1914-08-13 Zanesville, Ohio, USA
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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Los Angeles Plays Itself | Roy Morgan/Roy Martin in He Walked By Night (archive footage) | 2004-07-28 |
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller | Cpl. Denno (archive footage) (uncredited) | 2002-07-02 |
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Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet | Self | 1982-12-25 |
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Egypt: Quest for Eternity | Narrator (Self) | 1982-03-06 |
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Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix | Wilton Knight | 1982-09-26 |
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Marilyn: The Untold Story | Johnny Hyde | 1980-11-10 |
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Land of Celtic Ghosts | Himself | 1979-10-15 |
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Planet Mars | Narrator | 1979-01-01 |
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Being There | Vladimir Skrapinov | 1979-12-19 |
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The Rebels | Duke of Kentland | 1979-05-14 |
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The Great Bank Hoax | Manny Benchly | 1978-11-01 |
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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | King Arthur | 1978-05-23 |
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Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? | Elliott Osborn | 1977-01-16 |
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The Island of Dr. Moreau | Sayer of the Law | 1977-07-13 |
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Flood! | John Cutler | 1977-06-05 |
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Time Travelers | Dr. Joshua Henderson (1871) | 1976-03-19 |
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21 Hours at Munich | Willy Brandt | 1976-12-25 |
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Mansion of the Doomed | Dr. Leonard Chaney | 1976-10-01 |
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Valley Forge | 1975-12-03 | |
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Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley | George Latimer | 1975-01-12 |
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The First Woman President | Woodrow Wilson | 1974-04-14 |
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Maneater | Carl Brenner | 1973-12-08 |
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The Birdmen | Schiller | 1973-11-08 |
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...And Millions Die! | Dr Douglas Pruitt | 1973-01-01 |
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The Bounty Man | Angus Keough | 1972-10-31 |
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Chato's Land | Nye Buell | 1972-05-25 |
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Rage | Dr. Roy Caldwell | 1972-11-22 |
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Assignment: Munich | Maj. Barney Caldwell | 1972-04-30 |
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The Death of Me Yet | Robert Barnes | 1971-10-27 |
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City Beneath the Sea | The President | 1971-07-16 |
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They've Killed President Lincoln! | Host / Narrator | 1971-02-12 |
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Sole Survivor | Brig. Gen. Russell Hamner | 1970-01-09 |
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The Andersonville Trial | Henry Wirz | 1970-05-17 |
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Un Homme Qui Me Plaît | Acteur | 1969-12-12 |
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Hans Brinker | Dr. Boeker | 1969-12-14 |
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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich | Narrator | 1968-03-06 |
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Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls | 1967-01-01 | |
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Let My People Go: The Story of Israel | Narrator (voice) | 1965-01-01 |
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The Satan Bug | Dr. Gregor Hoffman | 1965-03-26 |
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Trial at Nuremberg | Narrator | 1964-12-09 |
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Four Days In November | Narrator (voice) | 1964-10-07 |
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The Yanks Are Coming | Narrator (voice) | 1963-11-04 |
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Kings of the Sun | Ah Min | 1963-12-18 |
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Hitler | Adolf Hitler | 1962-03-21 |
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Tierra brutal | Steve Fallon | 1961-11-01 |
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Five Branded Women | Eric Reinhardt | 1960-03-15 |
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Portrait in Black | Howard Mason | 1960-07-27 |
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For the Love of Mike | Father Phelan | 1960-08-28 |
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The Hiding Place | Martin Lambert | 1960-03-22 |
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Visa to Canton | Don Benton | 1960-12-26 |
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Jons und Erdme | Wittkuhn | 1959-03-04 |
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L'ambitieuse | George Rancourt | 1959-10-14 |
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The Brothers Karamazov | Ivan Karamazov | 1958-02-20 |
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Amore e guai... | Paolo Martelli | 1958-12-19 |
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So Soon to Die | Lionel Amblin | 1957-01-17 |
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Los jueves, milagro | Martino | 1957-08-22 |
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Time Limit | Maj. Harry Cargill | 1957-10-23 |
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The Extra Day | Joe Blake | 1956-01-01 |
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Moby Dick | Ishmael | 1956-06-27 |
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The Intimate Stranger | Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson | 1956-06-01 |
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Le avventura di Cartouche | Il conte Jacques de Maudy | 1955-07-01 |
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Canyon Crossroads | Larry Kendall | 1955-01-01 |
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La vena d'oro | Ing. Stefano Manfredi | 1955-09-30 |
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Il bidone | Carlo | 1955-10-07 |
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La mano dello straniero | Joe Hamstringer | 1954-01-20 |
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Avanzi di galera | Doctor Stefano Luprandi | 1954-09-18 |
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La strada | Il 'Matto' | 1954-09-23 |
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The Good Die Young | Joe Halsey | 1954-03-02 |
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Titanic | George S. Headley | 1953-04-11 |
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The House on Telegraph Hill | Alan Spender | 1951-05-12 |
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Decision Before Dawn | Lt. Dick Rennick | 1951-12-21 |
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Fourteen Hours | Robert Cosick | 1951-04-01 |
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Fixed Bayonets! | Cpl. Denno | 1951-11-21 |
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Outside the Wall | Larry Nelson | 1950-02-08 |
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He Walked by Night | Roy Martin / Roy Morgan | 1949-02-06 |
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Reign of Terror | Maximilian Robespierre | 1949-10-15 |
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Roseanna McCoy | Mounts Hatfield | 1949-10-12 |
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Tension | Warren Quimby | 1949-11-25 |
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Cry Wolf | James Caldwell Demarest | 1947-08-19 |
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Repeat Performance | William Williams | 1947-05-22 |
