>Long before Basil Rathbone became the screen's most famous incarnation of the Baker Street detective, he was a celebrated stage star in both London and Broadway theatrical circles. When he left that behind for Hollywood in 1921, the start of his film career, he quickly became a popular leading man and gave memorable performances in such movies as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929) opposite Norma Shearer, The Bishop Murder Case (1930), in which he played detective Philo Vance, and George Cukor's 1935 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. He was particularly effective in villainous roles, proving himself to be a deadly adversary to Errol Flynn in Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood. But he was also highly regarded by his peers in the profession and garnered two Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actor for Romeo and Juliet (1936) and If I Were King (1938), losing to Walter Brennan in both cases (Brennan won for Come and Get It in 1936 and Kentucky in 1938).

>When the opportunity to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective was offered, Rathbone was delighted. According to an interview at the time, he said, "Ever since I was a boy and first got acquainted with the great detective I wanted to be like him...To play such a character means as much to me as ten 'Hamlets!" Ironically, Rathbone had never played Hamlet though he had appeared in many Shakespearian productions. Still, the casting of the British actor as Sherlock Holmes would prove to be a blessing and a curse for Rathbone. In one way the role assured Rathbone immortality on the silver screen and became the defining role of a lifetime. On the other hand, it stereotyped the actor for the rest of his career and narrowed the range of acting jobs he was offered.

>In his autobiography, In and Out of Character, Rathbone wrote that despite the critical and financial success of the first two Sherlock Holmes films (The Hound of the Baskervilles [1939], The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [1939]), he was "deeply concerned with the problem of being "typed," more completely "typed" than any other classic actor has ever been or ever will be again. My fifty-two roles in twenty-three plays of Shakespeare, my years in the London and New York theatre, my scores of motion pictures, including my two Academy Award nominations, were slowly but surely sinking into oblivion; and there was nothing I could do about it, except to stop playing Mr. Holmes, which I could not do owing to the existence of a long-term contract."

>Yet he also realized the honor of playing Holmes, writing, "Had I made but the one Holmes picture, my first, The Hound of the Baskervilles, I should probably not be as well known as I am today. But within myself, as an artist, I should have been well content. Of all the "adventures" The Hound is my favorite story, and it was in this picture that I had the stimulating experience of creating, within my own limited framework, a character that has intrigued me as much as any I have ever played."