Sherlock Holmes early 1900s, H. A. Saintsbury took over the role from Gillette for a tour of the play. Between this play and Conan Doyle's own stage adaptation of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", Saintsbury portrayed Holmes over 1,000 times. Basil Rathbone played Holmes and Nigel Bruce played Watson in fourteen U.S. films (two for 20th Century Fox and a dozen for Universal Pictures) from 1939 to 1946, and in "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" on the Mutual radio network from 1939 to 1946 (before the role of Holmes passed to Tom Conway). While the Fox films were period pieces,
Sherlock Holmes (Stoll film series) I when he segued into film production. Beginning in 1919, Stoll opened a series of cinemas and purchased a disused aircraft factory to create the then-largest film studio in Britain. In 1920, Stoll purchased the rights to produce films based on Sherlock Holmes' tales from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Stoll embarked on the production of his first series of fifteen short films entitled "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in 1921. The films were directed by Maurice Elvey and then 59-year-old actor Eille Norwood was chosen to portray Sherlock Holmes, with Hubert Willis cast as Dr Watson. Norwood was obsessed with