# Richard Basehart

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.

## Career
### Theatre and film

Basehart made his Broadway 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 portrayed the title character 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 lead role 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.
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. 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 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.
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. After the death of his first wife Stephanie Klein, he married Italian actress Valentina Cortese, 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. He died eight days before Walter Pidgeon, his film counterpart in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1947 | Repeat Performance | William Williams | |
| 1947 | Cry Wolf | James Demarest | |
| 1948 | He Walked by Night | Roy Martin / Roy Morgan | |
| 1949 | Roseanna McCoy | Mounts Hatfield | |
| 1949 | Reign of Terror | Maximilian Robespierre | |
| 1950 | Tension | Warren Quimby / Paul Sothern | |
| 1950 | Outside the Wall | Larry Nelson | |
| 1950 | Side Street | Bank Teller | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Fourteen Hours | Robert Cosick | |
| 1951 | The House on Telegraph Hill | Alan Spender | |
| 1951 | Fixed Bayonets! | Corporal Denno | |
| 1951 | Decision Before Dawn | Lieutenant Dick Rennick | |
| 1953 | Titanic | George Healey | |
| 1954 | The Stranger's Hand | Joe Hamstringer | |
| 1954 | Angels of Darkness | Bit Part | Uncredited |
| 1954 | The Good Die Young | Joe Halsey | |
| 1954 | La Strada | The Fool | |
| 1954 | Avanzi di galera | Dr. Stefano Luprandi | |
| 1955 | Canyon Crossroads | Larry Kendall | |
| 1955 | Le avventure di Cartouche | Count Jacques de Maudy | |
| 1955 | Golden Vein | Stefano Manfredi | |
| 1955 | Il bidone | Raul "Picasso" | |
| 1956 | The Extra Day | Joe Blake | |
| 1956 | Moby Dick | Ishmael | |
| 1956 | The Intimate Stranger | Reginald 'Reggie' Wilson | |
| 1957 | Miracles of Thursday | Martino | |
| 1957 | Time Limit | Major Harry Cargill | |
| 1958 | The Brothers Karamazov | Ivan Karamazov | |
| 1958 | Love and Troubles | Paolo Martelli | |
| 1959 | The Restless and the Damned | George Rancourt | |
| 1959 | Jons und Erdme | Wittkuhn, der Schmied | |
| 1960 | Five Branded Women | Captain Eric Reinhardt | |
| 1960 | Portrait in Black | Howard Mason | |
| 1960 | For the Love of Mike | Father Francis Phelan | |
| 1960 | Passport to China | Don Benton | |
| 1962 | Hitler | Adolf Hitler | |
| 1962 | 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 |
| 1969 | Giotto | Narrator (voice) | |
| 1972 | Chato's Land | Nye Buell | |
| 1972 | 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

