ACTOR DOUGLAS WILMER 96 DIES TODAY

News has just broken that the actor, Douglas Wilmer has died today. Another loss. Wilmer was mainly associated by the public for his role as Sherlock Holmes, which he first played in the BBC's 1964 production of The Speckled Band. Together with co-star Nigel Stock, playing Doctor Watson, it was a knock out tv series, that Peter Cushing went on to star in after Wilmer left.

In 1973 Wilmer played author Jacques Futrelle's Holmesian detective Professor Van Dusen in The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes for ITV. In 1975 he once again appeared as Holmes (albeit in a supporting role) in Gene Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, with Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson. Wilmer also played Sir Denis Nayland Smith in two Harry Alan Towers' Fu Manchu films The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) and The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967).

Douglas Wilmer appeared in Hammer films, The Vampire Lovers, as Baron Hartog... with Peter Cushing in 1970. With roles in Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Cleopatra in 1963 and Jason and the Argonauts.. it will be for Sherlock Holmes he will probably be best remembered. In 2009 Wilmer published his autobiography entitled Stage Whispers. In 2012 Wilmer made a cameo appearance in the "The Reichenbach Fall" episode of Sherlock as an irate old man in The Diogenes Club.