52-830: Philip St. John Basil Rathbone MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was an Anglo-South African actor. He rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers , and, occasionally, horror films. Rathbone frequently portrayed suave villains or morally ambiguous characters, such as Mr. Murdstone in David Copperfield (1935), Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His most famous role
104-653: A lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force . The rank of captain in the Royal Navy is considerably more senior (equivalent to the Army/RM rank of colonel) and the two ranks should not be confused. In the 21st-century British Army, captains are often appointed to be second-in-command (2IC) of a company or equivalent sized unit of up to 120 soldiers. A rank of second captain existed in
156-463: 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
208-414: A brief Hollywood career under the name John Rodion. The couple divorced in 1926. In the same year, he married writer Ouida Bergère ; their infant child died in 1928. In 1939, the couple adopted a daughter, Cynthia Rathbone (1939–1969). The American actor Jackson Rathbone is a distant relation. Rathbone bore a strong resemblance to his cousin, the actor Frank Benson . He was a first cousin once-removed of
260-554: A descendant of William Rathbone II . The Rathbones fled to Britain when Basil was three years old after his father was accused by the Boers of being a spy following the Jameson Raid . Rathbone attended Repton School in Derbyshire from 1906 to 1910, where he excelled at sports and was given the nickname "Ratters" by schoolmates. Thereafter, he was briefly employed as an insurance clerk by
312-470: A few other silents. His sound debut was in the first screen adaptation of Frederick Lonsdale 's play 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 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
364-505: 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. All of
416-682: A heart attack in New York City on 21 July 1967 at the age of 75. His body was interred in a crypt in the Shrine of Memories Mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Military Cross The Military Cross ( MC ) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces , and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC
468-530: A modernisation of the Biblical trials of 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
520-883: A name for himself in the 1930s by playing suave villains in costume dramas and swashbucklers, including David Copperfield (1935) as the abusive stepfather Mr. Murdstone; Anna Karenina (1935) as her distant husband, Karenin; The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) as Pontius Pilate ; Captain Blood (1935); 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 The Mark of Zorro (1940) as Captain Esteban Pasquale. He also appeared in several early horror films: Tower of London (1939), as Richard III , and Son of Frankenstein (1939), portraying
572-579: 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) 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
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#1732870102416624-640: A private with the London Scottish Regiment , joining a regiment that also included his future professional acting contemporaries Claude Rains , Herbert Marshall and Ronald Colman at different points through the conflict. After basic training with the London Scots in early 1916, he received a commission as a lieutenant in the 2/10th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment ( Liverpool Scottish ), where he served as an intelligence officer, eventually attaining
676-459: A rendition of Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson. 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 . 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
728-758: A star on Broadway. He toured in the United States in 1925, appearing in San Francisco in May and the 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
780-484: A tremendous thunderstorm in New York City, Bob Hope observed that "Basil Rathbone must be throwing a party". Actress Mrs Patrick Campbell described Rathbone as "two profiles pasted together". As cited in the same autobiography, Mrs Campbell later referred to him as "a folded umbrella taking elocution lessons". He was a devout Episcopalian and a member of the Episcopal Actors Guild. Rathbone died suddenly of
832-818: A wreath of freshly plucked foliage on his head with burnt cork applied to his hands and face. As a result of these highly dangerous daylight reconnaissance missions in September 1918, he was awarded the Military Cross for "conspicuous daring and resource on patrol". 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
884-715: Is granted in recognition of "an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy on land" to all members of the British Armed Forces of any rank. In 1979, Queen Elizabeth II approved a proposal that a number of awards, including the Military Cross, could be recommended posthumously. The award was created on 28 December 1914 for commissioned officers of the substantive rank of captain or below and for warrant officers . The first 98 awards were gazetted on 1 January 1915, to 71 officers, and 27 warrant officers. Although posthumous recommendations for
936-604: The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross . The Military Cross was designed by Henry Farnham Burke , while its ribbon was created by Victoria Ponsonby, Baroness Sysonby . In the Medal Yearbook 2015 it is described as follows: Since 1914, over 52,000 Military Crosses and 3,717 bars have been awarded. The dates below reflect the relevant London Gazette entries: In addition, approximately 375 MCs have been awarded since 1979, including awards for Northern Ireland ,
