Actors - Basil Rathbone

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	Actors - Basil Rathbone

Basil Rathbone (13 June, 1892 – 21 July, 1967) was an English actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and swashbuckler film villain roles.

Early Life

He was born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone in Johannesburg, South Africa, a son of Edgar Philip Rathbone and Anna Barbara George. His younger sister and brother were Beatrice Rathbone and John Rathbone.

Personal Life

Rathbone was married to actress Marion Foreman (married 1914 - divorced 1926), was involved briefly with actress Eva Le Gallienne during his first marriage (surprising since Le Gallienne was a lesbian), and was married to writer Ouida Bergere (married 1927 - his death 1967).

He and Foreman had one son, Rodion Rathbone, and he and Bergere had one adopted daughter, Cynthia Rathbone.

He died of a heart attack, aged 75, at his home in New York City. He is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

Career

During the 1920s, Rathbone appeared in Shakespearean roles on the British stage. He was in a few silent movies, and played detective Philo Vance in the 1929 movie The Bishop Murder Case.

Rathbone became famous for playing suave villains in many swashbucklers of the 1930s, including David Copperfield (1935), Anna Karenina
(1935), The Last Days of Pompeii
(1935), Captain Blood
(1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) Tower of London (1939 film)
(1939), and The Mark of Zorro
(1940).

He was most notable for his starring roles in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies. To many fans, Basil Rathbone was born to play Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous London detective.

He also starred as Holmes with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson in an old-time radio mystery series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939 - 1946), and did numerous other radio broadcasts.

He was admired for his athletic cinema swordsmanship, particularly in the duel on the beach in Captain Blood
and as Sir Guy of Guisborne in the long fight scene in The Adventures of Robin Hood. Other noteworthy sword fights appear in The Mark of Zorro
and The Court Jester
(1956). The latter duplicates a scene in the former where Rathbone slices a candle in two and leaves it burning.

Basil Rathbone earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and another nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance of King Louis XI in If I Were King
(1938).

It was in 1939 that Rathbone first starred as Sherlock Holmes, in The Hound of the Baskervilles
. Unfortunately, the many sequels typecast him (he gained the nickname 'Razzle Bathrobe') and he was unable to break out of the stereotype, except in certain spoofs of his earlier swashbuckling villains in such movies as Casanova's Big Night
(1954) and The Court Jester
(1956).

Rathbone also acted on Broadway numerous times. In 1948, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in Play for his performance of the unyielding Dr. Austin Sloper in the original production of The Heiress (played by Sir Ralph Richardson in the film version, which won Olivia de Havilland one of her two Oscars).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Basil Rathbone ]

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Actors - Basil Rathbone

Early Life

Personal Life

Career

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