Sherlock Holmes

JS Crawley – Appeared on the UK tour of William
Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes from 26 December 1901.
Peter Cushing – Chisel-featured star of British horror films,
his first outing as the Great Detective took place in 1959 for the
seventh cinematic version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, a
Hammer production directed by Terence Fisher. Curiously
bloodless (despite the fact that this was the first Sherlock
Holmes film to be made in colour), the film was not a success.
Cushing returned to the role in 1968, drafted in to replace
Douglas Wilmer for a third series of 16 adaptations for BBC
television. It played up the sex and savagery of the stories, but
the less-than-satisfactory performance from Cushing, combined
with generally amateur production values, lessened the impact.
Many years later, at the age of 71, he played a retired Holmes in
The Masks of Death (1984), a Tyburn production for Channel 4.