Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsABFFPride MonthOutfest OutfrontsSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Arthur Conan Doyle(1859-1930)

  • Writer
  • Producer
  • Actor
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Arthur Conan Doyle
Critics trailer
Play trailer1:34
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (2012)
3 Videos
2 Photos
Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer of Irish descent, considered a major figure in crime fiction. His most famous series of works consisted of the "Sherlock Holmes" stories (1887-1927), consisting of four novels and 56 short stories. His other notable series were the "Professor Challenger" stories (1912-1929) about a scientist and explorer, and the "Brigadier Gerard" stories (1894-1910) about a French soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Doyle's literary works have frequently been adapted into film and television.

In 1859, Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland to an Irish Catholic family. His father was Charles Altamont Doyle (1832 - 1893), a professional illustrator and water-colorist who is primarily remembered for fantasy-style paintings. Doyle's mother was Mary Foley (1837-1920). Through his father, Doyle was a nephew of the antiquarian James William Edmund Doyle (1822 - 1892), the illustrator Richard Doyle (1824-1883), and the gallery director Henry Edward Doyle (1827 -1893). Doyle's paternal grandfather was the political cartoonist and caricaturist John Doyle (1797-1868).

During his early years, Doyle's family had financial problems due to his father's struggles with depression and alcoholism. They received financial support from affluent uncles, who also financed Doyle's education. From 1868 to 1870, Doyle was educated at Hodder Place, a Jesuit preparatory school located at Stonyhurst, Lancashire. From 1870 to 1875, Doyle attended Stonyhurst College, a Roman Catholic boarding school. He disliked the school due to its rather limited curriculum, and the constant threats of corporal punishment and ritual humiliation used to discipline students.

From 1875 to 1876, Doyle received further education at Stella Matutina, a Jesuit school located at Feldkirch, Austria. His family wanted him to perfect his use of the German language, but this school offered a wider range of study subjects. Stella Matutina attracted student from many countries, and was more cosmopolitan in nature than Doyle's previous schools.

Doyle decided to follow a medical career. From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He also took botany lessons at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. During his university years, Doyle started writing short stories. He had trouble finding a publisher, and "Blackwood's Magazine" (1817-1980) rejected his submitted work. Doyle's first published short story was "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley" (1879), featuring a demon in South Africa. That same year, Doyle published his first academic article in a science journal. The article examined the uses of the flowering plant Gelsemium as a poison. As an experiment, Doyle self-administrated doses of the poison and recorded the symptoms.

In 1880, Doyle worked for a while as a doctor in the whaling ship "Hope". In 1881, following his graduation from medical school, Doyle served as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba. In 1882, Doyle and a former classmate established a medical practice in Plymouth, Devon. Their partnership failed, and Doyle soon started his own practice in Southsea, Hampshire. He did not have many patients, so he decided to resume writing fiction to supplement his income.

In 1886, Doyle created the character of Sherlock Holmes. He loosely based his creation on his former college teacher Joseph Bell (1837 - 1911), inspired by Bell's emphasis on the importance of "deduction and inference and observation". Doyle completed the first Holmes novel, "A Study in Scarlet" (1887), and sold the rights to the publishing house "Ward, Lock & Co." (1854-1964). The novel's publication was delayed until November, 1887, but it was well-received by professional critics.

Doyle next completed the sequel novel "The Sign of the Four" (1890), commissioned from the American literary magazine Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (1868-1915). He started writing short stories about Holmes for the British literary magazine "The Strand Magazine" (1891-1950).

Besides Holmes stories, Doyle wrote seven historical novels between 1888 and 1906. He wrote "Micah Clarke" (1889), as a fictionalized account of the Monmouth Rebellion (1685) and its consequences. The novel also voices Doyle's arguments against religious extremism. He wrote "The White Company" (1891) to examine the role of mercenaries in 14th-century warfare, depicting the campaigns of Edward the Black Prince (1330-1376) in the Kingdom of Castile. He wrote "The Great Shadow" (1892) to feature the experiences of soldiers in the Battle of Waterloo (1815). He wrote "The Refugees" (1893) to examine the fates of Huguenot refugees who were fleeing 17th-century France to escape religious persecution by Louis XIV (1638-1715, reigned 1643-1715). He wrote "Sir Nigel" (1906) to examine the early phases of the Hundred Years' War (1337 - 1453). He regarded these novels to be his best literary work, though they were never as popular as his crime novels.

