Basil Hoffman
Basil Harry Hoffman (January 18, 1938 — September 17, 2021) was an American actor with a film and television career spanning five decades, mostly in supporting roles. He starred in films with many award-winning directors, including Alan Pakula and Robert Redford. He has also authored two books about acting, including Acting and How to Be Good at It. Hoffman was born in Houston, Texas in January 1938, the son of Beulah (née Novoselsky) and David Hoffman, an antique dealer. He graduated from Tulane University; and he spent two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, receiving a scholarship for the second, graduating year. His thirteen years of work in New York included many plays, some roles in episodic television, a recurring character on One Life to Live on ABC, hundreds of commercials and a film role in Lady Liberty with Sophia Loren, directed by Mario Monicelli. He made his first trip to Los Angeles in 1974. In that season, he filmed a theatrical feature, At Long Last Love, for Peter Bogdanovich. In the years that followed he appeared in two television movies, television episodes of Kung Fu, The Rockford Files, Sanford and Son (2 roles), Police Woman, Columbo, Kojak, M*A*S*H (2 roles), Barney Miller and several TV commercials. He had recurring roles as the fingerprint technician on Ellery Queen and as Principal Dingleman on Square Pegs. Although most of his work was in film and television, he made a few stage appearances, most notably in Sand Mountain, by Romulus Linney, for which he won a Drama-Logue Award, the first staged reading of Martin E. Brooks’ Joe and Flo at the Actors Studio, and the world premiere of William Blinn's Walking Peoria. He was best known for his work with distinguished film directors, including Peter Bogdanovich, Mario Monicelli, Richard Benjamin, Carl Reiner (twice), Peter Medak (six times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice); Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen, Paolo Sorrentino, Michel Hazanavicius, Steven Spielberg, Delbert Mann, Blake Edwards, Stanley Donen, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard and Robert Redford (twice as director); and others. His films include: All the President's Men, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, My Favorite Year, The Box, The Electric Horseman, Night Shift, Lucky Lady, Switch, The Milagro Beanfield War, Rio, I Love You, The Pineville Heist, and the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures Ordinary People and The Artist, among many others. A long-time private acting teacher and coach, he was also a frequent guest lecturer and teacher at prestigious professional and academic institutions, including the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Emerson College, the University of Southern California, Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and the Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts in Beirut, Lebanon. In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the University of Balamand's Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanese University, Notre Dame University and St. Joseph University's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques. ... Source: Article "Basil Hoffman" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
After an encounter with UFOs, an electricity linesman feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area...
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All the President's Men
as Assistant Metro EditorDuring the 1972 elections, two reporters' investigation sheds light on the controversial...
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Night Shift
as DrollhauserA nebbish of a morgue attendant gets shunted back to the night shift where he is shackled with...
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Switch
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Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures...
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Hail, Caesar!
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The Box
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In 1962 New York City, love blossoms between a playboy journalist and a feminist advice author.
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All of Me
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The Electric Horseman
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Ordinary People
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Love at First Bite
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My Favorite Year
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The Last Word
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Rio, I Love You
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Communion
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Comes a Horseman
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The Milagro Beanfield War
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The Ratings Game
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Lambada
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At Long Last Love
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Lady Liberty
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Games Mother Never Taught You
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The Elvira Show
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Throwdown
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Jennifer: A Woman’s Story
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3 Geezers!
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Cage Without a Key
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Love’s Dark Ride
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The Ice Runner
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Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects
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The Great Ice Rip-Off
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Culture
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The Pineville Heist
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Third Act
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Hefner: Unauthorized
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Discovering Ella
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Scout's Honor
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Welcome Home, Jellybean
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Lucky Louie
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America on Parade
as uncreditedTelevision special for the American Bicentennial starring Red Skelton, featuring the America on...
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Mr. Roberts
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Columbo
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Seinfeld
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Falcon Crest
as Reverend MustafaFalcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for...
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The West Wing
as CongressmanThe West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells...
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The Twilight Zone
as Mr. StewardThis 1980s revival of the classic sci-fi series features a similar style to the original...
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Murder, She Wrote
as Milton OverguardAn unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life...
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Barney Miller
as Allen KorbelBarney Miller is an American situation comedy television series set in a New York City police...
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M*A*S*H
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The Practice
as Tucker's Atty. Art Hardiman (uncredited)A provocative legal drama focused on young associates at a bare-bones Boston firm and their...
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Hill Street Blues
as Ed Greenglass (archive footage) (uncredited)A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.
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Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
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Night Court
as Duane SedgwickAn eccentric fun-loving judge presides over an urban night court and all the silliness going on...
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The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Dr. MichaelsThe New Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to...
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Kojak
as Charlie WinstonA bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New...
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Sledge Hammer!
as Sam SteinwaySledge Hammer! is an American satirical police sitcom produced by New World Television that ran...
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Sanford and Son
as Store OwnerThe misadventures of a cantankerous junk dealer and his frustrated son.
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Ellery Queen
as Technical Print Man, HarryEllery Queen is an American television detective mystery series based on the fictional character...
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Kindred: The Embraced
as Charon the CoronerKindred: The Embraced is an American television series produced by John Leekley Productions and...
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Out of the Blue
as Herman DonaldsonOut Of The Blue is an American fantasy sitcom that aired on ABC during the fall of 1979. It is...
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Maggie
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