Here’s a look at some of the actors who’ve portrayed the great detective and his partner in movies and TV shows.
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly aren’t the only actors to portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Take a look at some of the other actors who’ve played the great detective and his partner on camera.
Here’s a look at Reilly as Dr. Watson and Ferrell (wearing the famed deerstalker hat) as Sherlock Holmes as they’ll appear in the 2018 comedy Holmes and Watson.
In the modern-day BBC adaptation Sherlock, Benedict Cumberbatch portrays a tactless Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman plays his tolerant roommate Watson as they solve murders using their wits, and sometimes their smartphones. The series spans four seasons and two specials from 2010 to 2017.
Watson (Martin Freeman) and Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) also went back in time (hence their Victorian garb) for the BBC special Sherlock: The Abominable Bride .
In the CBS series Elementary, Jonny Lee Miller plays a disgraced Holmes who lives in present-day Brooklyn after a stint in rehab. He’s assigned a sober companion to live with him: former surgeon Dr. Joan Watson, played by Lucy Liu. The two team up to help the New York Police Department solve unusual murder mysteries. (Disclosure: CBS is CNET’s parent company.)
Move over, Iron Man! Robert Downey Jr. portrayed a reckless Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law acted as his trusty yet frustrated friend Dr. Watson in the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes and its 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. A third film is slated for 2020.
Jeremy Brett played a grumpy but brilliant version of Sherlock Holmes in the Granada Television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from 1984 to 1994. His roommate and partner Dr. John Watson was portrayed by David Burke. Set in the Victorian era, the series included 36 one-hour episodes and five feature-length specials.
Jeremy Brett portrayed the stoic and easily irritated Sherlock Holmes while Edward Hardwicke — who replaced David Burke on the series in 1985 — played his loyal sidekick Dr. Watson. The Granada Television adaptations of the Holmes tales are later referred to as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Hardwicke played the role for eight years from 1986 to 1994.
From 1939 to 1946, a series of 14 films — including Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror and Sherlock Holmes Faces Death — were released starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson. While Rathbone’s version of Sherlock was both brilliant and personable, Bruce portrays Watson as a jovial but somewhat dense sidekick.
In the 2015 film Mr. Holmes, Ian McKellen plays an elderly version of Sherlock Holmes who’s long since retired from crime sleuthing. The film is set during 1947, with Holmes living on a remote Sussex farm with his widowed housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), and her young son, Roger (Milo Parker). Angry at Watson’s (Colin Starkey) latest fictionalization of his last case, The Adventure of the Dove Grey Glove, Holmes decides to write his own version, but his memories are starting to slip away. Young Roger’s curiosity and constant prodding helps Holmes remember the case, which is shown in flashbacks during the film.
In the 1991 TV movie Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, Christopher Lee plays Holmes while Patrick Macnee is Watson. One of the unusual highlights of this production was the depiction of leading lady character Irene Adler by ’80s TV icon Morgan Fairchild.
For the 1988 British comedy film Without a Clue, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Dr. John Watson (played expertly by Ben Kingsley) who writes about Holmes’ adventures in a series of short stories published in The Strand Magazine. The character becomes so popular that the public demands to see Holmes in person. So Watson hires an unemployed actor, Reginald Kincaid (played by Michael Caine), to pretend to be Holmes. The duo work together, with hilarious results, to help solve murder mysteries in real life.
In the 1954 TV series Sherlock Holmes, Ronald Howard played Holmes and Howard Marion Crawford was Watson. The series included 39 half-hour episodes, and was considered the first American television adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories.
Peter Cushing played Sherlock Holmes and Andre Morell portrayed Dr. Watson in the 1959 Hammer Films version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Cushing portrayed the famous detective throughout his career, and always demanded the character be depicted accurately and in line with Arthur Conan Doyle’s original creation.
