16 actors you forgot had played Sherlock Holmes
- 1/16
Roger Moore
During his Bond years, the late Roger Moore played the British sleuth in the 1976 American made-for-television movie Sherlock Holmes in New York. It follows Holmes as he pursues archenemy Moriarty to the Big Apple where he’s carried out a bank robbery and kidnapped Irene Adler.
- 2/16
Christopher Lee
Lee played Sir Henry Baskerville opposite Cushing’s Sherlock before getting to do the job himself in 1962’s Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace as well as TV movies Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1991) and Incident at Victoria Falls (1992).
- 3/16
Michael York
Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes was a 2010 animated film featuring Michael York voicing the sleuth. It was the first Tom and Jerry production made without original creators William Hanna and John Barbera.
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- 4/16
Charlton Heston
Heston played Sherlock onstage in The Crucifer of Blood (a play adapted by Paul Giovanni from the novel The Sign of the Four) which was later adapted as a US TV movie aired in 1991. Set during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Sherlock is hired by Irene St. Claire to investigate the suffering her father and his three compatriots endured over a pact made over a cursed treasure chest.
- 5/16
Rupert Everett
Everett played Holmes in the 2004 BBC film adaptation of Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking. Holmes investigates the serial killings of young women who are left for dead with a silk stocking stuffed down their throats.
- 6/16
Christopher Plummer
Silver Blaze was a 1977 British-Canadian TV film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 short story The Adventures of Silver Blaze, about the disappearance of the titular racehorse on the eve of an important race.
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- 7/16
James D’Arcy
D’Arcy played a younger version of Holmes, a departure from the style of previous adaptations, in 2002 US TV movie Sherlock: Case of Evil. It begins with Holmes’ apparent murder of Moriarty before following his investigation into the murder of several crime-lords.
- 8/16
John Barrymore
Drew Barrymore’s grandad played Sherlock Holmes in the 1922 silent movie adaption of William Gillette’s 1899 play. For decades the movie was thought lost but was rediscovered in the Mid-1970s.
- 9/16
John Cleese
The Monty Python star played Homes in 1973, in the British TV series Comedy Playhouse, in the series 13 episode, “Elementary, My Dear Watson,” and in the 1977 Holmes spoof, The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It.
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- 10/16
Frank Langella
This was a revival of William Gillette’s play focused on Sherlock Holmes: The Strange Case of Miss Alice Faulkner. Gillette was the first playwright to adapt Holmes for the stage, and Langella’s version was recorded at the Williamstown Theater Festival.
- 11/16
Peter Cushing
Cushing has played Sherlock on several occasions including Hammer production of The Hounds of Baskervilles (1959), the 15-episode BBC series Sherlock Holmes (1968), and The Masks of Death (1984), which was his last performance as the detective.
- 12/16
Orson Welles
Welles was the creator of the live radio drama series The Mercury Theatre on the Air and the September 25, 1938 episode “The Immortal Sherlock Holmes” featured him as the titular character. Again the radio play was based on the Gillette’s 1899 Sherlock Holmes play.
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- 13/16
Peter O’Toole
O’Toole voiced the detective role for a 1983 Australian animated series centred on four stories: Sherlock Holmes and the Valley of Fear, Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of Four, Sherlock Holmes and the Baskerville Curse, and Sherlock Holmes and a Study in Scarlet.
- 14/16
Tom Baker
The Hounds of Baskerville (1981) was a BBC adaptation of the Sherlock story – about an attempted murder inspired by the legend of the eponymous hounds – reunited Baker with his Doctor Who producer Barry Letts.
- 15/16
Jonathan Pryce
Pryce played the detective in the 2007 children’s drama Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars. It followed the eponymous squad of young children as they investigate the disappearance of several of their members while concurrently trying to stop Holmes from being convicted for murder.
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- 16/16
Ewen Bremner
ITV drama Houdini & Doyle focused on the real-life friendship of Harry and Arthur and in the 2016 episode “Bedlam,” Bremner plays a mental patient who believes he is Sherlock Holmes.
It’s just been confirmed that Robert Downey Jr. will get his third outing as Sherlock Holmes in a sequel scheduled for 2020, and this Friday will see the release of Sherlock Gnomes in cinemas.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s super sleuth has been brought to life hundreds of times on stage, screen and radio since he debuted in 1887 with plenty of actors playing the role.
Here’s sixteen you may have forgotten had stepped into his detective shoes.
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