Biography for
William Gillette (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

24 July 1853, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Date of Death

29 April 1937, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (pulmonary hemorrhage)

Birth Name

William Hooker Gillette

Spouse

Helen Nichols Gillette

(1 June 1882 - 1 September 1888) (her death)

Trivia

Cousin of writer Clare Kummer.

Was the first actor to be universally acclaimed for portraying Sherlock Holmes, having staged the first authorized play in 1899.

In one of his productions of "Sherlock Holmes," he gave a young unknown actor the supporting role of Billy, the messenger boy. That actor was the later famous comedian Charles Chaplin.

As Holmes, he smoked a curved Meerschaum pipe, rather than the more accurate straight clay pipes that Holmes always smoked in the stories. Gillette did this because it was nearly impossible for him to do believable "business" with the clay pipes. Because of this, one of the stereotypical Holmes trademarks is a Meerschaum.

His home in East Haddam, Connecticut, is known as Gillette's Castle and is now a state park. The castle was built for him and contains many ingenious and unique items designed by him; for example, no two of the forty-seven interior doors are alike.

Performed his Sherlock Holmes around 1,300 times.

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