The Many Watsons

By Kieran McMullen

There is always a healthy interest in the actors who have played the role of the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle also created the world's best known sidekick, Dr. John H. Watson. The men and women who played the role of stalwart ally is quite an eclectic gathering. Here is compiled a listing and discussion of some of the best known people who have played the part of Watson from the earliest days of silent film to the action heroes of the 21st century. All royalties from this book go towards the Undershaw Preservation Trust. Please visit facebook.com/saveundershaw and -like- to show your support.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MX Publishing
• Release date: Oct 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781780923048

Book preview

2012

Nigel Bruce

I thought it might be some fun to do a short profile of the many, many actors who have portrayed my favorite character. Such a project MUST start with the most famous Watson of all; Nigel Bruce.

Born William Nigel Bruce on Valentine’s Day 1895 in Ensenada, Mexico Bruce was an actual descendant of Robert the Bruce. His family was British aristocracy, his father a baronet and the title passing to his older brother Michael. His mother, Angelica, was the daughter of General George Selby, Royal Artillery. Bruce went by his nickname, Willie. Willie was educated in England at The Grange (sound familiar?), Stevenage and Abingdon School, Berkshire.

With the start of WWI, Willie received a commission and went to France with the 10th Service Battalion of the Somerset Light Infantry. While serving with the Honourable Artillery Company in 1915 he was wounded in the left leg (Hmmm... same leg as Watson!) at Cambrai and spent the rest of the war in a wheelchair. They pulled 11 bullets out of the leg which gave him problems the rest of his life. He started his acting career in 1919.

Bruce acted on the stage and in silent movies and finally came to Hollywood in 1934 where he appeared in 78 full length features. Besides acting he was an avid cricket player and captained the Hollywood Cricket Club. He was a prime member of the Hollywood Raj, a group of (mostly) British actors who worked and played together in the many British Empire type movies produced in the ’30s.

Of course, 1939 saw the teaming with Basil Rathbone for the famous 14 film Sherlock Holmes series. While the first two films: Hound of the Baskerville’s and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were fairly true to form, the next 12 were updated to the WWII period in which they were made. Bruce’s role as Watson became more comic relief than stalwart compatriot. And one must admit, that while not true to the Doyle character, Bruce was a truly great character and comic actor. Besides the 14 movies, Bruce and Rathbone reprised their roles in over 200 radio shows.

Bruce died of a heart attack, October 8th, 1953 in Santa Monica, California. He left behind a wife and two daughters. A great loss at an early age!

Forest Holger-Madsen

One of the interesting things about film and Sherlock Holmes is how quickly the Great Detective came to the screen. Holmes was born of pen in the very earliest days of attempts to bring the moving picture to audiences. Holmes is introduced to the world in Beeton’s Christmas Annual of 1887. In 1888 Thomas Edison met with Eadweard Muybridge, at Muybridge’s request. Muybridge asked Edison to combine the Zoopraxiscope (invented by Muybridge in 1879) which used a series of cameras to make moving pictures with Edison’s phonograph. Muybridge already saw the need for sound with his moving pictures. Edison turned down the venture but decided to develop a system that would take multiple pictures from one camera. By 1892 Edison’s Kinetoscope (from the Greek, meaning to watch movement) was in production. By 1905 Holmes was on the screen and by 1908 the Danish film company Nordisk was producing a series of Sherlock Holmes films. Nordisk was founded in 1906 by Ole Olsen and is still in business today.

At first the Sherlock Holmes series of films would be one reelers running about 11 to 14 minutes. And one of the earliest actors to play Holmes on the screen was Viggo Larsen. Larsen was born in 1880 in Copenhagen and would die there in 1957. His movie career included 87 films and he directed 60. He was active in the movie industry from 1906 until 1942. During that time he played Sherlock Holmes in a number of movies, including The Gray Lady (Den Graa Dame). The Grey lady was the sixth in the Nordisk Sherlock Holmes series and was directed by Larsen as well as being it’s star.

Our man Watson was played by Forest Holger-Madsen. Forest Holger-Madsen had previously appeared in two earlier Sherlock Holmes movies by Nordisk but each time he appeared as the villain: A.J. Raffles. The story line of the movie short The Gray Lady is that there is a ghostly gray lady who appears shortly before each victim’s death. Sherlock Holmes arrives on the scene and finds the very mortal culprit.

Forest Holger-Madsen was born in Copenhagen on 11 April 1878 and died on 30 November 1943. Holger-Madsen started his acting career in 1896 on the stage. The stage was always special to him and he returned to it frequently. In 1908 he made his film debut and by 1912 was not only acting but directing for Nordisk. This was a time when Nordisk was turning out 190 films a year, granted they were mostly one reelers, but Nordisk would be the company that some say invented the feature length film. Forest Holger-Madsen’s main achievement was not his acting but his directing. He was known for his use of camera angle, the close up shot and lighting effects.

H. Kyrle Bellew - First Film Watson

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom of 1905 is considered to be the first serious attempt at bringing Holmes to the big screen. In 1900 had been the short Sherlock Holmes Baffled, which is one of those early shorts that just don’t seem to make much sense. Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom was an adaptation of Doyle’s The Sign of Four by Theodore Liebler. It was also a one reel short. One Reelers, in the silent era ran between 11 and 14 minutes. Now how you can possibly complete The Sign of Four in 11 to 14 minutes is something I would love to see. Unfortunately, the movie is considered lost as no known print exists. There is, however, 14 feet of paper print in the Library of Congress and if I can ever get up that way it is one of my missions to find it.

There are only three known credits for the film: Maurice Costello as Sherlock Holmes, H. Kyrle Bellew as Watson, and J. Barney Sherry in an unnamed part. There is some dispute as to whether or not Costello really played the part of Holmes. In those days credits were not usually given and Costello never mentioned playing the part nor included it in his biography. In spite of this the conventional wisdom is that this was Costello’s first film outing. Costello would have an incredible 278 other film credits as well as 79 directorial outings in a lifetime that spanned from his birth in Pittsburgh in 1877 to his death in Hollywood in 1950. He was the first superstar of film. He made his stage depute as an Irish comic in vaudeville in 1894 and was the father of Dolores and Helene Costello and great-grandfather of Drew Barrymore. But most importantly, to any guy, is the fact that Costello discovered Moe Howard and gave him his first break in 1909!

Our Watson, H. Kyrle Bellew was one of those adventure filled lives of the 19th century. There are conflicting claims of where and when he was born. Some sources say 1850, some 1853 or 1855 or 1857. There are also tales that he was born in England or born in India. What can be established is that he was christened in England in May of 1850. His father was an Anglican preacher and his parents had a very unhappy marriage. They did go to India in the early 1850’s where his father sued for divorce in 1855 and returned to England with all four children. In 1866 Kyrle was sent to the training ship HMS Conway where he served for 2 years before shipping out for five more in the merchant marine. He eventually arrived in Australia where he worked as a laborer, gold miner, station hand and sign writer. Kyrle became a journalist and finally turned his hand to acting. Kyrle Bellew was now constantly traveling a circuit of Australia, England and the US and was a kind of matinee idol. He married in 1873 to a French actress named