Douglas Norman Wilmer (8 January 1920 – 31 March 2016) was an English actor, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes in the eponymous 1965 TV series.
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Early life
Wilmer was born 8 January 1920 in Brentford, Middlesex, to Harry Bradlaugh Wilmer (1880–1946) and (Ethel) Kate (née Taverner [or Tavener] (1880–1944). His father was an accountant for Jardine Matheson, and Wilmer spent his childhood in Shanghai where his father worked. When he was about 13 years old, Douglas was sent back to the United Kingdom to attend King's School, Canterbury, and Stonyhurst College. A performance as the Archbishop of Canterbury in a school play at King's School was seen by Dame Sybil Thorndike who afterward told the headmaster "If that boy, playing the Archbishop, were to take to the stage, I think that he could well make a go of it."
After completing school, Wilmer applied for a scholarship at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted. Whilst in training at RADA, he was conscripted into the British Army for military service with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War. After training, he was posted to an anti-tank battery, and saw war service in Africa with the Royal West African Frontier Force. He was later invalided out of the Armed Forces, having contracted tuberculosis.
