person

Basil Hoffman

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Gender

Male

Birthday

1938-01-18

Place of Birth

Houston, Texas, USA

Basil Hoffman

Biography

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.

Also Known For

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73

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Dec 14, 1977

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61

Down with Love

May 08, 2003

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66

My Favorite Year

Oct 01, 1982

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65

Love’s Dark Ride

Apr 02, 1978

poster

100

The Elvira Show

Jan 01, 1993

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60

Comes a Horseman

Oct 25, 1978

poster

60

Night Shift

Jul 30, 1982

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75

Ordinary People

Sep 19, 1980

poster

NA

Lucky Louie

May 02, 2023

poster

NA

Jennifer: A Woman’s Story

Mar 05, 1979

poster

74

The Artist

Oct 12, 2011

poster

55

Lambada

Mar 16, 1990

poster

39

3 Geezers!

May 22, 2013

poster

50

At Long Last Love

Mar 01, 1975

poster

40

Hefner: Unauthorized

Dec 08, 1999

poster

NA

When Life Gives You Lemons

Jan 01, 2010

poster

60

Culture

Oct 01, 1997

poster

55

Lady Liberty

Dec 22, 1971

poster

65

The Milagro Beanfield War

Mar 18, 1988

poster

NA

Ellery Queen: Too Many Suspects

Mar 23, 1975

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NA

Third Act

Jan 01, 2022

poster

31

Throwdown

Dec 31, 2014

poster

60

Cage Without a Key

Mar 14, 1975

poster

NA

The French American

Oct 15, 2015

poster

NA

Games Mother Never Taught You

Nov 27, 1982

poster

NA

Surreal Estate

Oct 20, 2011

poster

49

Rio, I Love You

Sep 12, 2014

poster

55

Scout's Honor

Sep 30, 1980

poster

76

All the President's Men

Apr 09, 1976

poster

NA

Welcome Home, Jellybean

Mar 24, 1984

poster

NA

Mimi & Me

Sep 07, 1991

poster

57

The Ratings Game

Dec 15, 1984

poster

70

The Pineville Heist

Apr 06, 2016

poster

53

Communion

Nov 10, 1989

poster

50

The Ice Runner

Jan 01, 1992

poster

NA

America on Parade

Apr 03, 1976

poster

NA

Discovering Ella

Jul 08, 2023

poster

59

Hail, Caesar!

Feb 05, 2016

poster

66

The Last Word

Mar 03, 2017

poster

59

Love at First Bite

Apr 26, 1979

poster

60

The Electric Horseman

Dec 21, 1979

poster

70

The Great Ice Rip-Off

Nov 06, 1974

poster

56

The Box

Oct 29, 2009

poster

59

Switch

May 10, 1991

poster

64

All of Me

Sep 21, 1984

poster

NA

Mr. Roberts

May 17, 2019

poster

57

Mommy I Didn't Do It

Jan 01, 2017

poster

77

The Twilight Zone

Sep 27, 1985

poster

79

M*A*S*H

Sep 17, 1972

poster

83

The West Wing

Sep 22, 1999

poster

79

Sledge Hammer!

Sep 23, 1986

poster

77

The Practice

Mar 04, 1997

poster

73

Night Court

Jan 04, 1984

poster

71

Kindred: The Embraced

Apr 02, 1996

poster

83

Seinfeld

Jul 05, 1989

poster

70

Kojak

Oct 24, 1973

poster

76

Hill Street Blues

Jan 15, 1981

poster

72

The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Sep 29, 1985

poster

73

Barney Miller

Jan 23, 1975

poster

72

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

May 25, 1997

poster

74

Ellery Queen

Sep 11, 1975

poster

NA

Maggie

Oct 24, 1981

poster

81

Columbo

Sep 15, 1971

poster

74

Sanford and Son

Jan 14, 1972

poster

60

Out of the Blue

Sep 09, 1979

poster

75

Murder, She Wrote

Sep 30, 1984

poster

55

Falcon Crest

Dec 04, 1981

poster

71

The Waltons

Sep 14, 1972