John Basinger, an actor, writer, and educator, died May 29, 2026 in Brookings, South Dakota, surrounded by his family. He was 92.

John was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Chicago on May 10, 1934 and was adopted at age 13 by Dr. Harvey and Marie Basinger and raised in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. After graduating from Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, John taught at Kakamega School in Kenya for five years. When he returned to the US, he earned Master’s degrees in teaching and theater from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. There he met his future wife Jeanine, whom he married in 1967, beginning a partnership that lasted 59 years.

John appeared as a musician and actor in multiple productions for the National Theatre of the Deaf beginning in 1968, performing in all fifty states and thirty countries around the world and eventually becoming a board member of the NTD. As an early member of the organization, he became the vocal interpreter for celebrated Deaf actor Bernard Bragg, for whom he wrote the play “The White Hawk”, which was performed in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. John was a member of the 1977 Tony Award-winning NTD troupe and created the music for the NTD production of Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milkwood”. He also appeared in the Oscar-winning 1986 film adaptation of “Children of a Lesser God” and in several independent films.

John’s outdoor drama “Benedict Arnold: A Brave Revenge” premiered in Groton, Connecticut in 2003. His one-man adaptation of Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, “The King”, had its premiere at the O’Neill Theater in Waterford, Connecticut in 2012.

In 1992, John started a project to memorize all twelve books of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”. He performed individual books for audiences around the country over the next nine years, and in December of 2001 began performing the entire work. Of Paradise Lost itself, John once said, “It is a cathedral I carry around in my mind, a place that I can enter and walk around at will.”

In 1973, John began teaching theater, speech, and sign language at Wesleyan University, Connecticut College, and primarily at Mohegan Community College (later renamed Three Rivers Community College) in Norwich, Connecticut. He retired in 1993 and was named Professor Emeritus. The theater at Mohegan was named in his honor.

John was an active member of the arts community in Middletown, Connecticut, for decades, serving as chairman of the board of The Buttonwood Tree for over a decade and receiving recognition from the city of Middletown in the celebration of John Basinger Day, honoring his dedication and accomplishments.

John is survived by his wife, film historian Jeanine Basinger; his daughter Savannah Jahrling (Robert) of San Diego, California; and his granddaughter Kulani Jahrling of Madison, Wisconsin. The family plans to hold a memorial at a later date.