REMEMBERING ACTOR #DOUGLASWILMER

TODAY AT THE Facebook PCASUK Fan Page we are remembering an actor who for many, was their first stop off of a TV #SHERLOCKHOLMES actor, #DOUGLASWILMER. Wilmer was for a time, quite a close work companion, working for the #BBC in their flagship television drama of Sherlock Holmes. They later work alongside on the big screen in the #HAMMERFILMS ' The Vampire Lovers' in 1970.

 

 

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 knockout 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 #GeneWilder's The Adventure of #SherlockHolmes' 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).   

ABOVE: Peter Cushing and Douglas Wilmer in 'The Vampire Lovers' ... I see here, Wilmer is wearing a very similar full head hair piece. . . very much like Cushing wears in 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' 'And now, the Screaming Starts' and his character, Count Gerard De Merret in the Orson Welles Great Mysteries episode, 'La Grande Breteche' . . I wonder Wilmer suggested it? By the late 1960s, Peter's natural hair had thinned and receded. Like actor John Wayne, baldness never bothered him, but his horror films often required him to wear a toupee. And in these three projects, he sported this flamboyant 'Marcel Marceau' piece. 

 

WILMER APPEARED in Hammer films, 'The Vampire Lovers', as Baron Hartog... with #PeterCushing 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 is probably be best remembered. In 2009 Wilmer published his autobiography entitled 'Stage Whispers'.

IN 2012 Wilmer made a cameo appearance in the "The Reichenbach Falls" episode of Sherlock as an irate old man in 'The Diogenes Club'.

 

Sadly, Douglas Wilmer left us peacefully on March 31, 2016 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England....

YOU ARE MOST WELCOME TO JOIN US and over 34,000 others Peter Cushing followers at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features and prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing  OBE