Basil Rathbone

Military service During the First World War (in 1915), Rathbone was called up via the Derby Scheme into the British Army as a private with the London Scottish Regiment, joining a regiment that also included his future professional acting contemporaries Claude Rains, Herbert Marshall and Ronald Colman at different points during the conflict. After basic training with the London Scots in early 1916, he received a commission as a lieutenant in the 2/10th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Scottish), where he served as an intelligence officer, eventually attaining the rank of captain.

Rathbone was a two-time British Army Fencing Champion; a skill that served him well in the movies, it allowed him to teach swordsmanship to actors Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power.

Rathbone was deeply affected by the news that his younger brother John, a captain in the Dorsetshire Regiment, had been killed in action near Arras on 4 June 1918. In 2012 two letters Rathbone wrote to his family while he was serving on the Western Front were published. One reveals the anguish and anger he felt following the death of John:

I want to tell him to mind his place. I think of his ridiculous belief that everything would always be well, his ever-hopeful smile, and I want to cuff him for a little fool. He had no business to let it happen and it maddens me that I shall never be able to tell him so, or change it or bring him back. I can't think of him without being consumed with anger at him for being dead and beyond anything I can do to him. — 26 July 1918

Following his brother's death, Rathbone appears to have become unconcerned about the dangers of serving at the front. Richard Van Emden in Famous 1914–18 speculates that his extreme bravery may have been a form of guilt or a need for vengeance. He persuaded his superiors to allow him to scout enemy positions during daylight rather than at night, as was the usual practice to minimise the chance of detection. Rathbone wore a special camouflage suit that resembled a tree with a wreath of freshly plucked foliage on his head, and with burnt cork applied to his hands and face. As a result of these highly dangerous daylight reconnaissance missions in September 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross for "conspicuous daring and resource on patrol".

Career Theatre

During the Summer Festival of 1919, he appeared at Stratford-upon-Avon with the New Shakespeare Company playing Romeo, Cassius, Ferdinand in The Tempest and Florizel in The Winter's Tale; in October he was at London's Queen's Theatre as the aide de camp in Napoleon, and in February 1920 he was at the Savoy Theatre in the title role in Peter Ibbetson with huge success.

During the 1920s, Rathbone appeared regularly in Shakespearean and other roles on the British stage. He began to travel and appeared at the Cort Theatre, New York City, in October 1923 in a production of Molnár's play The Swan opposite Eva Le Gallienne, which made him a star on Broadway. He toured in the United States in 1925, appearing in San Francisco in May and the Lyceum Theatre, New York, in October. He was in the US again in 1927 and 1930 and again in 1931, when he appeared on stage with Ethel Barrymore. He continued his stage career in Britain, returning late in 1934 to the US, where he appeared with Katharine Cornell in several plays.

Rathbone was once arrested in 1926 along with every other member of the cast of The Captive, a play in which his character's wife left him for another woman. Though the charges were eventually dropped, Rathbone was very angry about the censorship because he believed that homosexuality needed to be brought into the open.

Film He commenced his film career in Hollywood in 1921 in silent movies and appeared in 1923's The School for Scandal, and in The Masked Bride, plus a few other silents. His sound debut was in the first screen adaptation of Frederick Lonsdale's play opposite Norma Shearer, which was his last appearance as a romantic leading man. He portrayed detective Philo Vance in the 1930 film The Bishop Murder Case, based on the best-selling novel. In the film, there is a coincidental reference to Sherlock Holmes. Like George Sanders and Vincent Price after him, Rathbone made a name for himself in the 1930s by playing suave villains in costume dramas and swashbucklers, including as the abusive stepfather Mr. Murdstone; as her distant husband, Karenin; as Pontius Pilate; ; , as the Marquis St. Evremonde; The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) playing his best-remembered villain, Sir Guy of Gisbourne; The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938); and as Captain Esteban Pasquale. He also appeared in several early horror films: , as Richard III, and Son of Frankenstein (1939), portraying the dedicated surgeon Baron Wolf von Frankenstein, son of the monster's creator, and, in 1949, was also the narrator for the segment "The Wind in the Willows" in the Disney animated feature, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

He was admired for his athletic swordsmanship. (He listed fencing among his favourite recreations.) His character lost to Errol Flynn twice: in a duel on the beach in Captain Blood and in an elaborate fight sequence in The Adventures of Robin Hood. He was also involved in noteworthy sword fights in Tower of London, The Mark of Zorro, and The Court Jester. Rathbone earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performances as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as King Louis XI in If I Were King (1938). In , he played one of his few heroic roles in the 1930s, as a Royal Flying Corps (RFC) squadron commander brought to the brink of a nervous breakdown by the strain and guilt of sending his battle-weary pilots off to near-certain death in the skies of 1915 France. Errol Flynn, Rathbone's perennial foe, starred in the film as his successor when Rathbone's character is promoted.

