William Hooker Gillette was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 silent film.
William Gillette
Poster for The Professor (1881)
Gillette in Secret Service
Theatre poster for Held by the Enemy at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in 1887
Sherlock Holmes is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. After three previews it premiered on Broadway November 6, 1899, at the Garrick Theatre in New York City.
Promotional poster of the play
William Gillette as Holmes and Katherine Florence as Alice Faulkner in the 1899 Broadway production of Sherlock Holmes
George Wessells as Moriarty in the 1899 Broadway production of Sherlock Holmes
Holmes (William Gillette) and his hypodermic, with Dr. Watson (Bruce McRae, left), in the 1899 Broadway production of Sherlock Holmes