Birthday:
Birthday:

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.
Birthday: August 31, 1914
Death: September 17, 1984

September 23, 1954

December 19, 1979

June 27, 1956

December 21, 1951

February 06, 1949

July 13, 1977

November 25, 1949

October 15, 1949

March 26, 1965

February 12, 1971

October 01, 1976

May 12, 1951

October 07, 1955

May 22, 1947

February 20, 1958

August 19, 1947

April 11, 1953

October 23, 1957

March 02, 1954

September 26, 1982

July 27, 1960

November 21, 1951

July 16, 1971

December 18, 1963

July 28, 2004

December 25, 1976

April 01, 1951

February 08, 1950

January 09, 1970

January 01, 1955

July 02, 2002

June 01, 1956

August 22, 1957

November 22, 1972

March 21, 1962

January 12, 1975

November 01, 1978

November 01, 1961

May 14, 1979

October 07, 1964

June 05, 1977

July 01, 1955

December 14, 1969

December 26, 1960

November 08, 1973

October 12, 1949

January 01, 1956

January 01, 1965

November 10, 1980

November 04, 1963

October 27, 1971

December 08, 1973

January 20, 1954

March 04, 1959

May 17, 1970

March 15, 1960

September 18, 1954

December 12, 1969

October 15, 1979

September 30, 1955

December 19, 1958

March 19, 1976

April 30, 1972

October 14, 1959

January 01, 1973

August 28, 1960

March 06, 1968

October 31, 1972

May 23, 1978

May 25, 1972

December 03, 1975

December 09, 1964

January 01, 1979

January 16, 1977

December 25, 1982

March 06, 1982

January 01, 1967

April 14, 1974

January 17, 1957

March 22, 1960

September 15, 1971

September 14, 1964

September 11, 1974

September 24, 1977

September 20, 1968

September 26, 1982

October 07, 1960

March 24, 1979

September 30, 1958

September 15, 1963

September 10, 1955

November 07, 1948

October 02, 1962

December 24, 1951

January 09, 1959

September 20, 1978

October 07, 1981

October 02, 1961

September 13, 1978

October 05, 1956

September 04, 1975

September 09, 1975

October 02, 1959

September 10, 1965

March 28, 1967

September 23, 1969

September 11, 1978

September 20, 1962

February 06, 1977

September 23, 1970

September 23, 1972

April 05, 1981