988-507: The Crimean War a new rank system was introduced which contained the first complete rank insignia in British Army history. A captain's rank insignia was worn on the collar and displayed a crown and a pip (which is now the rank insignia for a lieutenant-colonel). The rank insignia were returned to the shoulder boards in 1880 for all officers in full dress , when the system of crowns and stars
1040-620: The Falklands , and the wars in the Persian Gulf , Iraq , and Afghanistan . The above table includes awards to the Dominions: Captain (British Army and Royal Marines) Captain ( Capt ) is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines and in both services it ranks above lieutenant and below major with a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to
1092-844: The Humphrey Bogart comedy We're No Angels (1955) and John Ford 's political drama 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 with Henry Fonda in Mister Roberts and Paul Kelly in Command Decision . He also received accolades for his performance in Archibald Macleish 's J.B. ,
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#17328701024161144-830: The Savoy Theatre on 9 July 1914, as Finch in The Sin of David . That December, he appeared at the Shaftesbury Theatre as the Dauphin in Henry V . During 1915, he toured with Benson and appeared with him at London's Court Theatre in December as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream . During the First World War (in 1915), Rathbone was called up via the Derby Scheme into the British Army as
1196-664: The Western Front were published. One reveals the anguish and anger he felt following the death of John: I want to tell him to mind his place. I think of his ridiculous belief that everything would always be well, his ever-hopeful smile, and I want to cuff him for a little fool. He had no business to let it happen and it maddens me that I shall never be able to tell him so, or change it or bring him back. I can't think of him without being consumed with anger at him for being dead and beyond anything I can do to him. Following his brother's death, Rathbone appears to have become unconcerned about
1248-534: The 1993 review of the honours system , as part of the drive to remove distinctions of rank in awards for bravery the Military Medal , formerly the third-level decoration for other ranks , was discontinued. The MC is now the third-level award for all ranks of the British Armed Forces for "exemplary gallantry" on land, not to the standard required to receive the Victoria Cross (for "the most conspicuous bravery") or
1300-521: The British campaigning independent MP Eleanor Rathbone . During Rathbone's Hollywood career, Ouida Rathbone, who was also her husband's business manager, developed a reputation for hosting elaborate and expensive parties in their home, with many prominent and influential people on the guest lists. This trend inspired a joke in The Ghost Breakers (1940), a film in which Rathbone does not appear: during
1352-559: The Cross were entitled to use the post-nominal letters MC, and bars could be awarded for further acts of gallantry meriting the award, with a silver rosette worn on the ribbon when worn alone to denote the award of each bar. From September 1916, members of the Royal Naval Division , who served alongside the Army on the Western Front , were made eligible for military decorations, including
1404-511: The Fox and Universal features co-starred Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson . The first two films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both produced by Fox in 1939), were set in the late 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
1456-537: 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
1508-1045: The Liverpool and Globe Insurance Companies, to appease his father's wish for him to have a conventional career. On 22 April 1911, Rathbone made his first appearance on stage at the Theatre Royal, Ipswich , Suffolk , as Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew , with his cousin Sir Frank Benson 's No. 2 Company, under the direction of Henry Herbert . In October 1912, he went to the United States with Benson's company, playing roles such as Paris in Romeo and Juliet , Fenton in The Merry Wives of Windsor , and Silvius in As You Like It . Returning to Britain, he made his first appearance in London at
1560-527: The Military Cross were unavailable until 1979, the first awards included seven posthumous awards, with the word 'deceased' after the name of the recipient, from recommendations that had been raised before the recipients died of wounds or died from other causes. Awards are announced in The London Gazette , apart from most honorary awards to allied forces in keeping with the usual practice not to gazette awards to foreigners. From August 1916, recipients of
1612-403: The Military Cross, for the war's duration. Naval officers serving with the division received 140 MCs and eight second award bars. In June 1917, eligibility was extended to temporary majors , not above the substantive rank of captain. Substantive majors were made eligible in 1953. In 1931, the award was extended to equivalent ranks in the Royal Air Force for actions on the ground. After
