The Age of Sherlock

I was doing some rough calculations the other day about the ages of actors when they first played Sherlock Holmes.

Jonny Lee Miller age 40.

Benedict Cumberbatch age 34.

Robert Downey Jr 44.

Roger Moore age 48.

Peter Cushing age 46. 

Ronald Howard age 36.

Basil Rathbone age 47.

Eille Norwood age 60.

William Gillette age 46.

Very few get to play Sherlock Holmes when he and Watson first meet, Miller, Cumberbatch, and Howard most prominent in that respect, and, appropriately, among the youngest to play an adult Sherlock. And yet, even they seem a little old for that moment. Miller's Holmes had a full London career before meeting his Watson.

If we got by Holmes's most commonly considered age, based on an 1854 birthdate, he was around twenty-six when he was first introduced to Watson in that lab at Bart's. Cumberbatch's Holmes would have been to the point where Watson had deserted him for a bride, if we line his first appearance up with Holmes, age-wise. Howard's Holmes would have been about to face Reichenbach, and Miller's having a busy 1895. Roger Moore's Holmes should have been about to retire to Sussex. And Eille Norwood should have been portraying Holmes in "His Last Bow."

An age-perfect Sherlock Holmes, casting-wise, has yet to be given the role in an adaptation. Jeremy Brett was fifty when his "Speckled Band" was broadcast. Sherlock Holmes was twenty-nine when "Speckled Band" occurred.

As Sherlock Holmes has gotten played by younger actors, we have yet to see one that is actually young enough . . . except for maybe James D'Arcy (who managed to kill Moriarty before he met Dr. Watson, and was a bit of a mess all around). Yet he seems to be our most Canon-age accurate Holmes on film. 

I await Howard Ostrum correcting me on this with his voluminous knowledge of Sherlocks, foreign and domestic. But the point is still very clear: For the truest adaptation ever, we need to go younger in casting, along with all the other more obvious Canonical details. We've been trained to see Holmes as older and wiser, just because he is so brilliant, but maybe it's time to hit that age nail right on the head one of these days.

It would be an interesting experiment, to be sure.