Half a century ago, on July 21, 1967, Basil Rathbone died, one of the actors who played Sherlock Holmes the most and best.
Basil Rathbone had the right bearing to step into the shoes of the most famous detective of all time. He was tall, almost six feet tall. He too was thin, sharp-faced, wry, intelligent, with an excellent voice, and, of course, with the manners and manners of a perfect British gentleman. He was born in Johannesburg on June 13, 1892.
Basil Rathbone was a precocious actor. He made his debut at the age of 19 in a montage of "The Taming of the Shrew." He then embarked with the entire company to the United States. He went through France and then returned to England. In 1914 he married for the first time, but soon after he had to abandon his conjugal duties and his acting profession. World War I had started and at the age of 24, he enlisted as a soldier.
He earned the rank of lieutenant and was even awarded the Military Cross for his merits on the battlefield. After the war, he continued his career as a stage actor. He re-performed dozens of Shakespeare's plays in both England and the United States until he was hired by Hollywood. Basil Rathbone had already appeared in some English productions in the 1920s, but it was in the United States that he developed his film career. He was involved in "A Tale of Two Cities", based on the novel by Charles Dickens. He could also be seen in "Anna Karenina" or "Captain Blood", alongside Errol Flynn.
Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone formed a good partnership and they repeated again in "The Adventures of Robin Hood." The two had already performed a memorable sword fight in "Captain Blood", but the sword fights that the two stars in at the end of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is one of the best that has been filmed in the entire history of the cinema. Basil Rathbone was a very good swordsman. Fencing was one of his great hobbies.
Basil Rathbone was twice nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The first was in 1936 playing Teobaldo in a version of "Romeo and Juliet" and the second playing Louis XI in "If I Were King". The curious thing is that both times he lost the statuette at the hands of the same actor, another of the great supporting actors of classic cinema, Walter Brenan.
In 1939 he premiered his first film Sherlock Holmes: "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The film is surprised by its overwhelming atmosphere, especially in the scenes of the swamp shrouded in fog. The public and critical success was enormous and Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes in the cinema on thirteen other occasions, to which must be added his radio and theatrical appearances. A success and popular recognition that not only reached Rathbone but also Nigel Bruce who played Dr. Watson.
In addition to the Sherlock Holmes films, Basil Rathbone was involved in more titles throughout the 40s and 50s: "The Sign of the Fox" with Tyrone Power; "School for Mermaids" with Esther Williams, and "The Pirate and the Lady" with Joan Fontaine as a female star. He also worked under the orders of John Ford in "The Last Hurray." He never left the theater. He won a Tony Award in 1948 for a version of "The Heiress." He always said that his best performance had been as Romeo in a version of Shakespeare's tragedy. He also recorded records reciting poems and stories by Edgar Alan Poe.
On July 21, 1967, he was in New York when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 75 years old. Rathbone had never renounced his British nationality, but he was buried in New York. On the Hollywood Walk, he has three stars. One for his film career; another for his work on the radio and the third for his interventions on television.
