- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Hooker Gillette
- Handsome American actor, playwright and stage director/producer William Gillette was born in Hartford, CT, in 1853. His father Francis was a former United States Senator and crusader for women's suffrage and the abolition of slavery; his mother Elisabeth Daggett Hooker is a descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, who either wrote or inspired the first written constitution in history to form a government.
In 1873 William left Hartford to begin his apprenticeship as an actor, briefly working for a stock theatre company in New Orleans and then returning to New England. He made his debut at the Globe Theatre in Boston with Mark Twain's play "The Guilded Age" in 1875. His first major Civil War drama, "Hold by the Enemy", was a major step forward to modern theatre in that it abandoned many crude devices of Victorian melodrama and introduced realism into the sets, props, costumes, sound effects and performances; it was a critical and commercial success in America and Britain.
Gillette is probably best remembered, however, as the first actor to be universally acclaimed for portraying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective Sherlock Holmes, playing the role first on stage in 1899 and continuing for more than 35 years. He also wrote many stage versions from Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and even starred in the film version, Sherlock Holmes (1916), directed by Arthur Berthelet for the Essanay Film Co. He had previously appeared in two other films, his debut being in J.P. McGowan's The Battle at Fort Laramie (1913) and the following year he played support as Jack Lane in The Delayed Special (1914), both of which starred Helen Holmes and were made for the Kalem Film Co. Gillette also became popular on radio, performing the first radio serial version of Sherlock Holmes in 1930 and in 1935. His last stage appearance was in Austin Strong's "Three Wise Fools" in 1936. He wrote 13 original plays, seven adaptations and some collaborations, encompassing farce, melodrama and novel adaptation. He also wrote two pieces based on the US Civil War, "Held by the Ememy" and "Secret Service", which were highly acclaimed. In 1882 he married Helen Nichols, who died in 1888 from peritonitis; he never remarried.
Gillette died from pulmonary hemorrhage in Connecticut in 1937 at age 83.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Paul Rothwell-Smith (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous) - William Hooker Gillette was born in July 1853 in a wealthy and cultured family where progressist ideas flowed through open doors. "Not with a silver spoon, but with a steam engine in his mouth". He was raised in the Nook Farm property, an amiable neighborhood weaved with family ties in Hartford, Connecticut, where Katharine Hepburn would also be born years later. Politicians defending education and the abolition of slavery whose determined wives fought for women's rights, flourishing business, various publishers, the Beecher Stowes and Mark Twain as neighbors secured an inspiring, free-thinking, equalitarian and individualistic education in public schools far from trouble and nearer to common people. Young William demonstrated his love for theatre building and staging puppet plays, and had another passion in writing, co publishing a cultural magazine at 13. His eldest brother died from tuberculosis, and when the American Civil War broke out in 1861 another brother enlisted and died; a sister had died in infancy, and her other sister married. He attended Harvard and Yale, but set his heart and ambitions on a theatrical career; and while his father was not very happy with his decision, after the burden of having lost three sons both William and brother Edward were allowed to choose. Edward became an editor and politician, and William, after six years traveling with a stock company, became a self-made playwright, actor and theatrical director... and Sherlock Holmes. He had married Helen Nichols in 1882; six years later she died from appendicitis which developed into acute peritonitis, in a time when surgery for this problem had not yet been developed. They had no children and he never remarried.
Gillette plays, written, staged and played by himself, were loved by audiences if not always by critics, as he refused the melodramatic style of the time and chose instead a self-contained demeanor, with precise gestures and a natural manner of delivery that went right into the public's hearts, because they could understand it. His care to details was to the minimum, including lighting and sound effects, and realistic sets where pieces of furniture were often placed in front of the audience to give a further natural impression of watching from the room beside. He wrote dramas like Held by the Enemy and Secret Service, and comedies such as All the Comforts of Home and Too much Johnson (to be made into a movie by admirer Orson Welles). Then in 1897 Arthur Conan Doyle had left Holmes at Reichenbach falls and wanted a play on the character. He contacted Gillette who in their first encounter stood off the train dressed and acting as Holmes. Conan Doyle was delighted and their association began. Gillette advocated for the actor immersing in the character (some 50 years ahead of the Actor's Studio Method), and engaging the public since his first time appearance on stage; and none better a demonstration than his Holmes impersonation. So successful was he that he would be playing the role intermittently for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1936. Henry Irving saw him and invited him to London, where he also won the public at the Lyceum theatre. The story of this play is a fascinating one but too long to be included here. We are fortunate enough to have an idea on how it was like, as his only film, Sherlock Holmes (1916), formerly believed lost and rediscovered in 2016 at the French Cinemathéque in a mislabeled can, has been lovingly restored for posterity.
And this was how a man linking the Civil War generation with the 20th century became one of the greatest actors of his time and is still fascinating some of us. After enjoying a long and successful career he bought a ship and a property in his home land where he built a castle on the hills, the Seventh Sister (also known as Gillette Castle), with secret doors and other theatrical devices allowing for dramatic entrances to entertain his guests, and where he lived with his many cats-in-residence until his death on April 29, 1937. And where he also built a narrow gauge steam line which he himself operated in proper attire, accomplishing his childhood dream.- IMDb Mini Biography By: BSK
- SpouseHelen Nichols Gillette(June 1, 1882 - September 1, 1888) (her death)
- Was the first actor to be universally acclaimed for portraying Sherlock Holmes, having staged the first authorized play in 1899.
- In one of his productions of "Sherlock Holmes," he gave a young unknown actor the supporting role of Billy, the messenger boy. That actor was the later famous comedian Charles Chaplin.
- As Holmes, he smoked a curved Meerschaum pipe, rather than the more accurate straight clay pipes that Holmes always smoked in the stories. Gillette did this because it was nearly impossible for him to do believable "business" with the clay pipes. Because of this, one of the stereotypical Holmes trademarks is a Meerschaum.
- His home in East Haddam, CT, is known as Gillette Castle and is now a state park. The castle was built for him and contains many ingenious and unique items designed by him; for example, no two of the 47 interior doors are alike.
- Performed his "Sherlock Holmes" character around 1,300 times.
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