Jeremy Brett: A Bisexual Sherlock Holmes

Jeremy Brett (1933-1995) will forever been known as the quintessential Sherlock Holmes, paired with Edward Hardwicke's Watson in seven British tv series and moviesbased on the Arthur Conan Doyle stories (1984-1994).  But the tall, aristocratic -- and surprisingly muscular -- actor created many more iconic roles:

The snobbish Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady (1964).

D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (1966-67).

Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice (1970).

Basil in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976).

The overbearing Maxim deWinter in Rebecca (1979)

And, of course, Macbeth (1981).

Not to mention Richard II on stage.

Many of his roles, including Sherlock Holmes, involved homosocial worlds where buddy-bonding was strong and intense.

He was openly bisexual, in long-term relationships with both men and women, including Gary Bond, who appeared nude in the gay-themed Australian thriller Wake in Fright, and Paul Shenar, who played Orson Welles in The Night that Panicked America.