Basil Rathbone | |
|---|---|
 Rathbone in 1935 | |
| Born | Philip St. John Basil Rathbone (1892-06-13)13 June 1892 |
| Died | 21 July 1967(1967-07-21) (aged 75) New York City, US |
| Resting place | Ferncliff Cemetery Shrine of Memories,Hartsdale, New York, US |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1911–1967 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Sir Frank Benson (cousin) William Rathbone V (great-grandfather) |
| Family | Rathbone |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Service years | 1915–1918 |
| Rank |  Captain[1] |
| Unit | London Scottish Regiment Liverpool Scottish |
| Awards | |
Philip St. John Basil RathboneMC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was an English actor. Born in South Africa and raised inDerbyshire, he rose to prominence in the United Kingdom as aShakespearean 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 asMr. Murdstone inDavid Copperfield (1935), Tybalt inRomeo and Juliet (1936) andSir Guy of Gisbourne inThe Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). His most famous role was that ofSherlock Holmes infourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series.
Rathbone's later career included roles onBroadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. In 1948, he shared theTony Award for Best Actor in a Play with two others. He was also nominated for twoAcademy Awards and honoured with three stars on theHollywood Walk of Fame.
Rathbone was born on 13 June 1892, inJohannesburg,South African Republic.[2] He had English parents. His mother, Anna Barbara (née George), was a violinist, and his father, Edgar Philip Rathbone, was a mining engineer and scion of theLiverpoolRathbone 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 a descendant ofWilliam Rathbone II.[citation needed]
The Rathbones fled to Britain when Basil was three years old after his father was accused by theBoers of being a spy following theJameson Raid. Rathbone attendedRepton 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 the Liverpool and Globe Insurance Companies,[3] to appease his father's wish for him to have a conventional career.[4]
On 22 April 1911, Rathbone made his first appearance on stage at the Theatre Royal,Ipswich, Suffolk, as Hortensio inThe Taming of the Shrew, with his cousinSir Frank Benson's No. 2 Company, under the direction ofHenry Herbert. In October 1912, he went to the United States with Benson's company, playing roles such as Paris inRomeo and Juliet, Fenton inThe Merry Wives of Windsor, and Silvius inAs You Like It. Returning to Britain, he made his first appearance in London at theSavoy Theatre on 9 July 1914, as Finch inThe Sin of David. That December, he appeared at theShaftesbury Theatre as the Dauphin inHenry V. During 1915, he toured with Benson and appeared with him at London's Court Theatre in December as Lysander inA Midsummer Night's Dream.
During the First World War (in 1915), Rathbone was called up via theDerby Scheme into the British Army as a private with theLondon Scottish Regiment, joining a regiment that also included his future professional acting contemporariesClaude Rains,Herbert Marshall andRonald Colman at different points during 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 the rank ofcaptain.[5]
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 actorsErrol Flynn andTyrone Power.
Rathbone was deeply affected by the news that his younger brother John, a captain in theDorsetshire Regiment, had been killed in action nearArras on 4 June 1918.[6] In 2012 two letters Rathbone wrote to his family while he was serving on theWestern 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.
- — 26 July 1918[1]
Following his brother's death, Rathbone appears to have become unconcerned about the dangers of serving at the front.Richard Van Emden inFamous 1914–18 speculates that his extreme bravery may have been a form of guilt or a need for vengeance.[7] 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.[8] Rathbone wore a special camouflage suit that resembled a tree with a wreath of freshly plucked foliage on his head, and with burnt cork applied to his hands and face.[9] As a result of these highly dangerous daylight reconnaissance missions in September 1918 he was awarded theMilitary Cross for "conspicuous daring and resource on patrol".[10]
During the Summer Festival of 1919, he appeared atStratford-upon-Avon with the New Shakespeare Company playing Romeo, Cassius, Ferdinand inThe Tempest and Florizel inThe Winter's Tale; in October he was at London'sQueen's Theatre as the aide de camp inNapoleon, and in February 1920 he was at theSavoy Theatre in the title role inPeter 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 theCort Theatre, New York City, in October 1923 in a production ofMolnár's playThe Swan oppositeEva Le Gallienne, which made him a star on Broadway. He toured in the United States in 1925, appearing in San Francisco in May and theLyceum Theatre, New York, in October. He was in the US again in 1927 and 1930 and again in 1931, when he appeared on stage withEthel Barrymore. He continued his stage career in Britain,returning late in 1934 to the US, where he appeared withKatharine Cornell in several plays.
