Basil Rathbone

SIR BASIL RATHBONE d1967. South-African born British actor who rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor. He later went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers and occasionally horror films. He frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters including ; Murdstone in David Copperfield (1935) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938). His most famous role however was as the heroic Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939-1946. He died aged 75 from a heart attack in New York in 1967.