I’m not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. I have a weird fondness for the Robert Downey, Jr., portrayal, because they put the drugs and violence back in, but overall, I find the character annoying. I keep coming back to the bit where he refuses to learn heliocentrism because he could use that brain space for something “more important.” Still, back in the ‘80s, my mom and older sister watched it obsessively on Mystery! for a while, back when Holmes was Jeremy Brett. For a lot of people, Holmes will always be Jeremy Brett. Even if he’s also always going to be Freddy Eynsford-Hill.

By all accounts, Brett was a bit of a hot mess. He was dyslexic and struggled through his Eton career. His father insisted he change his name as an actor “for the family honour,” his father being a fairly notable military man who’s got three sets of initials after his name on Brett’s Wikipedia page. He was born with rhotacism and had to have correct surgery and speech therapy as a child. In his later years, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had to be put on lithium. He developed something of a co-dependent relationship with Sherlock Holmes due to his weird acting style, which involved subsuming himself into the character.

In fact, Brett had a nearly eighty-page file about Holmes. He wrote up everything Holmes did—how he ate and drank, how he moved, all his preferences and likes and dislikes. It’s possible they are all canon, too; there’s a lot of Holmes stories. He had to use a hand model whenever Holmes wrote, as he was left-handed and Holmes right. But he developed all the idiosyncrasies he brought to the character, creating what is for many people the definitive version. He’s definitely closer to the character than Basil Rathbone, though that’s the fault of the writers as much as anything else.

To my delight and horror, he even played Watson once—onstage, opposite Charlton Heston as Holmes. I have no doubt that Brett was superlative, as he always was, but that’s an unfortunate Holmes casting. Still, it’s one of the many roles Brett played outside Holmes and Freddy. He was one of many people to be captivated by working with Audrey Hepburn, for him in War and Peace. He did Shakespeare, making a very pretty Hamlet in his youth. He played D’Artangnan on TV. He was even, again to my delight and horror, on an episode of The Incredible Hulk.

He also may have been something of a Disaster Bisexual. His first wife accused him of leaving her for a man, and there are certainly men in his life to whom he seems to have been attached. He never discussed his sexuality, which as you may know disqualifies him for Pride. (I don’t deal in rumour, folks.) Still, there’s a certain amount of evidence there even if it doesn’t rise to the level of certainty. Brett was a hot mess who was also a brilliant actor, certainly not the only person in that particular category. One suspects the bipolar didn’t help with that.

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