Today, January 6th,
is the 159th birthday of Sherlock Holmes (he was born
in 1854). You won't find this date in the “canon” or in any of
Doyle's writing, but we Sherlockians know. We have our ways..
In London, New York, and
various other large cities, the Baker Street Irregulars and scion
groups will be having lectures, special viewings of films, and
dinners. Unfortunately, I'm not healed enough to get around the big
bad City, so I will celebrate here.
Below are a few of my
favorite pieces of fan art, borrowed from Tumbler and similar sites
where mad fans meet and share their talent. Hope you enjoy:
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| Sherlock, a la "Fairly Odd Parents" |
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| Someone did a beautiful job blending Sherlock and John with Victorian style photography |
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| We need more of these PSAs |
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| Our new Sherlock confused by the statue of the old |
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| Note the shadow |
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| Perhaps my favorite: Sherlock and the bee |
 Unworldly Inspiration? |
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| Even Google got on board for Sir Arthur's birthday |
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| Sherlock a la Harry Potter |
I would also like to thank all the actors who brought Holmes to life. How many do you recognize?
Hans Albers, Joaquim de
Almeida, Alexander Armstrong, James D'Arcy, Tom Baker, John
Barrymore, Keith Baxter, Jeremy Brett, Nicolas Briggs, Clive Brook,
John Cleese, Peter Cook, Benedict Cumberbatch, Peter Cushing, Robert
Downey, Jr., Rupert Everett, Hugo Fink, Matt Frewer, William
Gillette, Sterwart Granger, John Gielgud, Guy Henry, Charlton Heston,
Anthony Higgins, Carleton Hobbs, Ronald Howard, Frank Langella, Roger
Llewellyn, Peter Lawford, Christopher Lee, Vasily Livanov, John
Longden, Patrick Macnee, Algimantas Masiulis, Raymond Massey, Clive
Merrison, Keith Mitchell, Nis Bank-Mikkelsen, Jonnny Lee Miller,
David Mitchell, Ron Moody, Roger Moore, Alan Napier, Alwin Neuss,
John Neville, Leonard Nimoy, Eille Norwood, Peter O'Toole, Reginald
Owen, Michael Pennington, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, Basil
Rathbone, Robert Rendel, Ian Richardson, Nicholas Rowe, Richard
Roxburgh, George C. Scott, Mack Sennett, Paul Singleton, Tod
Slaughter, Robert Stephens, Ben Syder, Fritz Weaver, Robert Webb,
Alan Wheatley, Geoffrey Whitehead, Paxton Whitehead, Nicol
Williamson, Douglas Wilmer, Arthur Wonter, John Wood, Edward Woodward
and Igor Petrenko.. 74 in all, and who knows how many more in the
future?
Finally, thank you, Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, for giving us a genre, an icon, and a damn good
read. Below is one of the last interviews Sir Arthur gave before his
death in 1930. He offers his insight on Sherlock Holmes and
Spiritualism.
So happy birthday, Mr. Holmes. The game is still afoot!
An interesting trip to make--William Gilette's castle in Connecticut. Things I recently learned in my research--he brought Sherlock to the British stage--his costumes and sets planned by none other than his cousin Pamela Colman Smith! Supposedly you can see some of her original paintings there. This investigation is continuing...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. I'll have to look into that. I'm familiar with Gilette's career as Sherlock, but did not know about the Tarot connection.
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