Nigel Bruce which became the first film to win an Oscar for special effects. Bruce's career signature role was that of Dr. Watson in the 1939-1946 Sherlock Holmes film series, alongside his friend Basil Rathbone playing Holmes. Bruce starred as Watson in all 14 films of the series, and over 200 radio programs of "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Although Watson often appears to be the older of the two main characters, Bruce was three years younger than Rathbone. Though for most viewers Nigel Bruce formed their vision of Dr. Watson, Holmes purists have long objected that the Watson of the
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes Vasily Livanov as Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Watson. Livanov earned honorary membership Order of the British Empire for a performance ambassador Anthony Brenton described as "one of the best I've ever seen". In 1983, Ian Richardson portrayed Sherlock Holmes in "The Sign of Four" with David Healy as Dr. John H. Watson. Later that same year, Richardson again played Holmes in a version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Donald Churchill as his Watson. In 1986, a TV movie called "My Tenderly Loved Detective" was made in Soviet Union about the adventures of the female Sherlock Holmes, called