At a dinner at a friend's place the other day, the topic of old television serials came up. All of us distinctly remembered a serial which was a british production, named the "Sherlock Holmes"!
The friend mentioned that the actor who played Sherlock Holmes became mentally ill in the later years due to over obsession with the character he played.
"Oh...I was ignorant of this fact all these years." I felt extremely curious as to what happened to this suave actor who made the name Sherlock Holmes synonymous with his own being".
I have been a fan of the Scottish author Sir Arthur Connon Doyle who created this indestructible sleuth called Sherlock Holmes way back in the 19th century.
"Extreme Intelligence, reasoning created by observation and the deductive skills and the bohemian ways of living were the most striking qualities of this ever so popular character named Sherlock Holmes".
Obviously enough, the role must have posed intimidating challenge to the actor who was to play it.
"Jeremy Brett", born "Peter Jeremy William Huggins" was the man who played the role ever so convincingly on television that one could not separate him from Sherlock Holmes, the fictional character. I vividly remember how I adored this six feet tall, sharp featured Holmes and his eccentric manners while investigating a case at hand.
I saw the television series first and then read all the books written by Sir Arthur and therefore, I always visualised Jeremy Brett as the Holmes I was reading about.
Coming from a wealthy family, Brett was a popular theatre actor who had earlier played Dr. Watson opposite another actor as Sherlock Holmes in a stage play.
When he accepted the role of the detective for a television series, he was bent on portraying the character impeccably so that his Holmes would be remembered forever by the world. He conducted extensive research on the character as well as its author. He maintained a valuable 77 pages file containing everything from Holmes's mannerisms, his eating and drinking habits and so on. He was so obsessed with the fictional Holmes and his manners that he once said,
"some actors are becomers - they try to become their characters. When it works, the actor is like a sponge, squeezing himself dry to remove his own personality, then absorbing the character's like a liquid".
Personal grief and the professional commitment led to tremendous stress on this actor at a point of time in his life. His obsession of understanding Holmes went beyond his limits and that in turn led to mental illness in the form of manic depression. The illness made deep impact on his personality which was evident on the sets of Sherlock Holmes series which was being shot after his discharge from the rehabilitation centre.
At the age of 59, Brett died of a heart failure at his home in England.
What an irony of life! The person who played the legendary detective, known for his intellectual prowess and analytical skills, should succumb to a mental illness in the later years of life.
Brett's dedication and committment to create a world famous Holmes did not let him realise the fact that it was making him ill. He once said that "many actors fear that if they played Holmes for a very long run, the character will steal their soul, leave no corner for the original inhabitant".
If only had he realised then that the other actors's fear had actually become his reality.
No wonder Brett once quoted that,
"Holmes is the hardest part I have ever played - harder than Hamlet or Macbeth. Holmes has become the dark side of the moon for me. He is moody and solitary and underneath I am really sociable and gregarious. It has all got too dangerous".
Salut to this great actor!
