Eille Norwood: Movies & Filmography

Eille Norwood, born Anthony Edward Brett on 11 October 1861 in York, England, was a distinguished English stage actor, director, and playwright whose career spanned over five decades. He received his early education at Pocklington School before proceeding to St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1883. He adopted the stage name "Eille Norwood" in tribute to a woman named Eileen whom he once loved, combined with the name of Norwood in southeast London, where he resided. His first professional stage appearance came in 1884 with F. R. Benson's Shakespearean company, followed by work with Edward Compton's company in 1886-7. After a serious illness that kept him away from the stage from 1892 until approximately 1899, Norwood made a triumphant return to acting in 1901 with his own play The Noble Art, retitled The Talk of the Town. During his career, he worked extensively with Charles Wyndham's company, appearing in productions such as My Lady of Rosedale (1904), Captain Drew on Leave (1906), and The Liars (1907), and toured as Raffles in a stage adaptation of the famous amateur detective in 1909. Norwood is best remembered for his iconic portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in a series of silent films from 1921 to 1923. He played the legendary detective in 45 two-reel short films across three series—The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1921), The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1922), and The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1923)—as well as two feature films, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Sign of Four, directed by Maurice Elvey and George Ridgwell. Until Jonny Lee Miller's portrayal in the television series Elementary (2012-2019), Norwood had played Holmes more times than any other actor in film or television. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself admired Norwood's portrayal, famously remarking, "His wonderful impersonation of Holmes has amazed me." Norwood was also a prolific playwright, having written several commercially produced plays including Chalk and Cheese, Hook and Eye, The Talk of the Town, and The Grey Room (co-written with Max Pemberton). In 1905, he married fellow English stage and silent film actress Ruth Mackay (1878-1949), and his step-daughter, actress Jane Grahame, later married actor and writer Ernest Dudley, the creator of another well-known English detective character, Doctor Morelle. In his later years, Norwood lived at Corner Cottage on Waverley Lane in Farnham, Surrey, where he passed away in London on Christmas Eve 1948 at the age of 87 and was laid to rest in an unmarked grave at Green Lane Cemetery.