Gillette, William

William Hooker Gillette (1853 - 1937) was an American actor, playwright and stage-manager of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is best remembered today as the personification of Sherlock Holmes on stage and helped to create the modern image of the detective with the deerstalker cap and curved pipe that became synonymous with the character. He performed the role of Holmes on stage over 1,300 times, in a silent motion picture based on his Sherlock Holmes play, and twice on radio.