
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.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

トワイライト・ゾーン

刑事コロンボ

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

道

大草原の小さな家

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

原子力潜水艦シービュー号

Arrest and Trial

コンバット!

Los Angeles Plays Itself

チャンス

ナイトライダー

The Birdmen

崖

The Andersonville Trial

Fourteen Hours

Rawhide

Hawaii Five-O

Time Limit

白鯨

The Streets of San Francisco

Masada

Trial at Nuremberg

Vega$

Joe Forrester

How the West Was Won

National Geographic Specials

Tension

Reign of Terror

Marilyn: The Untold Story

La mano dello straniero

鬼警部アイアンサイド

Dan August

Los jueves, milagro

Decision Before Dawn

The Death of Me Yet

Tales of the Unexpected

He Walked by Night

Gunsmoke

The Brothers Karamazov

Titanic

The Extra Day

Chato's Land

Rage

Hans Brinker

L'Ambitieuse

Marcus Welby, M.D.

Fixed Bayonets!

Sole Survivor

The House on Telegraph Hill

Un Homme Qui Me Plaît

The Good Die Young

Egypt: Quest for Eternity

Route 66

The Love Boat

Mansion of the Doomed

21 Hours at Munich

Time Travelers

サタンバグ

Kings of the Sun

Repeat Performance

Canyon Crossroads

Four Days In November

Five Branded Women

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Cry Wolf

Amore e guai...

The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller

The Intimate Stranger

Outside the Wall

Hitler

ドクター・モローの島

Roseanna McCoy

Ben Casey

Knight Rider: Knight of the Phoenix

La vena d'oro

The Bounty Man

裸の町

Portrait in Black

Flood!

Le avventura di Cartouche

For the Love of Mike

Studio One

Visa to Canton

Mr. Merlin

The Great Bank Hoax

City Beneath the Sea

Avanzi di galera

...And Millions Die!

Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley

Tierra brutal

Medical Story

They've Killed President Lincoln!

Let My People Go: The Story of Israel

Maneater

Jons und Erdme

Land of Celtic Ghosts

Assignment: Munich

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Valley Forge

Planet Mars

Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model?

Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet

Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls

The First Woman President

So Soon to Die

The Hiding Place

The Critical List

The Rebels