Set Visit: Spring
of 1968
Fox Publicity
Department
Their day in invariably begins at 7:30 a.m. at the
Hollywood studios, but despite the demands of a weekly
TV series actors David Hedison and Richard Basehart
devote much of their spare time to seeking intellectual
values.
They arrive at the studio in Century City in the
Mercedes cars. Richard Basehart’s is a 1964 off-white
model; David Hedison's is a 1958, of a green paler than
cream de menthe with cream in it. What they are coming
to are their jobs at 20th Century Fox Studios, where they
play the leading roles in “Voyage to the Bottom of the
Sea.”
Basehart is Admiral Harriman Nelson and Hedison is
Captain Lee Crane on board the science-fiction fantasy
submarine, the Seaview (atomic powered of course).
The chief and his chief aide-de-camp get to the studio
at 7:30 A.M. for their makeup, which takes half an
hour. They get in the U.S. Navy-type uniforms they keep
on for the rest of working day. When they go out to
lunch, either separately or together, they keep on the
uniform.
Restaurant diners, in the West Los Angeles area, have
grown used to two men with brown-orange skins darker
than even the California sun could bronze them, showing
up in the elegant eating places in the vicinity of the
studio, scripts in hand, for an hour’s leisurely dining.
Richard’s favorite luncheon spot is the Portofino room
at the Beverly Hillcrest hotel, a minute’s walk away
from 20th. David goes along with him because he
invariably follows Richard’s lead.
Occasionally the men have lunch in their dressing
rooms. Both dressing rooms are on the small side,
carpeted in red for David, in green for Richard. Each
quarters contains a bed- couch, a desk and a visitor’s
chair. David tends towards plaids – Richard’s is filled
with books. He reads a number of books a week.
Anything from Dickens to Dostoyevsky will do.
Basehart has been the Admiral of the underwater craft
for four years now. "I like being part of the
successful venture," he says. Four years on one series
places him among the list of long-time regulars.
Hedison, a bachelor, lives all alone on a mountaintop,
on a Beverly Hill. His home is one of "those
up-and-down things," he says. Hedison has an artistic
touch, which he exercises on his house. He likes bright
colors, simple, sturdy male furniture and sliding glass
windows. "I can see everywhere," he says. If there's
no haze in the air, that is. But his views are
spectacular, and at night from his hilltop, Los Angeles
glitters and gleams like a jeweler’s shop window.
When the series stops filming for the summer vacation,
Hedison will go off to Europe with a friend to make a
movie in Italy [Kemek]. He admits to Basehart’s acting
influence. "I feel I learned a lot about acting from
him," he says. "I like to study my scripts with him to
get his feelings about them."
Although a bachelor, and a good-looking at that, he has
his choice of ladies to court, his life, like Basehart’s
is based on what he calls "intellectual values."
"He just doesn't belong to that swinging bunch," says a
female friend of his. She means that the Hollywood
go-go group is not David's taste.
"Most my friends are in the profession," says David.
"But not necessarily actors. I'm interested in the
writing, directing, producing side of the industry."
And everybody on the set admires David. "If we could
pick an actor who's always cooperative and always a
gentleman, it would be David," said one studio executive
woman on the show.
On the set, both men, when they are not turning on
hearty dramatic charm for the cameras, often laugh and
joke with each other. "They josh each other, to no
end," says the same woman executive.
"One time, when they had finished film a Jekyll-and-Hyde
kind of episode, David had Richard's picture taken in
his Mr. Hyde make up without Richard knowing about it.
When he got the photo back, David put the head on the
cover of a local TV magazine and rushed into Richard’s
dressing room to show him. I heard howls of laughter
coming from Richard’s room."
Good thing they get along -- they have to spend all
that time together at the bottom of the sea.
