Who played Sherlock Holmes in the 1916 silent film 'Sherlock Holmes'?

William Gillette played Sherlock Holmes in the 1916 silent film Sherlock Holmes.

Directed by Arthur Berthelet and produced by Essanay Studios, the American feature adapted Gillette’s successful 1899 stage play. That play combined elements from several Conan Doyle stories, including “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Final Problem” and A Study in Scarlet, rather than reproducing one story exactly.

Gillette was already closely identified with the character before the film was made. He had performed Holmes approximately 1,300 times on stage, and his portrayal helped popularize visual details now strongly associated with the detective, especially the deerstalker hat and the curved calabash pipe. The film is believed to preserve the only moving-image record of his Holmes performance.

For many years, the film was considered lost. A surviving print was announced in 2014 after being found at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. The rediscovered version had French intertitles and was restored for later screenings. It should not be confused with the much later Holmes films starring actors such as Basil Rathbone or television productions featuring Jeremy Brett.