Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant detective, and his companion Dr. Watson solve crimes in late 1800s London. Holmes uses forensic methods and believes others can do the same. The character has appeared in numerous stories and adaptations, played by various actors over the years.
Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular and well-known fictional characters of all time. A brilliant and eccentric detective, he first appears in the stories and novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1800s, alongside his trusted companion and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, who is also a physician. Jointly residing at 221B Baker Street in London, Holmes, with the assistance of Dr. Watson, solves crimes that the police cannot, coming to the aid of officers of the law such as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard. They are not above applying methods that are outside the law, such as breaking and entering and theft, in the interest of seeking justice.
Sherlock Holmes works his cases forensically, examining the details of crime scenes and inspecting his clients’ persons for information and then applying a particular method to make inferences about the evidence. Although Conan Doyle uses Holmes’ powers of deduction to amaze his clients and readers, Sherlock Homes himself believes he is scientific and that others may use the same approach: “You know my methods. Apply them!” he tells Dr. Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Besides The Hound, some of Sherlock Holmes’ best-known short stories include The Sign of the Four, A Study in Scarlet, The Red-Headed League, and A Scandal in Bohemia. The four Holmes novels have been published individually, three of them after serialization, and the stories have been collected into five anthologies.
Numerous actors have taken up the challenge of playing Sherlock Holmes since the very first performances in the very early years of the twentieth century. Those who played Sherlock Holmes in a series include Eille Norwood in the 1920s, Basil Rathbone in the 1940s and 1950s, Peter O’Toole in the 1980s and Jeremy Brett in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as John Cleese , Peter Cook, Christopher Plummer, Roger More, Nicol Williamson, Frank Langella, Ian Richardson, Edward Woodward, Charlton Heston, Christopher Lee and Jonathan Pryce. Indeed, from 1914-1923 and 1967-1994, at least one Sherlock Holmes-focused television show or film was produced, whether it was a dramatization of a Conan Doyle story, parody, translation, extension, or adaptation.
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