Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula

Sherlock Holmes first appeared in a 1887 novel, A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Count Dracula arrived ten years later in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective and Bram Stoker’s vampire share the trait of being hard to kill, despite their creators’ efforts to get rid of them. The two iconic figures remain popular on page, stage, and screen more than century after the books devoted to them.

Count Dracula played by Bela Lugosi in a 1931 film

Contrary to the ending Bram Stoker devised for Dracula, no one has yet put a stake in the count’s heart. Stoker’s heirs tried to suppress the vampire’s first screen appearance in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), suing on grounds of copyright infringement. When the estate won the lawsuit, all prints of the film were ordered destroyed. But Murnau’s vampire survives to this day, thanks to pirated copies of the film. In the vampire culture of the last few decades, Count Dracula’s decendents often attain tragic hero status, a far cry from the evil incarnate that Stoker depicted.

Conan Doyle attempted to kill his famous character in his story, “The Final Problem,” sending Holmes to his death over Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland.

When The Strand magazine published the story in 1893, newspaper headlines reported the detective’s death. His fans wore black crepe in mourning. Eventually, Conan Doyle gave into demands that he resurrect the beloved detective. The resurrections continued after the author’s death as later writers created Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Although Conan Doyle never put Count Dracula in one of his stories, Holmes and the count meet in a dozen pastiches.

Holmes at Reichenbach Falls illustrated by Sidney Paget

Holmes in "The Final Problem," illustrated by Sidney Paget

Holmes and Dracula on Film

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula are the two most filmed characters in cinema history, the detective edging out the vampire for first place. Each appears in more than 200 films.

Four men have played both Holmes and Dracula during their careers: Jeremy Brett, Christopher Lee, Richard Roxburgh, and Frank Langella. The complexity that makes Holmes and Dracula literary icons also makes them wonderful vehicles for actors.

Cpunt Dracula played by Bela Lugosi

Sherlock Holmes played by Basil Rathbone