Editing Basil Rathbone (section)

===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.