BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Ideal Sherlock Holmes looks like ...

**Posted by holmes23** March 4, 2014 7:33 pm

http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2014/02/heres-what-ideal-sherlock-holmes-looks.html
An interesting blog entry from 'ihearofsherlock'. Creating an idealised image of Sherlock by combining pictures of most popular actors who played the role. The updated image is the more fitting one. But, sadly, less BC in both pics.

**Posted by Ozymandias** March 4, 2014 9:35 pm

He is quite handsome. I think this idealised image fits perfectly for ACD stories.

**Posted by CuteCumber** March 5, 2014 9:11 am

Nice!
The morphed picture of Ben and Jonny Lee together looks good on its own

**Posted by This Is The Phantom Lady** March 5, 2014 9:35 am

That is rather interesting!

I guess for me my Sherlock will always look like Benedict... but that's the same with Doctor Who I guess; you never forget your first Sherlock

**Posted by SpiralStaircase** March 5, 2014 10:54 am

Cleverly done!
But I still prefer Ben's version!

**Posted by nakahara** March 5, 2014 2:53 pm

Verrrry nice, the author of the image is quite skillful!

But the image itself does not exactly corresponds with the image of Holmes you derive from the canon.

Holmes, as portrayed by canonical illustrator Sidney Paget, should look more like this man:

(It′s actually Sidney′s younger brother Walter, who modeled for Holmes and whose appearance influenced the portrayal of Holmes in all subsequent adaptations.)

While ACD, the author of canon, imagined Holmes to look like this:

Really, aside from the nose (which is not thin and long), Benedict Cumberbatch is a spitting image of canonical Sherlock Holmes. He is quite tall, has the same long and lean, almost gaunt body, dolichocephalic skull, startlingly bright pale eyes, his physiognomy fits Sherlock Holmes to a T. No surprise that they chose him for the role, the resemblance between an actor and the character is rarely as accurate as this.

Last edited by nakahara (March 5, 2014 3:13 pm)

**Posted by Bethx221** June 5, 2014 7:30 pm

Benedict is like my ideal sherlock because he's the first I really watch but RDJ is a close second he's so good like just everything about RDJ as sherlock is good......his look his act but not as good as benedict in my opinion Benedict's the ideal

**Posted by Straker** December 9, 2014 8:21 am

[color=rgb(10.980390%, 10.980390%, 10.980390%)]“It is too little to say William Gillette resembled Sherlock Holmes... ...Sherlock Holmes looks exactly like William Gillette” - Orson Welles [/color]

Last edited by Straker (December 9, 2014 8:22 am)

**Posted by Ah-chie** December 21, 2014 3:54 pm

I have seen a lot of different "Sherlocks" from various TV and film productions over the years (except the one with RDJ... not really a fan of his at all, so I couldn't bring myself to watch that one) but none of them fit the bill of my idealised Sherlock - the one from the stories I imagined as I read the stories in my youth... until BC.

From the momment he unzipped that bodybag and I saw his topsy-tervy image staring back at me I believed I was seeing my true Sherlock.

It doesn't matter about a lot of the details (I think far too many productions have got trapped in trying to get his nose exactly right) the idealised Sherlock for me was always way more than just the overall surface of his face. It was in the depths of his eyes and BC's eyes shout "Sherlock!" to me.

None of the other reincarnations of Sherlock ever came close to getting his eyes (and what was contained behind them) right enough to suit me. Cumberbatch has it though. He has the "feel" of Sherlock in his eyes... and his face and voice.

And of course he has the true feel of Sherlock in his body movements as well.

In the past I would always say (if I liked an actor's efforts as The Great Detective) - "Well that was good (or even really) but it isn't MY Sherlock." But what was different with BC's Sherlock was that I just immediately thought: "Finally! That's my Sherlock!" right from the get-go.

The morphed image is an interesting experiment, but it isn't my Sherlock. My Sherlock has always been in my mind and my gut since I was a little girl... and finally now Benedict Cumberbatch has brought him into my telly.

-Val

**Posted by Vhanja** December 21, 2014 4:09 pm

Well, I shouldn't really talk since I haven't seen any movies/series of Sherlock Holmes at all, nor have I grown up reading his stories. I just heard of him, it was in my culture. So the closest I got to seeing him portrayed at all was Basil Mouse and House.

Therefore, I always pictured him as middle-aged, with the deerstalker and the magnyfing glass. Therefore, Benedict didn't fit at all into my notion of how Sherlock Holmes looked like.

Sadly, now Benedict has made sure that I won't be able to watch and enjoy any other portrayal or Sherlock Holmes in quite a while.

**Posted by silverblaze** December 21, 2014 4:48 pm

Mmm, Benedict is a bit younger and more handsome than my idea of Holmes, but I'm not complaining. Shallow as it might be, a beautiful protagonist does help. I agee with Ahchie that his eyes are very similar to those of the canon character. They seem to radiate intelligence, probably because Benedict is also smart IRL.