Guinness World Records has listed Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character",[1] with more than 70 actors playing the part in over 200 films. His first screen appearance was in the 1900 Mutoscope film, Sherlock Holmes Baffled.[90] The detective has appeared in many foreign-language versions, including a Russian miniseries broadcast in November 2013.[91]
William Gillette's 1899 play Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner was a synthesis of four Conan Doyle stories: "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Final Problem", "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches", and A Study in Scarlet. In addition to its popularity, the play is significant because it, rather than the original stories, introduced the key visual qualities commonly associated with Holmes today: his deerstalker hat and calabash pipe. It also formed the basis for the Gillette's 1916 film, Sherlock Holmes. In his lifetime, Gillette performed as Holmes some 1,300 times. In the early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times.[92]
Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen forUniversal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces, the Universal films were distinctive for abandoning Victorian Britain and moving to a then-contemporary setting in which Holmes occasionally battled Nazis.
The 1984–1985 Italian/Japanese anime series Sherlock Hound adapted the Holmes stories for children, with its characters being anthropomorphic dogs. The series was co-directed by Hayao Miyazaki.[93]
Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five television films, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.[94] The series were split into eleven episodes and starred Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson. Livanov was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire[95] for a performance ambassador Anthony Brenton described as "one of the best I've ever seen".[94]
Jeremy Brett is considered the definitive Holmes by critic Julian Wolfreys.[96] Brett played the detective in four series of Sherlock Holmes for Britain's Granada Television from 1984 to 1994 and appeared as Holmes on stage. Watson was played by David Burkeand Edward Hardwicke in the series.
Bert Coules penned The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes[97] starring Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams/Andrew Sachs as Watson,[98] based on throwaway references in Doyle's short stories and novels.[97] He also produced original scripts for this series, which was also issued on CD.[99] Coules had previously dramatised the entire Holmes canon for Radio Four.[97][100]
The 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, which earned Robert Downey Jr. a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Holmes and which co-starred Jude Law as Watson, focuses on Holmes's antisocial personality.[101] Downey and Law returned for a 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. As of May 2016, a script for a third film is ready and the aim is to begin shooting before the end of the year; further sequels are acknowledged as possible.[102]
Benedict Cumberbatch plays a modern version of the detective (with Martin Freeman as John Watson) in the BBC One TV series Sherlock, which premiered on 25 July 2010. In the series, created by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the stories' original Victorian setting is replaced by present-day London. Cumberbatch's Holmes uses modern technology (including texting and blogging) to help solve crimes.[103] Similarly, on 27 September 2012, Elementarypremiered on CBS. Set in contemporary New York, the series features Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as a female Dr. Joan Watson.
The 2015 film Mr. Holmes starred Ian McKellen as a retired Sherlock Holmes living in Sussex, in 1947, who grapples with an unsolved case involving a beautiful woman.[104] The film is based on Mitch Cullin's 2005 novel A Slight Trick of the Mind.
Holmes has also appeared in video games, including the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes series of seven titles. The detective is based on Jeremy Brett's portrayal, with the series's plot independent of the Conan Doyle stories.