According to Hollywood legend, Rathbone was Margaret Mitchell's first choice to play Rhett Butler in the film version of her novel Gone with the Wind. Rathbone actively campaigned for the role.

Despite his film success, Rathbone always insisted that he wished to be remembered for his stage career. He said that his favourite role was Romeo.

The Sherlock Holmes films

Rathbone is most widely recognised for his many portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. In a radio interview, Rathbone recalled that Twentieth Century-Fox producer and director Gene Markey, lunching with producer-director-actor Gregory Ratoff and 20th Century-Fox mogul Daryl Zanuck at Lucey's Restaurant in Hollywood, proposed a film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles. When asked who could possibly play Holmes, Markey incredulously replied, "Who?! Basil Rathbone!" The film was so successful that Fox produced a sequel that appeared later in 1939. Interest in Holmes cooled at Fox, but Universal Pictures picked up the character, and produced 12 Holmes features from 1942 to 1946. All of the Fox and Universal features co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.

The first two films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both produced by Fox in 1939), were set in the late Victorian times of the original stories. The later instalments, produced by Universal, beginning with Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), were set in contemporary times, with the first three having World War II-related plots.

Concurrent with the films, Rathbone and Bruce reprised their film roles in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which began in October 1939. Rathbone appeared in the radio series as long as the film series was active, but, after the films lapsed in 1946, Rathbone ceded his radio part to Tom Conway. Conway and Bruce carried on with the series for two seasons, until both dropped out in July 1947.

The many Holmes sequels typecast Rathbone, and he was unable to free himself from the shadow of the Great Detective, despite appearing in other film roles. Resenting the typecasting, Rathbone refused to renew his contract at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and returned to Broadway. In later years, Rathbone willingly made the Holmes association, as in a TV sketch with Milton Berle in the early 1950s, in which he donned the deerstalker cap and Inverness cape. In the 1960s, dressed as Holmes, he appeared in a series of TV commercials for Getz Exterminators ("Getz gets 'em, since 1888!'").

In 1953, Rathbone played the detective in The Adventure of the Black Baronet, an episode of the anthology television series Suspense. Later that year, he also brought Holmes to the stage in a play written by his wife Ouida. Thomas Gomez, who had appeared as a Nazi ringleader in Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, played the villainous Professor Moriarty. Nigel Bruce was slated to portray Dr Watson once more but became too ill and the part was played by character actor Jack Raine. Bruce's absence depressed Rathbone, particularly after Bruce died on 8 October 1953, while the play was in rehearsals. The play ran for only three performances.

Later career In the 1950s, Rathbone appeared in two spoofs of his earlier swashbuckling villains: Casanova's Big Night (1954) opposite Bob Hope and The Court Jester (1956) with Danny Kaye. He appeared frequently on TV game shows and continued to appear in major films, including the Humphrey Bogart comedy and John Ford's political drama .

Rathbone also appeared on Broadway numerous times in this period. In 1948, he shared the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as the unyielding Dr. Austin Sloper in the original production of The Heiress with Henry Fonda (for Mister Roberts) and Paul Kelly (for Command Decision). He also received accolades for his performance in Archibald Macleish's J.B., a modernisation of the Biblical trials of Job.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, he continued to appear in several dignified anthology programmes on television. To support his second wife's lavish tastes, he appeared as a panellist on the television game show The Name's the Same (in 1954), and took roles in cheap film thrillers of far lesser quality, such as The Black Sleep (1956), Queen of Blood (1966), The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966, wherein the character 'Eric Von Zipper' played by Harvey Lembeck jokes, "That guy looks like Sherlock Holmes"), Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967, also featuring Lon Chaney Jr and John Carradine), and his last film, a low-budget, horror film called Autopsy of a Ghost (1968).

He is also known for his spoken word recordings, including his interpretation of Clement C. Moore's "The Night Before Christmas". Rathbone's readings of the stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe are collected together with readings by Vincent Price in Caedmon Audio's The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection on CD.

In four Caedmon albums, Rathbone revisited his characterisation of Sherlock Holmes. The first, "The Speckled Band" (Caedmon Records TC 1172, recorded in 1963), is a straight narration of the tale. In the rest, he changes his voice for each character, including a rendition of Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.

Rathbone also made many other recordings, including Oliver Twist, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (with Leopold Stokowski conducting), and Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Basil Rathbone has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for films at 6549 Hollywood Boulevard; one for radio at 6300 Hollywood Boulevard; and one for television at 6915 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Personal life Rathbone married actress Ethel Marion Foreman (1887–1976) in 1914. They had one son. The couple divorced in 1926. In the same year, he married writer Ouida Bergère; their infant child died in 1928. In 1939, the couple adopted a daughter. The American actor Jackson Rathbone is a distant relation.

Rathbone bore a strong resemblance to his cousin, the actor Frank Benson. He was a first cousin once removed of the campaigning independent British MP Eleanor Rathbone.

