Photo of William Gillette (1853 – 1937)

About

Treasure of the Month - February 2012

William Gillette (1853 – 1937) an American actor, playwright and stage manager is best remembered as the first actor to portray Sherlock Holmes on stage.

He portrayed Holmes more than 1300 times and helped create the image of the character, including the use of the deerstalker (first used in some Sidney Paget illustrations for the Strand magazine) and curved pipe, which have become synonymous with the detective.