Biography
Basil Rathbone moved through an acting career that stretched from classical theater to inexpensive horror pictures, sometimes merging the two, as when he delivered every Shakespearean passage concerning death in The Comedy of Terrors. His gift for recitation stood out, resting on one of the most commanding voices the profession has known; few performers could invest spoken language with greater dignity or sharper intelligence, qualities he repeatedly exploited while playing Sherlock Holmes. He committed numerous Holmes stories to disc and rendered the entire body of Edgar Allan Poe’s writings aloud, letting the same voice project an unsettling malevolence. Although personally affable, he portrayed the tyrannical Sir John, Robin Hood’s chief adversary, as well as the miser Scrooge and the exploitative Fagin from Dickens. Many of these readings appeared on the Caedmon imprint, yet he also worked for other companies and institutions, producing spoken tours of celebrated museums and world cities for the Columbia Record Club to accompany slide presentations. Orchestras and chamber ensembles frequently engaged him as narrator; among the works he presented were Arthur Honegger’s oratorio King David, the familiar Peter and the Wolf, and a special performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. He shared stages with soprano Helen Boatwright, contralto Beatrice Krebs, tenor Robert Price, and conductor Manfred Schumann, and maintained a particular affinity for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, whose city was Poe’s birthplace. Early-music ensembles likewise invited him to recite period poetry alongside their instruments.
After the First World War his stage career accelerated, and a succession of major Shakespearean parts at Stratford-upon-Avon brought him to national attention in Britain. During the 1920s he settled in New York and sustained his theatrical work until the following decade, when he turned decisively to motion pictures and appeared in seven films during 1930 alone. Toward the close of the 1930s he began the extended series of Sherlock Holmes features that defined the role for a generation, with Nigel Bruce as the steadfast Dr. Watson. Although he continued taking character parts on screen in the 1940s and 1950s, his preference remained the stage. In the 1960s he joined other veteran performers in low-budget horror productions that attracted fresh cult audiences; he never warmed to the genre itself yet valued reunions with longtime colleagues such as Boris Karloff. Throughout that period he also produced notable recordings and ultimately found his greatest ease working in the studio.
After the First World War his stage career accelerated, and a succession of major Shakespearean parts at Stratford-upon-Avon brought him to national attention in Britain. During the 1920s he settled in New York and sustained his theatrical work until the following decade, when he turned decisively to motion pictures and appeared in seven films during 1930 alone. Toward the close of the 1930s he began the extended series of Sherlock Holmes features that defined the role for a generation, with Nigel Bruce as the steadfast Dr. Watson. Although he continued taking character parts on screen in the 1940s and 1950s, his preference remained the stage. In the 1960s he joined other veteran performers in low-budget horror productions that attracted fresh cult audiences; he never warmed to the genre itself yet valued reunions with longtime colleagues such as Boris Karloff. Throughout that period he also produced notable recordings and ultimately found his greatest ease working in the studio.
Albums
