Richard Basehart

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.

• Name — Richard Basehart • Birth Name — John Richard Basehart • Born — 31 August 1914 • Birthplace — Zanesville, Ohio, U.S. • Died — 17 September 1984 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Burial Place — Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1942–1984 • Children — 3, including Jackie

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,[3] where he met his first wife Stephanie Klein, a costume designer.[4]

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.[9] He accepted the lead role in the 1962 film Hitler. He appeared in "Probe 7, Over and Out", an episode of The Twilight Zone,[10] 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.[11] Basehart made a few TV movies, including Sole Survivor (1970) and The Birdmen (1971). Both were based on true stories during World War II.

Basehart narrated a wide range of television and movie projects. As well as appearing onscreen as Ishmael, he also read extended passages of 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.[12] 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.[13] One month before his death, Basehart narrated a poem during the extinguishing of the flame at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics.[14][15]

• Illustration — Richard Basehart's grave 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.[16] 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.[18]

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.

• 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" • 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 — Assignment: Munich — Major Barney Caldwell • The Bold Ones: The New Doctors — 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 — Chancellor Willy Brandt • Flood! — John Cutler • 1977 — Stonestreet: Who Killed the Centerfold Model? — 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 — Marilyn: The Untold Story — Johnny Hyde • 1981 — Vega$ — 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: "Knight of the Phoenix: Part 1" 83 episodes • 1983 — Tales of the Unexpected — Slade — Episode: "The Turn of the Tide" • The Crowded Life — Narrator — Television film

His recorded languages were English and Italian.

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.[5] 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.[6] He starred in a French-Australian drama The Restless and the Damned,[7] 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.[8]

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 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