Gillette Castle: Discover the Secrets of Sherlock Holmes’ Connecticut Mansion

William Gillette was born in July 1853 in Hartford, Connecticut. His parents, former U.S. Senator Francis Gillette and Elizabeth Daggett Hooker Gillette, were very progressive and supported reform movements, including the abolition of slavery.

After studying law at Yale, Gillette decided to study acting and landed his first professional role in 1874 in Mark Twain’s stage adaptation of The Gilded Age.

Later in his career, Gillette wrote the first authorized stage adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes novels, and in 1899 he took to the stage to play the fictional detective. Gillette played Sherlock Holmes more than 1,300 times over the course of 33 years.