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Voyage to the Bottom |
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| Based on reports of his family and friends and from interviews and magazine articles, it's apparent that Richard Basehart didn't like Irwin Allen and he didn't like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Likewise, he didn't particularly like Nelson as written, because the Admiral's character was paper-thin. By all accounts, the only reason he took the role was because he needed money due to a recent and very trying divorce. But regardless of his own feelings about the show and his role in it, Basehart, trapped by his own unique talent and impelled by the directive of his own standards, breathed life into a shell and created the Admiral named Harriman Nelson. |  This is a cleaned-up copy of the fine TV Guide cover-photo featuring Richard Basehart and David Hedison which appeared in 1965. Inside, a story focusing on Basehart, the man and the actor. If you would like a free copy of this interesting article/interview, email me here . |
| Particularly in season one, Voyage had good scriptwriting and very decent dialogue. And from that dialogue, a ghost of the character of a man was implicit. It was into that ghost that Richard Basehart breathed the flesh. It poured out through his eyes and was manifest in his every intense movement and gesture and announced via his authoritative yet compassionate voice. |
| Admiral Nelson became a man
of conviction and substance because Basehart made him that way. There
is little else that can be said. The proof and demonstration
is in the viewing. For many, it was during the Fall of
1964 that they first took a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and discovered
Richard Basehart's talent, charisma and humanity.
---Mike Bailey |
|
. . . . Outside, the world lay bathed in
mercury light from a full moon hanging low on the horizon. Where the sea
was not black, it shone with silvery motion; in spite of the brilliant
moon, the sky blazed with thousands of visible stars and the iridescent
meandering band of the Milky Way. It was unseasonably warm (another El
Nino), and Admiral Harriman Nelson and Captain Lee Crane stood on
Seaview's bridge, thoroughly comfortable in light jackets. The Admiral
quietly focused inward in anticipation of his one real vice. He ran his
fingers through his brownish-red hair and down the back of his neck. He
opened his eyes after brief meditation and flipped back the cover of a
Zippo lighter, struck it, and touched the flame to the tobacco end of a
Marlboro filter. |
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