Editing Basil Rathbone (section)

==Career==
=== Theatre ===
[[File:Rathbone-Barretts-of-Wimpole-Street.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Rathbone as [[Robert Browning]] in [[Katharine Cornell]]'s 1933–1934 touring production of ''[[The Barretts of Wimpole Street]]'']]

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 [[Sondheim Theatre|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 (play)|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 [[James Earl Jones Theatre|Cort Theatre]], [[New York City|New York]], in October 1923 in a production of [[Ferenc Molnár|Molnár]]'s play ''[[The Swan (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 (Broadway)|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 (play)|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://outhistory.org/wiki/New_York_Times:_Reaction_to_%22The_Captive%22,_1926-1927 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415190819/http://outhistory.org/wiki/New_York_Times:_Reaction_to_%22The_Captive%22,_1926-1927 |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 April 2013 |title=The New York Times: Reaction to 'The Captive', 1926–1927 – OutHistory |work=outhistory.org |year=2012 |access-date=25 September 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.basilrathbone.net/biography/ |title=Basil Rathbone, Master of Stage and Screen: Biography |publisher=Basilrathbone.net |access-date=2014-08-23}}</ref>
[[File:Romeo and Juliet lobby card 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|With [[John Barrymore]] and [[Leslie Howard]] in ''Romeo and Juliet'', 1936]]

=== Film ===
He commenced his film career in Hollywood in 1921 in silent movies and appeared in 1923's ''{{film year|The School for Scandal|1923}}'', and in ''[[The Masked Bride]]'', plus a few other silents. His sound debut was in the first screen adaptation of [[Frederick Lonsdale]]'s play {{film show year|The Last of Mrs. Cheyney|1929}} opposite [[Norma Shearer]], which was his last appearance as a romantic leading man. He portrayed detective [[Philo Vance]] in the 1930 film ''{{film year|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 {{film show year|David Copperfield|1935}} as the abusive stepfather Mr. Murdstone; {{film show year|Anna Karenina|1935}} as her distant husband, Karenin; {{film show year|The Last Days of Pompeii|1935}} as [[Pontius Pilate]]; {{film show year|Captain Blood|1935}}; {{film show year|A Tale of Two Cities|1935}}, 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 {{film show year|The Mark of Zorro|1940}} as Captain Esteban Pasquale. He also appeared in several early horror films: {{film show year|Tower of London|1939}}, as [[Richard III of England|Richard III]], and ''[[Son of Frankenstein]]'' (1939), portraying the dedicated surgeon [[Wolf Frankenstein|Baron Wolf von Frankenstein]], son of [[Frankenstein's monster|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 Awards|Academy Award]] nominations for [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|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 {{film show year|The Dawn Patrol|1938}}, 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 (novel)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AFI{{!}}Catalog |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/1181 |access-date=2024-10-12 |website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref> Rathbone actively campaigned for the role.{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}}

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.{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}}

===The Sherlock Holmes films===
[[File:Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes.jpeg|thumb|Basil Rathbone as [[Sherlock Holmes]]]]
{{main article|Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)}}
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.<ref>''Motion Picture Herald'', 2 Feb. 1946, p. 41.</ref> All of the Fox and Universal features co-starred [[Nigel Bruce]] as [[Dr. Watson]].

The first two films, ''{{film year|The Hound of the Baskervilles|1939}}'' and ''{{film year|The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes}}'' (both produced by Fox in 1939), were set in the late [[Victorian era|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!'").

Rathbone 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 {{film show year|We're No Angels|1955}} and [[John Ford]]'s political drama {{film show year|The Last Hurrah|1958}}.

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 (1947 play)|The Heiress]]'' with [[Henry Fonda]] in ''[[Mister Roberts (play)|Mister Roberts]]'' and [[Paul Kelly (actor)|Paul Kelly]] in ''[[Command Decision (play)|Command Decision]]''. He also received accolades for his performance in [[Archibald Macleish]]'s ''[[J.B. (play)|J.B.]]'', a modernisation of the Biblical trials of [[Job (Biblical figure)|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 panelist 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 characterization 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.<ref name=BRR1>{{cite web | url=http://www.basilrathbone.net/recordings | title=Recordings made by Basil Rathbone | publisher=basilrathbone.net | access-date=10 November 2019 }}</ref>

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]]''.<ref name=BRR1 />

On television, he appeared in two musical versions of Dickens's ''A Christmas Carol'': one in 1954, in which he played [[Marley's Ghost]] opposite [[Fredric March]]'s Scrooge, and the original 1956 live action version of ''[[The Stingiest Man in Town (1956)]]'', in which he starred as a singing Ebenezer Scrooge.

In the 1960s, he toured with a one-man show, ''In and Out of Character'' (the same title as his autobiography). He recited poetry and Shakespeare, accented by reminiscences from his life and career (including the humorous, "I could have killed Errol Flynn any time I wanted to!"). As an encore, he recited "221B", a poem written by writer-critic [[Vincent Starrett]], one of the preeminent members of the [[Baker Street Irregulars]] whom Rathbone held in high regard.

Price and Rathbone appeared together, along with [[Boris Karloff]], in ''[[Tower of London (1939 film)|Tower of London]]'' (1939) and ''[[The Comedy of Terrors]]'' (1963). The latter was the only film to feature the "Big Four" of [[American International Pictures]]' horror films: Price, Rathbone, Karloff and [[Peter Lorre]]. Rathbone appeared with Price in the final segment of [[Roger Corman]]'s 1962 anthology film ''[[Tales of Terror]]'', a loose dramatisation of Poe's "[[The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar]]".

In 1965, Belmont Books issued the anthology ''Basil Rathbone Selects Strange Tales'', a collection of horror stories by Poe, Hawthorne, Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Dickens, Allston Collins, Le Fanu, and Wilkie Collins. The volume features a cover portrait of Rathbone; however, the back cover's legend "Produced by Lyle Kenyon Engel" indicates the anthology probably was not edited by Rathbone. Canadian editor and book packager Engel packaged shows and magazines for other horror stars, including [[Boris Karloff]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/engel_lyle_kenyon|title=Authors : Engel, Lyle Kenyon : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia|website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

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.