美国电影演员。当过记者和漫画家，后在杂耍剧中扮演方言喜剧角色，并参加剧团演出。二十年代末进入影坛，成为好莱坞三四十年代最忙碌的性格演员之一。曾在著名歌后格蕾丝·摩亚主演的影片《金缕曲》（1935）中扮演男主角，但后来主演扮演以提供笑料为主而仪态和蔼的拉丁人。五十年代后期退出影坛。后一度在电视连续剧《游侠希思科》中扮演邓坎的伙伴潘乔。
Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice and John, were raised. Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer born in Liverpool.
Popular leading man in 1940's Hollywood who, with his suave demeanor, exotically handsome looks and well-modulated voice, was first called upon to portray mysterious or villainous characters. Soon he would be teamed with other "exotics" (e.g. Maria Montez and Sabu) in a series of escapist adventures, filmed in glorious Technicolor and set in lands of fable, which proved most popular with movie audiences of the World War II years. But with the end of the war, his career (like that of Montez) would decline. He ultimately returned to his city of birth to pursue opportunities in commercial photography.