During Rathbone's Hollywood career Ouida Rathbone, who was also her husband's business manager, developed a reputation for hosting elaborate and expensive parties in their home, with many prominent and influential people on the guest lists. This trend inspired a joke in The Ghost Breakers (1940), a film in which Rathbone does not appear: during a tremendous thunderstorm in New York City Bob Hope observes that "Basil Rathbone must be throwing a party." Actress Mrs Patrick Campbell described Rathbone as "two profiles pasted together". As cited in the same autobiography, Mrs Campbell later referred to him as "a folded umbrella taking elocution lessons".

Rathbone was a devout Anglican (or, in U.S. English, Episcopalian) and a member of the Episcopal Actors Guild.

Death Rathbone died suddenly of a heart attack in New York City on 21 July 1967 at the age of 75. His body was interred in a crypt in the Shrine of Memories Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes1921 Innocent Amadis de Jocelyn The Fruitful Vine Don Cesare Carelli 1923 The School for Scandal Joseph Surface The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots Bit part Uncredited 1924 Trouping with Ellen Tony Winterslip Lost film 1925 The Masked Bride Antoine 1926 The Great Deception Rizzio 1929 The Last of Mrs. Cheyney Lord Arthur Dilling 1930 The Bishop Murder Case Philo Vance This Mad World Paul Parisot A Notorious Affair Paul Gherardi The Flirting Widow Colonel John "Johnny" Vaughn-Smith The Lady of Scandal Edward, Duke of Warrington The Lady Surrenders Carl Vandry Sin Takes a Holiday Reginald "Reggie" Durant 1932 A Woman Commands Capt. Alex Pastitsch After the Ball Jack Harrowby 1933 One Precious Year Derek Nagel Loyalties Ferdinand de Levis 1935 David Copperfield Mr. Murdstone Anna Karenina Karenin The Last Days of Pompeii Pontius Pilate A Feather in Her Hat Captain Randolph Courtney Kind Lady Henry Abbott A Tale of Two Cities Marquis St. Evremonde Captain Blood Levasseur 1936 Private Number Thomas Wroxton Romeo and Juliet Tybalt Nominated–Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor The Garden of Allah Count Ferdinand Anteoni 1937 Love from a Stranger Gerald Lovell Confession Michael Michailow, aka Michael Koslov Make a Wish Johnny Selden Tovarich Commissar Dimitri Gorotchenko 1938 The Adventures of Marco Polo Ahmed The Adventures of Robin Hood Sir Guy of Gisbourne If I Were King King Louis XI Nominated–Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor The Dawn Patrol Major Brand 1939 Son of Frankenstein Baron Wolf von Frankenstein The Hound of the Baskervilles Sherlock Holmes The Sun Never Sets Clive Randolph The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes Rio Paul Reynard Tower of London Richard – Duke of Gloucester 1940 Rhythm on the River Oliver Courtney The Mark of Zorro Captain Esteban Pasquale 1941 The Mad Doctor Dr. George Sebastian The Black Cat Montague Hartley International Lady Reggie Oliver Paris Calling Andre Benoit 1942 Fingers at the Window Cesar Ferrari / Dr. H. Santelle Crossroads Henri Sarrou Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon 1943 Sherlock Holmes in Washington Above Suspicion Sig von Aschenhausen Sherlock Holmes Faces Death Sherlock Holmes Crazy House Cameo appearance The Spider Woman 1944 Bathing Beauty George Adams The Pearl of Death Sherlock Holmes The Scarlet Claw Frenchman's Creek Lord Rockingham1945 The House of Fear Sherlock Holmes The Woman in Green Pursuit to Algiers 1946 Terror by Night Heartbeat Professor Aristide Dressed to Kill Sherlock Holmes 1949 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad Narrator Segment: "The Wind in the Willows"1954 Casanova's Big Night Lucio / Narrator 1955 We're No Angels Andre Trochard The Court Jester Sir Ravenhurst 1956 The Black Sleep Sir Joel Cadman 1958 The Last Hurrah Norman Cass Sr. 1961 The Black Cat Voices Short film Mystic Prophecies and Nostradamus Narrator 1962 The Magic Sword Lodac Ponzio Pilato Caiaphas Tales of Terror Carmichael Segment: "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" Two Before Zero (aka Red Hell) Narrator 1963 The Comedy of Terrors John F. Black, Esq. 1965 Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet Prof. Hartman, Lunar 7 Dr. Rock and Mr. Roll 1966 Queen of Blood Dr. Farraday The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini Reginald Ripper 1967 Hillbillys in a Haunted House Gregor final film released during his lifetime 1968 Autopsia de un fantasma Canuto Perez final film role, released posthumously 1986 The Great Mouse Detective Sherlock Holmes archive sound, released posthumously

Television

Radio appearances Year Program Episode/source 1937 Lux Radio Theatre Captain Blood 1939–46 The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 1943 Lux Radio Theatre The Phantom of the Opera 1949 Tales of Fatima 1952 Theatre Guild on the Air Oliver Twist 1952 Theatre Guild on the Air The Winslow Boy

Stage credits