Basil Rathbone Biography

Basil Rathbone

Rathbone was well established as a stage actor in London before moving to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He rose to fame playing dastardly villains in films such as Captain Blood (1935, with Errol Flynn ), Anna Karenina (1935), Son of Frankenstein (1938, in the title role), Tower of London (1939, as evil king Richard III), and The Mark of Zorro (1940). The 1939 films The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes established Rathbone as the definitive sleuth of Baker Street; he appeared in numerous sequels and also played Holmes on the radio (1939–46).