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 Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award from four nominations, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, the Ceci ...

. He also authored two books about acting, including ''Acting and How to Be Good at It''.

Early years

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 Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pu ...

; and he spent two years at the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related ar ...

in New York City, receiving a scholarship for the second, graduating year.

Career

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 Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

, 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 ''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investigat ...

'', ''

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'' (2 roles), ''Police Woman'', ''

Columbo ''Columbo'' () is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC f ...

'', ''

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'', ''M*A*S*H'' (2 roles),

Barney Miller ''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th St in Greenwich Village. The series was broadcast on ABC Network from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982. It was created ...

and several TV commercials. He had recurring roles as the fingerprint technician on ''

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve ...

'' 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 Drama-Logue Award was an American theater award established in 1977, given by the publishers of Drama-Logue newspaper, a weekly west-coast theater trade publication. Winners were selected by the publication's theater critics, and would recei ...

, 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 Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Bogdanovich started as a film journalist until he was hired to work on ...

Mario Monicelli Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli (; 16 May 1915 – 29 November 2010) was an Italian film director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the ''Commedia all'Italiana'' (Comedy Italian style). He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and was aw ...

Richard Benjamin Richard Samuel Benjamin (born May 22, 1938) is an American actor and film director. He has starred in a number of well-known film productions, including '' Goodbye, Columbus'' (1969), based on the novella by Philip Roth; ''Catch-22'' (1970), f ...

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...

(twice),

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(six times) and Alan J. Pakula (twice);

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winners

Joel and Ethan Coen Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...

Paolo Sorrentino Paolo Sorrentino (; born 31 May 1970) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and writer. His 2013 film '' The Great Beauty'' won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and the Bafta Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In Italy he was honou ...

, Michel Hazanavicius,

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spi ...

Delbert Mann Delbert Martin Mann Jr. (January 30, 1920 – November 11, 2007) was an American television and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film '' Marty'' (1955), adapted from a 1953 teleplay of the same name which he ...

Blake Edwards Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump; July 26, 1922 – December 15, 2010) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Edwards began his career in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon began writing screenplays and radio s ...

Stanley Donen Stanley Donen ( ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are '' On the Town,'' (1949) and ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), both of which he co-directed with Gene Kel ...

Sydney Pollack Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. For his film '' Out ...

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of ''The Twilight Zone''. He ...

and

(twice as director); and others. His films include: ''

All the President's Men ''All the President's Men'' is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, two of the journalists who investigated the June 1972 break-in at the Watergate Office Building and the resultant political scandal for ''The Washington ...

'', ''

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'', ''

My Favorite Year ''My Favorite Year'' is a 1982 American comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Richard Benjamin and written by Norman Steinberg and Dennis Palumbo from a story written by Palumbo. The film tells the story of a young comedy write ...

'', '' The Box'', '' The Electric Horseman'', '' Night Shift'', '' Lucky Lady'', ''

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'', ''

The Milagro Beanfield War ''The Milagro Beanfield War'' is a 1988 American comedy-drama film directed by Robert Redford from a screenplay written by John Nichols and David S. Ward based on Nichols's novel of the same name. The ensemble cast includes Ruben Blades, Richa ...

'', ''

Rio, I Love You ''Rio, I Love You'' ( pt, Rio, Eu Te Amo) is a 2014 Brazilian anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. It's the fourth film in the ''Cities of Love'' franchise (following 2006's '' Paris, je t'aime'', the 2008 ...

'', ''

The Pineville Heist ''The Pineville Heist'' is a 2016 Canadian action film, directed and co-written by Lee Chambers and Todd Gordon. The film is based on the 2011 screenplay by Chambers and Gordon. Plot A teenager witnesses the aftermath of a bank heist when he w ...

'', and the Academy Award-winning Best Pictures ''

Ordinary People ''Ordinary People'' is a 1980 American drama film directed by Robert Redford in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Alvin Sargent is based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Judith Guest. The film follows the disintegration of an upper- ...

'' 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

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, the

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...

, the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

, Confederation College in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populatio ...

, Ontario, Canada, and the

Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts The Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA; french: Académie libanaise des Beaux-Arts; ar, الأكاديمية اللبنانية للفنون الجميلة) was originally a stand-alone Lebanese institute, now one of the faculties at the Unive ...

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, Lebanon. In 2008, he returned to Beirut as a U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon to teach acting and directing at the

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's Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, Lebanese University,

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and

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's Institut D'Etude Sceniques Audiovisuelles et Cinematographiques. Hoffman served as a member of the Board of Directors of

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

and the Fine Arts Advisory Council of

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. He was an Advisory Director of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and a member of both the

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...

and the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

. He was also the author of acting textbooks including, ''Cold Reading And How to Be Good At It'', and ''Acting and How To Be Good At It''.

Personal life and death

Hoffman married Christine Elizabeth Reed in 1988, and they remained wed until her 2006 death. He died on September 17, 2021, at the age of 83.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Basil 1938 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni American male film actors American male stage actors Place of death missing American male television actors Male actors from Houston Tulane University alumni