Nigel Bruce

Bruce's career signature role was that of Dr. Watson in the 1939–1946 Sherlock Holmes film series, alongside his friend Basil Rathbone playing Holmes. Bruce starred as Watson in all 14 films of the series, and over 200 radio programs of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.^[9] Although Watson often appears to be the older of the two main characters, Bruce was three years younger than Rathbone.

Though for most viewers Nigel Bruce formed their vision of Dr Watson, Holmes purists have long objected that the Watson of the books was intelligent and capable (although not an outstanding detective), and that Bruce's portrayal made Watson intellectually dimmer and more bumbling than the literary figure. (A nickname resulting from this portrayal was "Boobus Britannicus".^[9]) Loren D. Estleman wrote of Bruce:

If a mop bucket appeared in a scene, his foot would be inside it, and if by some sardonic twist of fate and the whim of director Roy William Neill he managed to stumble upon an important clue, he could be depended upon to blow his nose on it and throw it away.^[10]

Rathbone, however, spoke highly of Bruce's portrayal, saying that Watson was one of the screen's most lovable characters. The historian David Parkinson wrote that Bruce's "avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone's briskly omniscient sleuth".^[11] Historian Alan Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: "after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him".^[12] For the radio series, Bruce was allowed to play a more competent version of the character.

The Rathbone-Bruce co-star film series lapsed with the death of its producer-director Roy William Neill in 1946. Since then, most major modern adaptations of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, especially since the 1970s, have consciously defied the popular stereotype, and depicted Watson faithfully as a capable man of action.

Bruce was married, from 1921 until his death, to British actress Violet Campbell (née Violet Pauline Shelton^[13]) whom he always lovingly called "Bunny"; they had two daughters:

• Jennifer, married in 1944 (divorced in 1946) Jay Gould III, son of Jay Gould II;^{[citation needed]}
• Pauline, married in 1946 the British flying ace Alan Geoffrey Page.^{[citation needed]}

He was also a second cousin of the Canadian actor Christopher Plummer.^[14]

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Bruce, known as "Willie" to his friends, was a leading member of the British film colony in Los Angeles, and was captain of the (mostly British) Hollywood Cricket Club. Unlike some of his contemporaries, and along with other British actors such as Basil Rathbone and Charlie Chaplin, Bruce maintained his British citizenship, despite long residence in the United States. He also retained his membership of London's Garrick Club and Buck's Club until his death. His final film, World for Ransom, was released posthumously in 1954.

Bruce died of a

In 1947 he began writing an autobiography entitled Games, Gossip and Greasepaint, which is unpublished; however, excerpts have been printed in the Sherlock Holmes Journal, and these have been posted online with permission.[17]

• List of Old Abingdonians

General and cited sources

• ISBN 9780857687760
  .
• Parkinson, David (2004). "Bruce, (William) Nigel Ernle (1895–1953)".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/57390. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)
• Plummer, Christopher (2008). In Spite of Myself: A Memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  ISBN 978-0-307-39679-2
  . Retrieved 30 October 2020 – via Google Books.

Further reading

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Nigel Bruce". The Name Below the Title: 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 54–56.
  ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5
  .
• Parker, John, ed. (1947). Who's Who in the Theatre (10th revised ed.). London: Pitman. pp. 341–2.
  OCLC 6344958
  .
• Townend, Peter, ed. (1970). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage (105th ed.). London: Burke's Peerage. p. 389.
  OCLC 8948585
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nigel Bruce.

• Nigel Bruce at
  IMDb
• Nigel Bruce at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nigel Bruce discography at Discogs
• Nigel Bruce at Find a Grave
• Extracts from Bruce's memoirs: 'Games Gossip and Greasepaint'