Basil Rathbone(1892-1967)
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Basil Rathbone was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1892, but
three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his
father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when
Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones
escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice
and John, were raised. Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a
violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British
parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer
born in Liverpool. From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School,
where he was more interested in sports--especially fencing, at which he
excelled--than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in
the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a
profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try
working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting.
Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an
insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin
Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in
Stratford-on-Avon.
Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way
through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in
1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his
career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military
service, as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd
Battalion, he worked in intelligence and received the Military Cross
for bravery. In 1919, released from military service, he returned to
Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved
onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance
on Broadway and his film debut in the silent
Innocent (1921).
For the remainder of the decade Rathbone alternated between the London
and New York stages and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he
co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway
play called "Judas". Soon afterwards he abandoned his first love, the
theater, for a film career. During the 1920s his roles had evolved from
the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain
(usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during
the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including
Captain Blood (1935),
David Copperfield (1935),
A Tale of Two Cities (1935),
Anna Karenina (1935),
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935),
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938),
Tower of London (1939),
The Mark of Zorro (1940) and
others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor
as Tybalt in
Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as
King Louis XI in
If I Were King (1938).
However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most
popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with
Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, first in
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
and then in
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939),
which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over
the next seven years.
Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film
career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next
year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the
Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding
stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life,
Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows,
primarily drama, variety and game shows; in occasional films, such as
Casanova's Big Night (1954),
The Court Jester (1955),
Tales of Terror (1962) and
The Comedy of Terrors (1963);
and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with
which he toured the U.S.
three years later his family was forced to flee the country because his
father was accused by the Boers of being a British spy at a time when
Dutch-British conflicts were leading to the Boer War. The Rathbones
escaped to England, where Basil and his two younger siblings, Beatrice
and John, were raised. Their mother, Anna Barbara (George), was a
violinist, who was born in Grahamstown, South Africa, of British
parents, and their father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer
born in Liverpool. From 1906 to 1910 Rathbone attended Repton School,
where he was more interested in sports--especially fencing, at which he
excelled--than studies, but where he also discovered his interest in
the theater. After graduation he planned to pursue acting as a
profession, but his father disapproved and suggested that his son try
working in business for a year, hoping he would forget about acting.
Rathbone accepted his father's suggestion and worked as a clerk for an
insurance company--for exactly one year. Then he contacted his cousin
Frank Benson, an actor managing a Shakespearean troupe in
Stratford-on-Avon.
Rathbone was hired as an actor on the condition that he work his way
through the ranks, which he did quite rapidly. Starting in bit parts in
1911, he was playing juvenile leads within two years. In 1915 his
career was interrupted by the First World War. During his military
service, as a second lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish 2nd
Battalion, he worked in intelligence and received the Military Cross
for bravery. In 1919, released from military service, he returned to
Stratford-on-Avon and continued with Shakespeare but after a year moved
onto the London stage. The year after that he made his first appearance
on Broadway and his film debut in the silent
Innocent (1921).
For the remainder of the decade Rathbone alternated between the London
and New York stages and occasional appearances in films. In 1929 he
co-wrote and starred as the title character in a short-running Broadway
play called "Judas". Soon afterwards he abandoned his first love, the
theater, for a film career. During the 1920s his roles had evolved from
the romantic lead to the suave lady-killer to the sinister villain
(usually wielding a sword), and Hollywood put him to good use during
the 1930s in numerous costume romps, including
Captain Blood (1935),
David Copperfield (1935),
A Tale of Two Cities (1935),
Anna Karenina (1935),
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935),
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938),
Tower of London (1939),
The Mark of Zorro (1940) and
others. Rathbone earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor
as Tybalt in
Romeo and Juliet (1936) and as
King Louis XI in
If I Were King (1938).
However, it was in 1939 that Rathbone played his best-known and most
popular character, Sherlock Holmes, with
Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, first in
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
and then in
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939),
which were followed by 12 more films and numerous radio broadcasts over
the next seven years.
Feeling that his identification with the character was killing his film
career, Rathbone went back to New York and the stage in 1946. The next
year he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dr. Sloper in the
Broadway play "The Heiress," but afterwards found little rewarding
stage work. Nevertheless, during the last two decades of his life,
Rathbone was a very busy actor, appearing on numerous television shows,
primarily drama, variety and game shows; in occasional films, such as
Casanova's Big Night (1954),
The Court Jester (1955),
Tales of Terror (1962) and
The Comedy of Terrors (1963);
and in his own one-man show, "An Evening with Basil Rathbone", with
which he toured the U.S.