Hercule Poirot of Police of Brussels, until "the Great War" (World War I) forced him to leave for England. (In "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" Poirot had retired at age 55 in 1905) I had called in at my friend Poirot's rooms to find him sadly overworked. So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot. During World War I, Poirot left Belgium for England as a refugee (although he returned a few times). On 16 July 1916 he again
Poirot Investigates Hercule Poirot to the literary world. "The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim" was presented on television as a thirty-minute play by CBS as an episode in the series "General Electric Theater" on 1 April 1962 under the title of "Hercule Poirot". Introduced by Ronald Reagan and directed by John Brahm, the adaptation starred Martin Gabel as Poirot. The program was done as a pilot for a series that did not happen; instead it was the debut of the character on English-language television. An earlier program starring José Ferrer as Hercule Poirot had been filmed by MGM but never aired and in