Today would have been Jeremy Brett's 82nd birthday (he passed away in 1995.) In honor of this bittersweet event, I'm posting here an older article that was originally published on the now-dead Helium and Yahoo Voices. Enjoy.
There have been over 150 actors who portrayed the Great
Detective, Sherlock Holmes since 1899, when the play Sherlock Holmes premiered, starring William Gillette. Each generation sees more actors tackling the
role on television and on film. But only
one actor can be the best Sherlock Holmes of all time.
For many, that actor was Jeremy Brett (1933 – 1955.) He portrayed Holmes from 1984 to 1994. After the first episode aired, critics and
Sherlockians began crowning Brett as the best Holmes ever. All the other actors can just take their
magnifying lenses and go home. Why was
Brett the best? Glad you asked. Here are
ten reasons why.
One: Just Look at Him
The public’s first visual interpretation of Holmes was done
by illustrator Sidney Paget. Brett and
the producers of The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes studied the original Paget drawings. Take a look at this comparison of Jeremy
Brett’s Holmes and the original Sidney Paget drawing of a key scene in “The
Naval Treaty.” They’re nearly
mirror-images of each other. Brett
helped choose his wardrobe in order to keep them as authentic as possible.
Two: I Mean, Just
LOOK at Him
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was amazed (and annoyed) by the huge
piles of fan mail that came not for him, but for Sherlock Holmes. Many were from women. Although Doyle wrote that Holmes sneered at
women, was a confirmed bachelor and celibate throughout his career, women were
magnetically attracted to him. Brett was
the first actor to capitalize on this sex appeal by adding a simmering volcanic
intensity to his performance. For
example, in “The Copper Beeches” his Holmes reaches out to stroke a governess’
hair – and then just as slowly withdraws his hand, like a snake sticking out
its tongue to taste the air.
Three: Sense of Humor
Until Brett’s Holmes hit the small screen in 1984, Sherlock
Holmes was considered a cold fish who rarely cracked a smile, let alone
laughed. However, Doyle portrayed Holmes
as often laughing. In “A Scandal in
Bohemia” Holmes laughs so hard that he “was obliged to lie back, limp and
helpless, in the chair.” Brett picked up
on that. His Holmes was still intense
and at times deadly serious, but he also was quick to laugh and even quicker to
flash a wide smile. His series also
added little comic touches not seen in the Doyle stories but keeping entirely
in Holmes’ character.
Four: Hand Motions
Brett was trained as a stage actor. One of his mentors was none other than Sir
Lawrence Olivier. Brett learned that
hand motions can tell the audience as much about a character as dialogue or
plot. Doyle also wrote that Holmes would
throw his hands about or leaned on them in contemplation. Brett developed an entire dictionary of hand
motions in order to show Holmes’ moods.
Five: Dealt With That
Darn Cocaine Addiction
Up until The
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the Great Detective’s cocaine addiction was
mostly ignored by stage and screen. (The
movie The Seven Percent Solution
(1976) was a notable exception.) However, Doyle wrote that Holmes injected
cocaine (then spelled “cocaine”) for most of his career. Brett showed his Holmes before and after
injecting. When he realized that
children were looking up to Holmes, he had his Holmes quit during the episode
“The Devil’s Foot.”
Six: Worked With
Doyle’s Daughter
Some scripts such as “The Devil’s Foot” were approved by
Dame Jean Conan Doyle, Doyle’s daughter.
One of Brett’s most prized possessions was a letter from her stating,
“You are the Sherlock Holmes of my childhood.”
Seven: Micromanaged
Most of the Series
When Grenada Studios hired Brett, they weren’t just hiring
an actor. They were also hiring a
scriptwriter, set designer, makeup artist, camera man, location spotter and
fact finder. In other words, Brett wound
up micromanaging the series from Day 1.
When the money and accolades started coming in, Grenada let him. When his health became very bad in the early
1990s, he finally decided to let the other people on the set make some
decisions.
Eight: Stayed in
Character Outside of the Set
Stories abound about Brett finding it difficult to switch
from being Holmes back to being Jeremy Brett.
Some actors would actually be shocked when Brett would switch from
himself to Holmes. Holmes was a stern
taskmaster and never suffered fools gladly.
Staff from the Manchester Hotel where the crew stayed during filming
claimed that they loved waiting on Brett but dreaded having to wait on Holmes.
Nine: He Helped Write
a Killer Sherlock Holmes Play
In honor of Holmes’ 100th anniversary, Brett
hired scriptwriter Jeremy Paul to write a play about the relationship between
Holmes and Watson. The first version of
the play was written by Brett himself.
It consisted of him talking into eight hours’ worth of cassette
tapes. Paul then whittled the play down
to two hours. The result, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, provides
a startling yet somewhat affectionate portrait of Holmes himself.
Ten: Brett Never
Thought He Did Any Good
Brett was never satisfied with his portrayal of Holmes,
although he would lash very defensively at critics of his work or of the series
in general. Brett would state in 1989
that Holmes was the hardest role he ever played, even harder than Macbeth. His Holmes evolved, unlike Doyle’s
Holmes. Doyle’s Holmes was a marble
statue and Brett was the cracks in the statue, making it even more precious
than when it was in pristine condition.
