Famous Private Detectives In Fiction

Nothing has helped more to capture the imagination and to enlist the many tens of thousands of able and talented people to the important profession of criminal investigation than the long line of fictional private detectives. These masters of the profession have been written about and transferred to silver screen for more than 120 years. They have all become household names, even though none of them actually existed, and some of their stock phrases became a part our daily culture.

The longest running originated in London of the late nineteenth century. His name was Sherlock Holmes and till today his character probably symbolizes more than any other, what crime solving was all about. The combination of highly advanced logic and ability for astute understanding of the criminal mind, led Sherlock Homes to solve the most difficult of cases with a panache and flair that invariably left his eager, but somewhat slow of thought assistant Dr. Watson, flabbergasted and lost for words. He would approach Sherlock Holmes for an explanation of how he arrived at the conclusion as to who was the guilty party. Sherlock would always begin his explanation with the following phrase "Why, elementary my dear Watson." before giving an indepth explanation to the ever-admiring Watson.

The creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote a total of four novels as well as fifty-six short-stories featuring his creation. When transferred to film and later the small screen, Sherlock Holmes lost none of its mystery or glamour. It remains a fact that more actors have portrayed Sherlock Holmes than any other character on the screen till today.

The first character to reach the same levels of popularity on the other side of the Atlantic was Sam Spade. To be honest, Sam was a bit of a "one hit wonder". However the character will always be remembered and revered as the classic private detective of his era. This is largely due to the famous portrayal of the laconic detective by the late Humphrey Bogart in one of the classic films of all time "The Maltese Falcon."

Released in 1941, The Maltese Falcon was based on a book written by Dashiel Hammett. Sam Spade was a San Francisco based private investigator dicing with three unscrupulous characters that were prepared to plunge to any depths of deviousness to get their greedy hands on a fabulous jewel-encrusted statuette that was worth millions. Named as one of the greatest films of all time, "The Maltese Falcon" set the mold which has been forever hard to surpass.

Another fictional icon of the era was the square jawed Phillip Marlowe. More of a slugger than a thinker and a bit of a wise cracker, Marlowe appeared in a series of novels created by Raymond Chandler, the first and probably most famous being "The Big Sleep" published in 1939. The Big Sleep and another Phillip Marlowe classic, "The Long Goodbye," both enjoyed tremendous success as paperbacks as well as making it big on the silver screen. Humphrey Bogart again played the part of the wise-cracking private detective in the first version of the film, released in 1946.

Probably the last of the truly great fictional private detectives was the square jawed, square (padded) shouldered Mike Hammer, from the prolific pen of Mickey Spillane. To be fair to Mickey, despite the fact that his characters never seemed to make the same seamless transition to the screen that his predecessors did, his books were considered very raunchy for their times. Sex and violence were predominant in Mickey Spillane's work and the probable heavy censorship took the edge off his writing for the screen, so most of Mike Hammer's fame came from books.

When looking back on the role of the famous private detective in fiction, you can only picture the late great Humphrey Bogart in one of his many roles as the archetype. No actor, before or since, captured the atmosphere the way he did.