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 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" |
| 1960 | Shangri-La | Hugh Conway | Television film |
| 1961 | The Play of the Week | Stranger | Episode: "He Who Gets Slapped" |
| 1961 | The Light That Failed | Dick Heldar | Television film |
| 1961 | Rawhide | Tod Stone | Season 4 Episode 7: "The Black Sheep" |
| 1962 | The Paradine Case | Anthony Keane | Television film |
| 1962 | Theatre '62 | Anthony Keane | Episode: "The Paradine Case" |
| 1962 | The DuPont Show of the Week | Narrator | Episode: "D-Day" |
| 1962 | Naked City | Lester Bergson | Episode: "Dust Devil on a Quiet Street" |
| 1962 | 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" |
| 1963 | Route 66 | Julian Roebuck | Episode: "You Can't Pick Cotton in Tahiti" |
| 1963 | The Dick Powell Theatre | Judge Zachary | Episode: "The Judge" |
| 1963 | Combat! | Captain Steiner | 2 episodes |
| 1963 | Ben Casey | Mark Cassidy | Episode: "Light Up the Dark Corners" |
| 1963 | Arrest and Trial | Alexander Stafford | Episode: "Inquest Into a Bleeding Heart" |
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Adam Cook | Episode: "Probe 7, Over and Out" |
| 1964–68 | Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea | Admiral Harriman "Harry" Nelson | 108 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 | Television film |
| 1970 | The Andersonville Trial | Henry Wirz | Television film |
| 1970 | Ironside | Noel Seymour | Episode: "Noel's Gonna Fly" |
| 1970 | Dan August | Professor Theodore Rye | Episode: "Quadrangle for Death" |
| 1971 | Gunsmoke | Captain Aron Sligo | Episode: "Captain Sligo" |
| 1971 | City Beneath the Sea | the President | Television film |
| 1971 | They've Killed President Lincoln! | Host / Narrator | Television film |
| 1971 | The Birdmen | Schiller | Television film |
| 1971 | The Death of Me Yet | Robert Barnes | Television film |
| 1972 | Assignment: Munich | Major Barney Caldwell | Television film |
| 1972 | The Bold Ones: The New Doctors | Dr. Stephen McLayne | Episode: "Is This Operation Necessary?" |
| 1972 | The Bounty Man | Angus Keough | Television film |
| 1972 | Columbo | Nicholas Frame | Episode: "Dagger of the Mind" |
| 1973 | Hawaii Five-O | Murdock | Episode: "The Odd Lot Caper" |
| 1973 | And Millions Will Die | Dr. Douglas Pruitt | Television film |
| 1973 | Maneater | Carl Brenner | Television film |
| 1974 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Reece Sutton / Professor Andrew Kirkcastle | 2 episodes |
| 1974 | The First Woman President | Woodrow Wilson | Television film |
| 1975 | Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley | George Latimer | Television film |
| 1975 | The American Parade | Lambdin Milligan | Episode: "The Case Against Milligan" |
| 1975 | Medical Story | Dr. Charles Galpin | Episode: "The God Syndrome" |
| 1975 | Joe Forrester | Al Morgan | Episode: "No Probable Cause" |
| 1975 | Valley Forge | General George Washington | Television film |
| 1976 | The Streets of San Francisco | Bishop Tim Farrow | Episode: "Requiem for Murder" |
| 1976 | Little House on the Prairie | Hannibal Applewood | Episode: "Troublemaker" |
| 1976 | Time Travelers | Dr. Joshua Henderson | Television film |
| 1976 | 21 Hours at Munich | Chancellor Willy Brandt | Television film |
| 1976 | Flood! | John Cutler | Television film |
| 1977 | Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? | Elliott Osborn | Television film |
| 1978 | How the West Was Won | Colonel Harry Albert Flint | 3 episodes |
| 1978 | Once Upon a Classic | King Arthur | Episode: "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" |
| 1978 | The Critical List | Matt Kinsella | Television film |
| 1978 | W.E.B. | Gus Dunlap | 5 episodes |
| 1979 | The Rebels | Duke of Kentland | Television miniseries |
| 1979 | Greatest Heroes of the Bible | Johtan | Episode: "Tower of Babel" |
| 1979 | The Christmas Songs | | Television film |
| 1980 | Marilyn: The Untold Story | Johnny Hyde | Television film |
| 1981 | Vegas | J. Terrance Wainwright | Episode: "Set Up" |
| 1981 | Masada | Narrator, Modern Day Scene | Television miniseries |
| 1981 | The Love Boat | Stan Ellis | Episode: "Chef's Special/Beginning Anew/Kleinschmidt" |
| 1981 | Mr. Merlin | Herbert Montrose | Episode: "A Moment in Camelot" |
| 1982–86 | Knight Rider | Narrator (voice) / Wilton Knight | Episode: "Knight of the Phoenix: Part 1" 83 episodes |
| 1983 | Tales of the Unexpected | Slade | Episode: "The Turn of the Tide" |
| 1983 | The Crowded Life | Narrator | Television film |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
| 1951 | National Board of Review Awards | Best Actor | Fourteen Hours | Won |
| 1956 | National Board of Review Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Moby Dick | Won |
| 1958 | BAFTA Awards | Best Foreign Actor | Time Limit | Nominated |
| 1960 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Motion Pictures | - | Inducted |