Arthur Wontner

Who was Arthur Wontner?

Arthur Wontner was a British actor best known for playing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's master detective Sherlock Holmes in five films from 1931 to 1937. These films are:

The Sleeping Cardinal is based on Doyle's two stories, "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House"

The Missing Rembrandt based on "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"

The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case

The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes based on The Valley of Fear

Silver Blaze based on "Silver Blaze"

Reportedly, Wontner landed the role of Sherlock Holmes thanks to his performance of Holmes imitation Sexton Blake in a 1930 stage production.

Of all Wontner's films as Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Rembrandt is no longer available. It is officially a lost film. It is possible to obtain all of the others.

Silver Blaze was renamed Murder at the Baskervilles on its US release in order to make the most of the publicity which had been generated by Basil Rathbone's version of The Hound of the Baskervilles. In many respects Wontner's film can be seen as a sequel as it is set twenty years after the events of the more famous story.