
1960
as Eric Reinhardt
MovieThe Ambitious One
1959
as George Rancourt
TVThe Twilight Zone
1959
as Adam Cook
MovieJons und Erdme
1959
as Wittkuhn
TVRawhide
1959
as Tod Stone
MovieLove and Troubles
1958
as Paolo Martelli
TVNaked City
1958
as Lester Bergson
MovieThe Brothers Karamazov
1958
as Ivan Karamazov
MovieTime Limit
1957
as Maj. Harry Cargill
MovieMiracles of Thursday
1957
as Martino
MovieSo Soon to Die
1957
as Lionel Amblin
TVDick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956
as David Manning
MovieMoby Dick
1956
as Ishmael
MovieThe Intimate Stranger
1956
as Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson
MovieThe Extra Day
1956
as Joe Blake
MovieThe Swindle
1955
as Carlo
MovieThe Golden Vein
1955
as Ing. Stefano Manfredi
TVGunsmoke
1955
as Captain Aron Sligo
MovieCartouche
1955
as Il conte Jacques de Maudy
MovieCanyon Crossroads
1955
as Larry Kendall
MovieLa Strada
1954
as Il 'Matto'
Jailbirds
1954
as Doctor Stefano Luprandi
MovieThe Good Die Young
1954
as Joe Halsey
MovieThe Stranger's Hand
1954
as Joe Hamstringer
MovieTitanic
1953
as George S. Headley
TVHallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Conway
MovieDecision Before Dawn
1951
as Lt. Dick Rennick
MovieFixed Bayonets!
1951
as Cpl. Denno
MovieThe House on Telegraph Hill
1951
as Alan Spender
MovieFourteen Hours
1951
as Robert Cosick
MovieOutside the Wall
1950
as Larry Nelson
MovieTension
1949
as Warren Quimby
MovieReign of Terror
1949
as Maximilian Robespierre
MovieRoseanna McCoy
1949
as Mounts Hatfield
MovieHe Walked by Night
1949
as Roy Martin / Roy Morgan
TVStudio One
1948
as Matt Donovan
MovieCry Wolf
1947
as James Caldwell Demarest
MovieRepeat Performance
1947
as William Williams
