Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Holmes has broken the record for having more film and TV portrayals than any other literary character.
 The consulting detective has been depicted on the big and small screen a total of 254 times.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation beats the next most popular character, Hamlet, by a total of 48 appearances.

Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes in The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939). The literary character has been portrayed a record-breaking 254 times on film and TV

Benedict Cumberbatch in BBC's series Sherlock

Peter Cushing in The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1958)

Ian Richardson in The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1983)

Jeremy Brett in the 1980s' Sherlock Holmes TV series

Michael Caine in the comedy film Without A Clue (1988)

Christopher Lee in Holmes And The Deadly Necklace (1962)

Roger Moore in Sherlock Holmes In New York (1976), with Patrick Macnee (right) as Watson

Shakespeare’s prince of Denmark has been portrayed 206 times.

In the past couple of years alone, Holmes has been portrayed by Cumberbatch in the Bafta-winning BBC series and by Downey Jr in two Hollywood blockbusters.

 

Previous incarnations include Basil Rathbone in several US films mostly made in the 1940s, and Jeremy Brett in more than 40 ITV adaptations in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

Whereas Brett's work stayed faithful to the canon, Rathbone's war-time plots stretched beyond Conan Doyle's stories and had him thwarting Nazis, among others.
 

Robert Stephens in The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

John Barrymore in Sherlock Holmes (1922)

Richard Roxburgh in The Hound Of The Baskervilles (2002)

Robert Downey Jr (centre) in Guy Ritchie's film Sherlock Holmes (2009), with Jude Law and Rachel McAdams (also pictured)

Edward Woodward in Hands Of A Murderer (1990)

Clive Brook as Sherlock Holmes in the 1930s

Rupert Everett in The Case Of The Silk Stocking (2004)

Tom Baker as Holmes in TV mini-series The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1982), with Terence Rigby (left) as Dr Watson

Arthur Conan Doyle's character made his debut in the 1887 novel A Study In Scarlet and became a hit

Conan Doyle’s character made his debut in the 1887 novel A Study In Scarlet and went on to become a hit with the reading public.

His first depiction on screen is believed to be in a 30-second silent movie, Sherlock Holmes Baffled, which appeared in the US in the 1890s.

He has since been played by more than 75 actors.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2146091/Sherlock-Holmes-portrayed-literary-character-TV-film.html#ixzz1vFNP8Pz1