Basil Hoffman

In 2008 he served in Beirut as U.S. State Department Cultural Envoy to Lebanon.

He appears in director Peter Medak's 1986 "Twilight Zone" television production of "Button, Button" and director Richard Kelly's 2009 feature film, The Box, both based on Richard Matheson's short story, "Button, Button." He is the only actor to have appeared in both productions. His role of Steward in the television original is played by Frank Langella in the film version.

He appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: Ordinary People (1980) and The Artist (2011).

He has appeared twice with Mark Harmon, and in both instances Harmon's characters were shot to death, first in Alan J. Pakula's 1978 film Comes a Horseman and then in the 2002 "Posse Comitatus" episode of NBC's The West Wing.

When he arrived in Hollywood in 1974, no movie/TV agent would represent him. In 1978 after appearing in six major studio pictures for distinguished directors including two future Oscar winners (and three films for directors who were nominated but didn't win), he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Four years later, director Ron Howard cast him in Night Shift. It was the first feature in which he was hired from an audition. He has worked with five Academy Award winning directors for whom he had never auditioned.

Alumnus of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1962.