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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.
Discovering Ella
as Bob Stephens
Lucky Louie
as Wilbert Moser
Third Act
as Uncle Paul
Mr. Roberts
as Mr. Roberts
The Last Word
as Christopher Georrge
Mommy I Didn't Do It
as Otis Pell
The Pineville Heist
as Principal Parker
Hail, Caesar!
as Stu Schwartz (Accounting)
The French American
as Monsieur Tissot
Throwdown
as Judge Eller
Rio, I Love You
as James (segment "La Fortuna")
3 Geezers!
as Victor
Surreal Estate
as Mr. Black
The Artist
as Auctioneer
When Life Gives You Lemons
as Calvin Adams
The Box
as Don Poates
Down with Love
as C. W. (uncredited)
For the People
as Judge Olsen
Hefner: Unauthorized
as Lawyer
The West Wing
as Congressman
Culture
as Editor
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
as Gerald Stanley (segment "The Dresser")
The Practice
as Tucker's Atty. Art Hardiman (uncredited)
Kindred: The Embraced
as Charon the Coroner
The Elvira Show
as Dr. Marvin Zislis
The Ice Runner
as J.C. Kruck
Eerie, Indiana
as Bert (uncredited)
Mimi & Me
as Professor Sauer
Switch
as Higgins
Lambada
as Superintendent Leland
Communion
as Dr. Friedman
Seinfeld
as Wig Salesman
The Milagro Beanfield War
as In the Governor's Office
Beauty and the Beast
as Trask
Sledge Hammer!
as Sam Steinway
Matlock
as Gary Springer
The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents
as Dr. Michaels
The Twilight Zone
as Mr. Steward (segment "Button, Button")
The Ratings Game
as Frank Friedlander
Murder, She Wrote
as Milton Overguard
All of Me
as Court Clerk
Welcome Home, Jellybean
as Mr. Rasmussen
Night Court
as Duane Sedgwick
Ace Crawford, Private Eye
as Gentleman Bandit
Games Mother Never Taught You
as Dwayne Hilson
My Favorite Year
as Herb Lee
Night Shift
as Drollhauser
Falcon Crest
as Reverend Mustafa
Maggie
as Dr. Louis Milton
Hill Street Blues
as Ed Greenglass (archive footage) (uncredited)
Scout's Honor
as Alexander
Ordinary People
as Sloan
The Electric Horseman
as Toland
Out of the Blue
as Herman Donaldson
Love at First Bite
as Hotel Manager (uncredited)
Jennifer: A Woman’s Story
as Neil Turner
Comes a Horseman
as George Bascomb
Love’s Dark Ride
as Dr. Kanlan
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
as Longly (uncredited)
All the President's Men
as Assistant Metro Editor
