Today is Basil Rathbone's birthday!
He was so frequently typecast as a villain that he literally
jumped at his first opportunity to play Sherlock
Holmes, "for once, I got to beat the bad guy instead of play
him."
Rathbone played the legendary heroic detective more than any
other character in his career. By 1946, he had become so sick
of the role that he quit his Sherlock Holmes film series and temporarily
returned to the Broadway stage. During the course of his career he played the super sleuth in 16 films and over 200 radio plays.
He is considered the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history,
superior to on-screen foes Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power. Because he was so frequently cast as the villain, he won only two
on-screen duels in his career - as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliette (1936),
for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and as Captain Esteban Pascuale
against the friar (Eugene Pallette), who was so outclassed by "the
Capitan" he was harmlessly disarmed in a matter of seconds, in "The Mark
of Zorro" (1940).
His last, filmed when the actor was 63, was with
Danny Kaye in "The Court Jester " (1955), is considered by some the
best sword fight ever filmed.
He was so frequently typecast as a villain that he literally
jumped at his first opportunity to play Sherlock
Holmes, "for once, I got to beat the bad guy instead of play
him."
Rathbone played the legendary heroic detective more than any
other character in his career. By 1946, he had become so sick
of the role that he quit his Sherlock Holmes film series and temporarily
returned to the Broadway stage. During the course of his career he played the super sleuth in 16 films and over 200 radio plays.
He is considered the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history,
superior to on-screen foes Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power. Because he was so frequently cast as the villain, he won only two
on-screen duels in his career - as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliette (1936),
for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and as Captain Esteban Pascuale
against the friar (Eugene Pallette), who was so outclassed by "the
Capitan" he was harmlessly disarmed in a matter of seconds, in "The Mark
of Zorro" (1940).
His last, filmed when the actor was 63, was with
Danny Kaye in "The Court Jester " (1955), is considered by some the
best sword fight ever filmed.
He is considered the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, superior to on-screen foes Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power. Because he was so frequently cast as the villain, he won only two on-screen duels in his career - as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliette (1936), for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and as Captain Esteban Pascuale against the friar (Eugene Pallette), who was so outclassed by "the Capitan" he was harmlessly disarmed in a matter of seconds, in "The Mark of Zorro" (1940).
His last, filmed when the actor was 63, was with Danny Kaye in "The Court Jester " (1955), is considered by some the best sword fight ever filmed.
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