![]() And neither is Douglas Fairbanks’s spoofy Sherlock character “Coke Ennyday.” Neither is Owen Wilson’s “Sherlock Holmes” in Shanghai Knights. Please note that we’re ranking Sherlock Holmes portrayals (characters who are literally supposed to be Sherlock Holmes), not portrayals of characters who are based on or inspired by Sherlock Holmes. ![]() (This also excludes any performance from the 1965 Broadway musical Baker Street, and I apologize, although not really.)Įxcluded from this ranking, also, are radio portrayals of Holmes, which also sadly excludes performances by Orson Welles, John Gielgud, and Nigel Bruce (which is a cute twist, as he is famous for playing Watson in the Rathbone films). There have been so many wonderful theatrical portrayals of our Man from Baker Street, but unfortunately, we can include almost none of them! We can only rank Sherlocks that everyone has access to, so only ones whose representations are on video of some kind, which sadly excludes performances by Alan Rickman, Alan Tudyk, and several other Alans, as well as men with other first names. And of course, yes, the quality of the performance itself matters. Simply put, portrayals are ranked in their ability to present a Holmes who makes sense as a derivation of the original character while exploring, interrogating, and expanding the character’s qualities in a thoughtful and meaningful way. What are the criteria we’re using to rank these portrayals? Fidelity to the source text? Creativeness of the interpretations? Resemblance to Sidney Paget’s illustrations? Quality of acting? Kind of. Hardly, if you’ll pardon the phrase, elementary. ![]() In fact, this was the hardest list I have ever had to put together. Please know that ranking them was very, very hard to do, and while I took lot of pleasure in researching and writing this piece, I took no pleasure in making any of the decisions. There are so many excellent and varied takes on Sherlock Holmes.
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