Stephanie Kellerman: Several actors commented that he was an actor's actor because they did appreciate his talent, but you would find an argument from his fans saying that his talent was only appreciated by other actors. As for me... I appreciated other actors because I liked the characters they played, but I really didn't have an interest in the actors themselves. With Richard, I watched him because I was interested in him and how he seemed to make each role his own. To me, when others acted, they seemed to play the same character in all their movies, different variations of themselves. They just had different names. Richard was one of the few actors who could make the roles he played so believable and the different characters came to life with their own personalities.

CR: Why was this great actor so unappreciated during his lifetime – and perhaps even now, 25 years after his death?

SK: I think that happened because of two reasons. One, he moved to Italy for a decade and was out of the public's eye in the USA. And two, he accepted the role of Admiral Nelson in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, with which he will be forever identified.  If he had stayed in the U.S., I believe he would have become a greater star here. He is considered a much greater star in Europe. Also, I have received several comments over the years from people who emailed me at my Richard Basehart tribute site that they had no idea he had such range as an actor because they only knew him as Admiral Nelson, and were astonished when they went back and watched some of his old movies, which by now most everyone has forgotten about.

Incidentally, we wouldn't have had Richard as Admiral Nelson if he hadn't needed money to pay off Valentina Cortese after their divorce. She agreed to one last payoff and Voyage was his chance to get out of making any more payments to her. That means if he didn't have that expense, he wouldn't have taken the role and the roles he would have taken otherwise would probably more closely reflect what he had done in the past.