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1664-634: The Ordnance at the time of the Battle of Waterloo . From 1 April 1918 to 31 July 1919, the Royal Air Force maintained the junior officer rank of captain. RAF captains had a rank insignia based on the two bands of a naval lieutenant with the addition of an eagle and crown above the bands. It was superseded by the rank of flight lieutenant on the following day. Badges of rank for captains were introduced on 30 January 1855 and were worn on shoulder epaulettes. After
1716-659: The Second World War, most Commonwealth countries created their own honours system and no longer recommended British awards. The last Military Cross awards for the Canadian Army were for Korea. The last four Australian Army Military Cross awards were promulgated in The London Gazette on 1 September 1972 for Vietnam as was the last New Zealand Army Military Cross award, which was promulgated on 25 September 1970. Canada , Australia and New Zealand have now created their own gallantry awards under their own honours systems. Since
1768-637: 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. 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
1820-634: The Wind . Rathbone actively campaigned for the role. 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. 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
1872-478: The asparagus bed) was used at first but this was replaced in the same year by a combination of narrow rings of worsted braid around the cuff, with the full-dress style shoulder badges on a three-pointed cuff flap. Based on equivalent naval ranks, captains had two rings of braid. In the case of Scottish regiments, the rings were around the top of the gauntlet-style cuff and the badges on the cuff itself. During World War I, some officers took to wearing similar jackets to
1924-633: 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 . 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. Rathbone married actress Ethel Marion Foreman (1887–1976) in 1914. They had one son, Rodion Rathbone (1915–1996), who had
1976-412: 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
2028-453: The dangers of serving at the front. Author Richard Van Emden in Famous 1914–18 speculates that his extreme bravery may have been a form of guilt or need for vengeance. He persuaded his superiors to allow him to scout enemy positions during daylight rather than at night, as was the usual practice to minimise the chance of detection. Rathbone wore a special camouflage suit that resembled a tree with
2080-710: The dedicated surgeon Baron Wolf von Frankenstein , son of 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
2132-424: 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,
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2184-410: 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
2236-436: The original 1956 live action version of The Stingiest Man In Town , 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",
2288-435: The rank of captain . Rathbone was a two-time British Army Fencing Champion; a skill that served him well in the movies, it allowed him to teach swordsmanship to actors Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power . Rathbone was deeply affected by the news his younger brother John, a captain in the Dorsetshire Regiment , had been killed in action near Arras on 4 June 1918. In 2012, two letters Rathbone wrote to his family while serving on
2340-409: 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
2392-428: 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
2444-453: Was also involved in noteworthy sword fights in Tower of London , The Mark of Zorro , and The Court Jester . Rathbone earned Academy Award nominations for 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 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
2496-454: Was at London's 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 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 Cort Theatre , New York , in October 1923 in a production of Molnár 's play The Swan opposite Eva Le Gallienne , which made him
2548-458: Was born on 13 June 1892 in Johannesburg , South African Republic , to British parents. His mother, Anna Barbara ( née George), was a violinist, and his father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer and scion of the Liverpool Rathbone family . He had two older half-brothers, Harold and Horace, as well as two younger siblings, Beatrice and John. Basil was the great-grandson of the noted Victorian philanthropist, William Rathbone V , and thus
2600-472: Was once arrested in 1926 along with every other member of the cast of 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. He commenced his film career in Hollywood in 1921 in silent movies and appeared in 1923's The School for Scandal , and in The Masked Bride , plus
2652-418: Was reorganised. From this time, until 1902, a captain had just two stars. The 1902 change gave captains three stars, which continues to be used. In addition to the shoulder badges, officers' ranks were also reflected in the amount and pattern of gold lace worn on the cuffs of the full-dress tunic. From 1902, a complex system of markings with bars and loops in thin drab braid above the cuff (known irreverently as
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#17328701024162704-413: Was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. Rathbone's later career included roles on Broadway , as well as self-ironic film and television work. In 1948, he shared the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play with two others. He was also nominated for two Academy Awards and honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame . Rathbone
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