Nigel Bruce

His last movie, World for Ransom, was released in 1954. He also appeared as a villainous swindler in the Bonanza episode, The Bloodline (December 31, 1960). Bruce died in 1953, aged 57, in Santa Monica, California. Van Cleef also appeared in John Carpenter's cult hit Escape from New York. There were 14 films made and he also played Watson on the radio. He appeared with Clint Eastwood in For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But for millions of fans, Bruce was the definitive Watson. His first film was the classic Western High Noon, in which he played a villain.

Holmes purists objected that Watson in the books was an intelligent and capable person, just not a super detective, and that the Bruce portrayal made him seem dimmer and more bumbling than he was. Van Cleef served in the United States Navy during World War II and became an actor after a brief career as an accountant. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes series beginning in 1939 with his good friend Basil Rathbone. However, Van Cleef occasionally played heroes. He played buffoonish, fuzzy-minded gentlemen and his signature role was that of Dr. His sharp features and piercing eyes made him an ideal "bad guy". During his career he worked on 77 movies, including Treasure Island, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Lassie Come Home, The Corn is Green, and Bwana Devil. Lee Van Cleef (January 9, 1925 - December 16, 1989) was a movie actor, who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures.

In 1934 he moved to Hollywood. In 1920 he began his career on stage and eight years later started working in silent films. He was severely wounded in World War I and spent most of the war in a wheelchair. The son of a baronet, he was born in Ensenada, Mexico, where his parents were on vacation.

Watson in a series of films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes. William Nigel Bruce (September 4, 1895 - October 8, 1953), usually credited as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor, best known as Dr.