Rathbone was once arrested in 1926 along with every other member of the cast ofThe 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.[11][12]
He commenced his film career in Hollywood in 1921 in silent movies and appeared in 1923'sThe School for Scandal, and inThe Masked Bride, plus a few other silents. His sound debut was in the first screen adaptation ofFrederick Lonsdale's playThe Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929) oppositeNorma Shearer, which was his last appearance as a romantic leading man. He portrayed detectivePhilo Vance in the 1930 filmThe Bishop Murder Case, based on the best-selling novel. In the film, there is a coincidental reference to Sherlock Holmes. LikeGeorge Sanders andVincent Price after him, Rathbone made a name for himself in the 1930s by playing suave villains in costume dramas and swashbucklers, includingDavid Copperfield (1935) as the abusive stepfather Mr. Murdstone;Anna Karenina (1935) as her distant husband, Karenin;The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) asPontius 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, SirGuy of Gisbourne;The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938); andThe Mark of Zorro (1940) as Captain Esteban Pasquale. He also appeared in several early horror films:Tower of London (1939), asRichard III, andSon of Frankenstein (1939), portraying the dedicated surgeonBaron Wolf von Frankenstein, son ofthe 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 listedfencing among his favourite recreations.) His character lost toErrol Flynn twice: in a duel on the beach inCaptain Blood and in an elaborate fight sequence inThe Adventures of Robin Hood. He was also involved in noteworthy sword fights inTower of London,The Mark of Zorro, andThe Court Jester.Rathbone earnedAcademy Award nominations forBest Actor in a Supporting Role for his performances as Tybalt inRomeo and Juliet (1936) and as KingLouis XI inIf I Were King (1938). InThe Dawn Patrol (1938), he played one of his few heroic roles in the 1930s, as aRoyal Flying Corps (RFC) squadron commander brought to the brink of anervous 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 wasMargaret Mitchell's first choice to playRhett Butler in the film version of her novelGone with the Wind.[13] Rathbone actively campaigned for the role.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Rathbone is most widely recognised for his many portrayals ofSherlock Holmes. In a radio interview, Rathbone recalled thatTwentieth Century-Fox producer and directorGene Markey, lunching with producer-director-actorGregory Ratoff and 20th Century-Fox mogulDaryl Zanuck at Lucey's Restaurant in Hollywood, proposed a film version ofSir Arthur Conan Doyle'sThe 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, butUniversal Pictures picked up the character, and produced 12 Holmes features from 1942 to 1946.[14] All of the Fox and Universal features co-starredNigel Bruce asDr. Watson.
The first two films,The Hound of the Baskervilles andThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both produced by Fox in 1939), were set in the lateVictorian times of the original stories. The later instalments, produced by Universal, beginning withSherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror (1942), were set in contemporary times, with the first three having World War II-related plots.
Concurrent with the films, Rathbone and Bruce reprised their film roles in the radio seriesThe 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 toTom Conway. Conway and Bruce carried on with 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 atMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer and returned to Broadway. In later years, Rathbone willingly made the Holmes association, as in a TV sketch withMilton Berle in the early 1950s, in which he donned thedeerstalker cap andInverness cape. In the 1960s, dressed as Holmes, he appeared in a series of TV commercials for Getz Exterminators ("Getz gets 'em, since 1888!'").
In 1953, Rathbone played the detective inThe Adventure of the Black Baronet, an episode of the anthology television seriesSuspense. Later that year, he also brought Holmes to the stage in a play written by his wife Ouida.Thomas Gomez, who had appeared as aNazi ringleader inSherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, played the villainousProfessor Moriarty. Nigel Bruce was slated to portray Dr Watson once more but became too ill and the part was played by character actorJack 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) oppositeBob Hope andThe Court Jester (1956) withDanny Kaye. He appeared frequently on TV game shows and continued to appear in major films, including theHumphrey Bogart comedyWe're No Angels (1955) andJohn Ford's political dramaThe Last Hurrah (1958).
