Douglas Wilmer

Douglas Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016)[1] was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the 1965 TV series Sherlock Holmes.

Douglas Wilmer
as Sherlock Holmes (1965)
Born(1920-01-08)8 January 1920
Brentford, Middlesex, England
Died31 March 2016(2016-03-31) (aged 96)
Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Years active1945–2012
Spouse(s)Elizabeth Joan Melville (m. 1946–?)
Anne Harding (m. 1985–2016, his death)

Early life

Wilmer was born in Brentford, Middlesex,[2] and received his education at King's School, Canterbury, and Stonyhurst College. A performance as the Archbishop of Canterbury in a school play at King's School was seen by Dame Sybil Thorndike who afterward told the headmaster "If that boy, playing the Archbishop, were to take to the stage, I think that he could well make a go of it."[3] After completing school, Wilmer applied for a scholarship at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted.[3] Whilst in training RADA, he was conscripted into the British Army for military service with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War. After training, he was posted to an anti-tank battery, and saw war service in Africa with the Royal West African Frontier Force. He was later invalided out of the Armed Forces, having contracted tuberculosis.[3]

Career

Wilmer made his theatre stage debut in 1945 in repertory at Rugby.[3] He appeared frequently on the London stage, mainly in classical and Shakespearean roles. He made his first major film appearance in Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955);[3] thereafter, he appeared in a large number of films, mostly in supporting roles. They include several epic films: as M. Desmoulins in The Battle of the River Plate (1956), as Al-Mu'tamin in El Cid (1961), Cleopatra (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), as Khalifa Abdullah in Khartoum (1966), as Maj. Gen. Francis de Guingand in Patton (1970), as Sir Thomas Fairfax in Cromwell (1970), and Antony and Cleopatra (1972). Other appearances include Jason and the Argonauts (1963) as Pelias, the Pink Panther films A Shot in the Dark (1964) and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978), The Vampire Lovers (1970), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974), and Octopussy (1983).

He is mainly associated with the role of Sherlock Holmes, which he first played in the BBC's 1964 production of "The Speckled Band". Together with co-star Nigel Stock, who played Doctor Watson, Wilmer was brought back for a further twelve episodes of the Sherlock Holmes series. In 1973, Wilmer played author Jacques Futrelle's Holmesian detective Professor Van Dusen in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes for ITV. In 1975, he once again appeared as Holmes (albeit in a supporting role) in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Wilmer also played Sir Denis Nayland Smith in two of Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu films, The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967).[4]

He recorded a series of the stories on audiocassette for Penguin audio books[3] and appeared as a guest at several UK and US events, including the Society's Golden Jubilee Dinner in January 2001.[5] His other television credits include: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Saint, The Troubleshooters, The Avengers, The Baron, UFO, and Space: 1999. He made a cameo appearance in "The Reichenbach Fall" episode of Sherlock as an irate old man in the Diogenes Club.[5][1]

Honours and awards

Wilmer was an honorary member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London,[1][5] which considered Wilmer "the definitive Holmes".[3] On 24 March 2009 Wilmer was guest of honour at a launch party for his book, held at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall Place, London.

Personal life and death

Douglas Wilmer was married three times.[6] In 1946, he married Elizabeth Melville, a fellow RADA student, their marriage was annulled after 25 years.[7] His second marriage in 1973 to wife Barbara ended in a divorce.[7] He married his third wife, Anne (née Harding) in 1985.[7] He lived in Woodbridge, Suffolk.[3] in later life, where he ran a wine bar called Sherlock's.[8]

Wilmer's autobiography Stage Whispers (Porter Press, ISBN 978-0-9556564-9-1) was published in 2010.[1][3] On 31 March 2016, after a short bout of pneumonia, Wilmer died aged 96 at Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, England.[4][1] Roger Moore posted a tribute on social media the same day that Wilmer had died; the actors had worked together in the James Bond feature film Octopussy (1983) and on the television show The Saint (a 1963 episode).[4]

Filmography
gollark: It is not possible to escape.
gollark: ALL SOFTWARE is bloat.
gollark: Change the resolve part, and you'll have to make the caller async too.
gollark: But my launcher uses the much simpler heuristic of putting the 20 most recently used apps in a list and works basically as well.
gollark: Google's application launcher on Android guesses what apps you might want to use based on location and time and stuff apparently.

See also
  • List of people who have played Sherlock Holmes

References
  1. Barnes, Mike (31 March 2016). "Douglas Wilmer, Sherlock Holmes Actor, Dies at 96". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  2. "Douglas Wilmer 1920". Findmypast.co.uk.
  3. Clarke, Andrew (30 April 2009). "A life in the spotlight". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  4. "Sherlock Holmes actor Douglas Wilmer dies aged 96". The Guardian. Press Association. 1 April 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
  5. "Douglas Wilmer". The Sherlock Holmes Society of London. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  6. Hadoke, Toby (5 April 2016). "Douglas Wilmer obituary". The Guardian. Wilmer’s first two marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by his third wife, Anne...
  7. Hayward, Anthony (25 April 2016). "Obituary: Douglas Wilmer, TV and film actor". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016.
  8. "Woodbridge: Sherlock of the sixties discusses famous Holmes role". Ipswich Star. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.