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Photo of Basil Hoffman

Basil Hoffman

Actor
Died September 17, 2021 (83 years)
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.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • The Artist
  • Night Shift
  • Communion
  • Eerie, Indiana
  • Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
  • Falcon Crest
  • Too Close for Comfort
  • Rio, I Love You
  • The Double 0 Kid
  • The Ratings Game
  • Mommy, I Didn't Do It
  • CBS Schoolbreak Special
  • The Pineville Heist
  • Ace Crawford, Private Eye
Known For
  • Ordinary People
  • Night Shift
  • My Favorite Year
  • Switch
  • The Electric Horseman
  • Rio, I Love You
  • Comes a Horseman
  • 3 Geezers!
  • The Pineville Heist
  • Square Pegs
  • The Double 0 Kid
  • The Ratings Game
  • Throwdown
  • Dead Drop
  • The Ice Runner
  • Lucky Louie
  • Old Dogs
  • Project: Puppies for Christmas
  • Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
  • Love's Dark Ride

Filmography

2023
Lucky Louie · as Wilbert Moser
2019
2017
The Last Word · as Christopher Georrge
2017
2016
The Pineville Heist · as Principal Parker
2016
Hail, Caesar! · as Stu Schwartz (accounting)
2014
Throwdown · as Judge Eller
2014
Rio, I Love You · as James (segment "la Fortuna")
2014
Dead Drop · as Kole
2013
3 Geezers! · as Victor
2011
The Artist · as Auctioneer
2010
When Life Gives You Lemons · as Calvin Adams
2009
The Box · as Don Poates
2009
Old Dogs · as Zeke
2006
You Did What? · as Pastor
2003
Down with Love · as C. W. (uncredited)
2002
For the People (TV Series) · as Judge Olsen
2000
Citizen Baines (TV Series) · as James Mcclintock
1999
1999
The West Wing (TV Series) · as Congressman
1998
Cousin Skeeter (TV Series) · as Principal Ezemins
1997
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction (TV Series) · as Gerald Stanley (segment "the Dresser")
1997
The Practice (TV Series) · as Tucker's Atty. Art Hardiman (uncredited)
1996
Kindred: The Embraced (TV Series) · as Charon The Coroner
1994
Pontiac Moon · as Car Buyer
1993
The Elvira Show · as Dr. Marvin Zislis
1992
1992
The Ice Runner · as J.c. Kruck
1991
Eerie, Indiana (TV Series) · as Bert
1991
Switch · as Higgins
1990
Babes (TV Series) · as Neighbor Bob
1990
Equal Justice (TV Series) · as Curtis Cardwell
1990
Lambada · as Superintendent Leland
1989
Communion · as Dr. Friedman
1989
Seinfeld (TV Series) · as Wig Salesman
1988
The Milagro Beanfield War · as In The Governor's Office
1987
Beauty and the Beast (TV Series) · as Trask
1986
Outlaws (1986) (TV Series) · as Driving Instructor
1986
Sledge Hammer! (TV Series) · as Sam Steinway
1986
L.A. Law (TV Series) · as Baldred Townsend
1986
Matlock (TV Series) · as Gary Springer
1986
The Hogan Family (TV Series) · as Howard Morgan
1986
You Again? (TV Series) · as Dean
1985
The Twilight Zone (1985) (TV Series) · as Mr. Steward
1985
227 (TV Series) · as J. Boswell Premington
1985
Small Wonder (TV Series) · as Mr. Beck
1985
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985) (TV Series) · as Dr. Michaels
1984
The Ratings Game · as Frank Friedlander
1984
Spencer (TV Series) · as Cast
1984
Murder, She Wrote (TV Series) · as Milton Overguard
1984
All of Me · as Court Clerk
1984
Santa Barbara (TV Series) · as Joshua Friendly
1984
Kidco · as Sid Fein
1984
CBS Schoolbreak Special (TV Series) · as Mr. Rasmussen
1984
Night Court (TV Series) · as Duane Sedgwick
1983
Ace Crawford, Private Eye (TV Series) · as Gentleman Bandit
1982
My Favorite Year · as Herb Lee
1982
Square Pegs (TV Series) · as Principal Dingleman
1982
Night Shift · as Drollhauser
1981
Gimme a Break! (TV Series) · as Mr. Fuller
1981
Cagney & Lacey (TV Series) · as Lt. Palmer
1981
Falcon Crest (TV Series) · as Reverend Mustafa
1981
Hill Street Blues (TV Series) · as Ed Greenglass (archive Footage) (uncredited)
1981
Dynasty (TV Series) · as Judge Drew Mayfield
1980
Too Close for Comfort (TV Series) · as Dr. Norman Biggs
1980
Enos (TV Series) · as Dr. Bloomberg
1980
It's a Living (TV Series) · as Dr. Bickley
1980
Scout's Honor · as Alexander
1980
Ordinary People · as Sloan
1980
Here's Boomer (TV Series) · as Sloan Meadows
1979
1979
Being There · as Man In Commercial
1979
Out of the Blue (TV Series) · as Herman Donaldson
1979
Love at First Bite · as Hotel Manager (uncredited)
1979
Jennifer: A Woman's Story · as Neil Turner
1978
Comes a Horseman · as George Bascomb
1978
The Eddie Capra Mysteries (TV Series) · as Second Technician
1978
Love's Dark Ride · as Dr. Kanlan
1977
Close Encounters of the Third Kind · as Longly (uncredited)
1977
CHiPs (TV Series) · as Stan West
1977
Prime Time · as Presidential Advisor
1976
Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers (TV Series) · as Stanley Inchbeck
1976
All the President's Men · as Assistant Metro Editor
1976
Good Heavens (TV Series) · as Walter Ashburn
1975
Lucky Lady · as Auctioneer's Assistant
1975
Ellery Queen (TV Series) · as Technical Print Man, Harry
1975
Cage Without a Key · as Judge
1975
At Long Last Love · as Movie Theatre Manager
1975
Barney Miller (TV Series) · as Allen Korbel
1974
The Great Ice Rip-Off · as Richards
1974
Police Woman (TV Series) · as Desk Clerk #2
1974
The Rockford Files (TV Series) · as Desk Clerk
1973
Kojak (TV Series) · as Charlie Winston
1972
The ABC Afterschool Special (TV Series) · as Photographer
1972
M*A*S*H (TV Series) · as Major Pfiefer
1972
The Waltons (TV Series) · as Prof Ranney
1972
Kung Fu (TV Series) · as Telegrapher
1972
Sanford and Son (TV Series) · as Store Owner
1971
Lady Liberty · as Willett (uncredited)
1971
Columbo (TV Series) · as Jason Danziger
1969
Marcus Welby, M.D. (TV Series) · as Cast
1968
That's Life (1968) (TV Series) · as Commuter
1968
1961
The Defenders (TV Series) · as Juror

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