It's Andy Fish!

Have we played this game before?

A lot of our TV and Movies are based on literary versions of popular characters– if you’ve read any of the original versions you tend to get an image in your head of a “right” depiction of a particular character.

For example, I’ve read all of the Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle and despite having seen all the Basil Rathbone “Holmes” Films from Universal before I read the books I still saw a different person when I thought of Sherlock Holmes– and when Jeremy Brett first took on the role in the early to mid-80s in PBS’ MYSTERY Series I thought “there it is.”

In the books, Holmes is portrayed as almost autistic in his mannerisms, so decidedly focused on deduction he often forgets his manners and Brett managed to capture that perfectly.

Sometimes, however, the person taking on the role makes it their own despite NOT being a living embodiment of the authors description. In the case of James Bond, the deadly British Assassin, Ian Fleming gave a clear description of his steely blue eyes, jet black hair and his resemblance to musician Hoagy Carmichael– virtually describing Clive Owen who was up for the role at one time. The closest we came to nailing the character in the books was probably Timothy Dalton, but his movies were weak so that hurts the overall adaption.

I know sometimes I just think too much.

So let’s play the game, shall we? I applied a simple rule- more than two actors have had to play the role to make the list, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Batman have had double digit actors take on the character. In the case of some more obscure characters like say Flash Gordon– there was an actor who played him on TV. The only exception might be Buck Rogers, but I know there was an old time radio show so technically that’s live action.

• SHERLOCK HOLMES – Jeremy Brett – Runner Up – Basil Rathbone

• BATMAN – Lewis Wilson – Runner Up – Adam West

• SUPERMAN – Christopher Reeve – Runner Up – George Reeves

• JAMES BOND – Sean Connery – Runner Up – Daniel Craig

• TARZAN – Johnny Weissmuller – Runner Up – Ron Ely

• LONE RANGER – Lee Powell – Runner Up – Clayton Moore

• GREEN HORNET – Van Williams – Runner Up – Warren Hull

• THE SHADOW – Victor Jory – Runner Up – Alec Baldwin

• ZORRO – Reed Hadley – Runner Up – Tyrone Power

• THE PHANTOM – Tom Tyler – Runner Up – Billy Zane

• CAPTAIN MARVEL – Tom Tyler – Runner Up – Jason Bostwick

• FLASH GORDON – Buster Crabbe – Sam Jones

• BUCK ROGERS – Buster Crabbe – Gil Gerard

• CHARLIE CHAN – Warner Oland – Sidney Toler

• THE JOKER – Cesar Romero – Heath Ledger

• PHILIP MARLOWE – Humphrey Bogart – Dick Powell

• MIKE HAMMER – Ralph Meeker – Stacy Keach

• HERCULE POIROT – Albert Finney – David Suchet

• DRACULA – Bela Lugosi – Christopher Lee

• FRANKENSTEIN – Boris Karloff – Glenn Strange

• THE MUMMY – Christopher Lee – Tom Tyler

• SPIDER-MAN – Tom Holland – Tobey MaGuire

• WONDER WOMAN – Gal Gadot – Lynda Carter
• DICK TRACY – Morgan Conway – Ralph Byrd

Who did I miss?