Richard Basehart

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia 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 Awardnominated actress Valentina Cortese with whom he had one son before their divorce in 1960 Cortese and Basehart also costarred in Robert Wises 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 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 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 shows 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 CBSs western series Gunsmoke with James Arness Basehart appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone Hawaii FiveO 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 husbandandwife 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 Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Basehart licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia