The Adventure of the Old School Fansite

September 25, 2006 1:49 PM

Sherlock Holmes on Stage & Screen is a gallery of almost every significant actor who has ever played the great detective. Among their ranks are William Gillette, who was able to build himself a castle in Connecticut with the proceeds from his Holmes portrayal; Charlton Heston, who enacted a version of The Sign of Four onstage; Jeremy Brett, the superlative television Holmes; and, of course, Basil Rathbone, the South African actor whose name became synonymous with the role.
posted by Iridic (21 comments total)

Unfortunately, Stage & Screen leaves off at some point around 2000. The best resource for tracking down post-millenial Holmes actors is IMDB's character search. It omits stage Holmes, of course, but makes up for it by including plenty of foreign film Sherlocks. Of these, one standout is O Xangô de Baker Street, which improbably casts Joaquim de Almeida as Holmes.
posted by Iridic at 1:51 PM on September 25, 2006

Warning: embedded audio.
posted by black bile at 1:52 PM on September 25, 2006

Damn. Sorry about omitting the audio warning. And here's the corrected link for the IMDB search.
posted by Iridic at 1:56 PM on September 25, 2006

A good not-Sherlock Holmes movie, "They Might Be Giants", has George C. Scott playing a delusional Holmes in modern ('70s) Manhattan. A pretty good flick, IIRC.
posted by doctor_negative at 2:45 PM on September 25, 2006

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce will always be the default Holmes and Watson in my mind. The only thing that tarnishes the memories of watching the old SH movies as a kid are the crappy "Holmes Vs. the Nazis" movies.
posted by MikeMc at 2:58 PM on September 25, 2006

Sherlock Holmes on the Web is also hugely useful.
posted by thomas j wise at 3:00 PM on September 25, 2006

To me, Jeremy Brett was Sherlock Holmes. Once I saw him in the part I simply could not imagine anyone else playing the role.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:23 PM on September 25, 2006

Steven C. Den Beste: "To me, Jeremy Brett was Sherlock Holmes. Once I saw him in the part I simply could not imagine anyone else playing the role."

I agree - those little facial twitches and quick smiles he did were incredibly fitting for the great detective. Too bad that his sickness showed in the later episodes; even if it looked somewhat fittting for an addicted, cocaine abusing Holmes it was still sad to compare his appearance and demeanor in those films with those first ones.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 3:41 PM on September 25, 2006

Funny how certain actors shape our imagninings. I'm with MikeMc - Basil Rathbone hit it just right for me. There is a certain element of hokum in Sherlock Holmes, which makes a bit of overplaying appropriate. The post-Rathbone Holmeses, in trying to be more "serious", miss the mark for me. No one can say, "The game's afoot" quite the way Rathbone did.
posted by QuietDesperation at 3:44 PM on September 25, 2006

The older and iller Brett became, the more his angularity, hawkishness and pallor seemed to personify Holmes. He was good when he started, but he was exceptional when he died.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 3:45 PM on September 25, 2006

A good not-Sherlock Holmes movie, "They Might Be Giants", has George C. Scott playing a delusional Holmes in modern ('70s) Manhattan. A pretty good flick, IIRC.

I love this film. True, not really a Holmesian flick, unless you consider how much of an outsider Holmes would really have been in that era - or any I suppose. A rare cinematic gem about life on the fringes.

And no-one did Holmes like Jeremy Brett. That bar is set in stone. Just watching his face in the dramatization of A Scandal in Bohemia, where Holmes comes as close as he's ever been to respecting a woman as an equal, is one of those "holy-crap" moments in television viewing history.
posted by elendil71 at 4:22 PM on September 25, 2006

It's really a shame about the image resizing on that site. I'd have liked to see the details in the pictures more. Still, interesting and obviously a labour of love.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:44 PM on September 25, 2006

Speaking of performances, check out Robert Stephens in Billy Wilder's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes". Absolutely terrific, especially in the final scene.
posted by John Shaft at 4:50 PM on September 25, 2006

Jeremy Brett also played Watson opposite Chuck Heston on stage in the Crucifer of Blood. And, like John Shaft, I am a big fan of Wilder's film. I have it on laser disk (even though I don't own a laser disk player) and also on DVD. Christopher Lee played Mycroft Holmes in that movie, and has also played Sherlock on several occasions and Sir Henry Baskerville.
posted by Man-Thing at 11:19 PM on September 25, 2006

What about Rupert Everett?
posted by Summer at 2:36 AM on September 26, 2006

Just another person here for whom Jeremy Brett will always be THE Sherlock Holmes. I was ter lashocked to find out that years earlier he had played Freddy in the film version of My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn (you know, before she was doing Gap commercials). Yup, that's him singing "The Street Where You Live". Look reaaaaaalllly closely.
posted by kimdog at 5:22 AM on September 26, 2006

Rupert Everett? A fine actor, but he's a little too square-jawed to be a proper Holmes. Among the current crop of actors, I'd much prefer another Jeremy to enact the part—Jeremy Northam. Once his hairline recedes a little more, that part will be his.
posted by Iridic at 7:15 AM on September 26, 2006

I just went to make sure they got Brent Spiner, and sure enough, they did. I am now satisfied.
posted by spiderwire at 9:30 AM on September 26, 2006

Alan Rickman would make a wonderful Holmes.
Then again, he could read the phonebook and I'd want front-row tickets.
posted by squidfartz at 10:50 AM on September 26, 2006

Rickman could indeed do it - but there's no need. Brett's was definitive.

If you're in that neck of the woods, and a Holmes junkie, do try to take a tour of Gilette's Castle. It's in a gorgeous state part, and he designed it to resemble a German ruin. It's complete with many quirky Holmesian features and a spooky hunting-lodge feel.
posted by Miko at 12:34 PM on September 26, 2006

You are so right Quiet Deperation. I can hear him saying it in my mind right now. As a lad, I was so enamored of Rathbone's Holmes I named my dog Basil. Everyone thought it was from the herb (long A). Quickly got tired of trying to explain the Holme's connection. Subsequent dogs were all named Shep or Wolf or Jake.
posted by vronsky at 4:11 PM on September 26, 2006