Rathbone also appeared on Broadway numerous times in this period. In 1948, he shared theTony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as the unyielding Dr. Austin Sloper in the original production ofThe Heiress and withHenry Fonda inMister Roberts andPaul Kelly inCommand Decision. He also received accolades for his performance inArchibald Macleish'sJ.B., a modernisation of the Biblical trials ofJob.
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 panellist on the television game showThe Name's the Same (in 1954), and took roles in cheap film thrillers of far lesser quality, such asThe Black Sleep (1956),Queen of Blood (1966),The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966, wherein the character 'Eric Von Zipper' played byHarvey Lembeck jokes, "That guy looks like Sherlock Holmes"),Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967, also featuringLon Chaney Jr andJohn Carradine), and his last film, a low-budget, horror film calledAutopsy of a Ghost (1968).
He is also known for his spoken word recordings, including his interpretation ofClement C. Moore's "The Night Before Christmas". Rathbone's readings of the stories and poems ofEdgar Allan Poe are collected together with readings byVincent Price inCaedmon Audio'sThe Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection on CD.
In four Caedmon albums, Rathbone revisited his characterisation 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 a rendition of Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.[15]
Rathbone also made many other recordings, includingOliver Twist,Prokofiev'sPeter and the Wolf (withLeopold Stokowski conducting), andCharles Dickens'sA Christmas Carol.[15]
On television, he appeared in two musical versions of Dickens'sA Christmas Carol: one in 1954, in which he playedMarley's Ghost oppositeFredric March's Scrooge, and the original 1956 live action version ofThe Stingiest Man in Town (1956), 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", a poem written by writer-criticVincent Starrett, one of the preeminent members of theBaker Street Irregulars whom Rathbone held in high regard.
Price and Rathbone appeared together, along withBoris Karloff, inTower of London (1939) andThe Comedy of Terrors (1963). The latter was the only film to feature the "Big Four" ofAmerican International Pictures' horror films: Price, Rathbone, Karloff andPeter Lorre. Rathbone appeared with Price in the final segment ofRoger Corman's 1962 anthology filmTales of Terror, a loose dramatisation of Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar".
In 1965, Belmont Books issued the anthologyBasil 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, 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, includingBoris Karloff.[16]
Basil Rathbone has three stars on theHollywood 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 a brief Hollywood career under the name John Rodion. The couple divorced in 1926. In the same year, he married writerOuida Bergère; their infant child died in 1928. In 1939, the couple adopted a daughter, Cynthia Rathbone (1939–1969). The American actorJackson Rathbone is a distant relation.[17]
Rathbone bore a strong resemblance to his cousin, the actorFrank Benson.[18] He was a first cousin once removed of the campaigning independent British MPEleanor 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 inThe Ghost Breakers (1940), a film in which Rathbone does not appear: during a tremendous thunderstorm in New York CityBob Hope observes that "Basil Rathbone must be throwing a party." ActressMrs Patrick Campbell described Rathbone as "two profiles pasted together".[19] As cited in the same autobiography, Mrs Campbell later referred to him as "a folded umbrella taking elocution lessons".[20]
Rathbone was a devout Anglican (or, in U.S. English, Episcopalian) and a member of the Episcopal Actors Guild.[21]
Rathbone died suddenly of 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 atFerncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.[22]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Season's Greetings | TV movie | |
| 1954 | Shower of Stars | Jacob Marley | Episode: "A Christmas Carol" |
| Schlitz Playhouse of Stars | General Lee | Episode: "The General's Boots" | |
| 1955 | Svengali and the Blonde | Svengali | TV movie |
| 1953 | The Alcoa Hour | Ebenezer Scrooge | Episode: "The Stingiest Man in Town"[23] |
| 1957 | The Lark | Chief Inquisitor | TV movie |
| 1958 | Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates | Dr. Boekman | TV movie |
| 1961 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Benjamin Disraeli | Episode: "Victoria Regina" |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
