The The You can't keep your Benedict Cumberbatch. When it comes to

have played Sherlock Holmes, he can't hold a candle to Basil Rathbone.

Born June 13, 1892,

Rathbone played the world's greatest detective in 14 films and hundreds of radio episodes.

It's funny to think of such an upstanding hero as Sherlock Holmes played by one of the big screen's

most malevolent heavies, but Basil Rathbone was best known

for his villainous roles before he turned detective.

Just look at his Captain Pasquale and the Mark of Zorro, or the dastardly Sir Guy of Gisburn opposite Errol Flynn in the

Adventures of Robin Hood, just two of the parts that allowed him to show off his legendary

skills with a sword. You know it's been almost 80 years and

Hollywood still hasn't beaten the climactic duel between Flynn and Rathbone

from that movie. But Basil Rathbone was eager to try other things. He pursued the role of

Wret Butler and Gone With the Wind. Imagine for a second how that might have gone.

He won the part of Holmes in 1939 for the Hound of the Baskervilles.

The same year he and co-star Nigel Bruce came to radio in the new adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

For nearly a decade, Rathbone's acting career took up almost permanent

residence at Baker Street. Rathbone and Bruce were already great friends by the time they

started making the Holmes movies and their affection and

camaraderie is easy to see and hear in their performances.

Personally as much as I enjoy the Rathbone Holmes movies I think it's on radio where he really shines.

Mostly I prefer the radio show because it keeps Holmes in his era, moving around within his career

from his earliest cases to his retirement to tend his bees. I always find it

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