The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes Quiz

Answer: Reichenbach Falls

Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland was where Holmes and Moriarty had their final duel. In their struggle, both plunged into the waterfall and presumably died. Conan Doyle had originally killed Holmes in this event, described in the 1893 story "The Final Problem", but the public outcry at Holmes' death was so great that it convinced him to find a way to bring Holmes back to the world.

Answer: The Adventure of the Empty House

When Conan Doyle took up writing Holmes stories once more, it was eight years after Holmes' "death", in 1901's "The Hound of the Baskervilles". This story was set before Holmes' "death" at Reichenbach Falls, however. The story that explains Holmes' survival was 1903's "The Adventure of the Empty House", when Holmes arrives at 221B Baker Street once more and thoroughly frightens Dr. Watson.

Answer: It introduced Holmes' calabash pipe

The 1899 play first introduced Holmes' classic pipe, which before then had not featured in Conan Doyle's stories. It was co-written by actor William Gillette, who also performed the role of Holmes both in the play and in a 1916 film. The play was a combination of several Holmes stories.

Answer: 1929

The first sound picture was 1929's "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", starring Clive Brook as Holmes and H. (Harry) Reeves-Smith as Dr. Watson. Interestingly enough, a silent version of the film was also made so that cinemas that were not equipped to play "talking pictures" could also play it. The film centers around the death of a criminal who had once worked for Moriarty.

Answer: True

Although the first two of Rathbone's Holmes films, which were made by Fox studios, were set in Victorian England, the last twelve, made by Universal, were set in then-current times. Several films featured Holmes doing his bit for the war effort of WWII, including outwitting Nazis on occasion. Rathbone often epitomized the Sherlock Holmes style, wearing an Inverness cape, deerstalker cap, and smoking a pipe.

Answer: Jeremy Brett

Richard Gordon played Holmes for most of the series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which aired in the United States between 1930 and 1936. The series then turned into what is often known as "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, between 1939 and 1950. Clive Merrison played Holmes and Michael Williams played Watson throughout BBC adaptions of every Holmes story between 1989 and 1998 in the series "Sherlock Holmes". Jeremy Brett, however, never played Holmes on radio.

Answer: Watson is the detective while Holmes is just an actor

In "Without a Clue", Ben Kingsley plays the brilliant Dr. Watson, a mastermind detective who has written about his cases using a character named Sherlock Holmes in the stories. To keep up appearances, he hires an actor (Michael Caine) to portray Holmes while he remains just Dr. Watson.

Unfortunately, the actor is not quite up to Holmes' intellectual standards, and Moriarty is on the loose... It's a great comic film.

Answer: All of them

All of these authors have written pastiches of Conan Doyle's work, as well as many, many more! These include P. G. Wodehouse and Tanith Lee. Conan Doyle's son, Adrian Conan Doyle, also collaborated on a collection of Holmes stories.

Answer: His dramatic flair

Some criticized Brett's flair for the dramatic, but he also was praised for giving an accurate portrayal of Conan Doyle's character. Brett's Holmes gave abrupt, quickly stifled barks of laughter; gave quick hand gestures; and often threw himself into his cases quite literally, running after clues and throwing himself on the ground to search for evidence. Brett wanted to give the best portrayal of Holmes ever, and studied the character intensely. Illness dogged Brett throughout the later episodes, and he died in 1995.

David Burke played Watson in the first series, and Edward Hardwicke, whom Burke had recommended to the role, took over when Burke left the series. Both are excellent Dr. Watsons to Brett's quintessential Holmes.

Answer: he has appeared in all of these

A series of brain puzzle books features a cat on the cover wearing the quintessential Holmes Inverness cape and cap, and is titled "Cat Pawzzles' Purrlock Holmes", published by Media Lab Publishing. A Japanese anime series "Sherlock Hound", which aired between 1984-85, featured animals as the main characters of the stories. A video game was even made by Frogwares.

Many later incarnations of Holmes have been quite popular--Benedict Cumberbatch in the series "Sherlock", Robert Downey Jr. in two "Sherlock Holmes" films, and Johnny Lee Miller in "Elementary", to name a few. Sadly, this quiz isn't long enough to honor them all! Pick your favourite Holmes incarnation and settle down to enjoy--or even return to the original and read a good Arthur Conan Doyle story.