In 1900, Doyle served as a volunteer doctor in the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902), though he had no previous military experience. He was stationed at a field hospital at Bloemfontein. At about this time, Doyle wrote the non-fiction book "The Great Boer War" (1900), which covered in detail the early phases of the war. He also wrote the companion work "The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct" in order to defend the British Empire from accusations of misconduct in its military efforts. These works were translated in multiple languages, and were appreciated by the British government. For his services to the British Empire, Doyle was knighted in 1902. In 1903, Doyle became a knight of the Order of Saint John, a British royal order of chivalry that was based on the original Knights Hospitaller.

In 1906, Doyle was involved in efforts to exonerate the lawyer George Edalji, a mild-mannered man who had been convicted of animal mutilations on insufficient evidence. Doyle helped publicize other instances of miscarriages of justice, and convinced the public that there was need of reforms in the legal system. In 1907, British authorities reacted to this campaign by establishing the Court of Criminal Appeal.

In 1909, Doyle wrote the non-fiction work "The Crime of the Congo" (1909). In the book, Doyle denounced the human rights abuses in the Congo Free State, and claimed that the Belgian colonial forces had enslaved the local population. He quoted testimonies from many witnesses and tried to convince the public of a need to intervene in the area.

World War I (1914-1918) was a difficult time for Doyle , as several of his relatives and friends died due to the war. Doyle's son Kingsley was seriously wounded in the Battle of the Somme (1916), and never fully recovered. Kingsley died of pneumonia in 1918, while still hospitalized. Doyle's brother, Brigadier-general Innes Doyle, died of pneumonia in 1919. Doyle's brother-in-law, the famous author E. W. Hornung, died of pneumonia in 1921. The series of deaths led Doyle to further embrace Spiritualism, and that faith's claims about existence beyond the grave. He spend much of the 1920s as a missionary of Spiritualism, and investigated supposed supernatural phenomena. He also wrote many non-fiction spiritualist works. In 1926, Doyle financed the construction of a Spiritualist Temple in Camden, London.

In July 1930, Doyle suffered a heart attack while staying in his then-residence, Windlesham Manor, in Crowborough, Sussex. He spend his last moments in reassuring his wife Jean Leckie that she was wonderful. He was 71-years-old at the time of his death. He was survived by two sons and two daughters. His daughter Jean Conan Doyle (1912 - 1997) was the copyright holder of much of her father's works until her own death.

Since Doyle was no longer a Christian at the time of his death, his family declined giving him a Christian burial place. Doyle was buried in Windlesham Manor's rose garden. His remains were later re-interred in Minstead churchyard, New Forest, Hampshire. His wife's remains were buried beside him. His gravestone epitaph described him as "Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician and man of letters".

Doyle is long gone, but his works have remained popular into the 21st century. Doyle has been cited as an influence on later crime writers, and Agatha Christie's earliest novels were strongly influenced by Sherlock Holmes' stories. His life's events have inspired several biographies, and a number of fictionalized accounts.
BornMay 22, 1859
DiedJuly 7, 1930(71)
BornMay 22, 1859
DiedJuly 7, 1930(71)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Awards
    • 1 win

Photos

Arthur Conan Doyle

Known for

Jude Law, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Strong, and Rachel McAdams in Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Sherlock Holmes
7.6
  • Writer(as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
  • 2009
Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock (2010)
Sherlock
9.1
TV Series
  • Writer(as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Jeremy Brett in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
8.7
TV Series
  • Writer
Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock in The Sign of Four (1968)
Sherlock Holmes
7.5
TV Series
  • Writer(as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Writer

  • Sherlock Holmes 3
    • characters
    • Pre-production
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Tesla Star
    • characters: Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson (as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
    • In Development
  • Sherlock Holmes vs. Frankenstein
    • characters
    • In Development
  • Mikhail Porechenkov, Evgeniy Stychkin, Konstantin Kryukov, Aleksey Vertkov, and Anfisa Chernykh in Khitrovka. Znak chetyryokh (2023)
    Khitrovka. Znak chetyryokh
    • creation and concept
    • 2023
  • Denis Grüring in Parlez-moi de Vous (2016)
    Parlez-moi de Vous
    • characters
    • TV Series
    • 2023
  • All Quiet on the Holmes Front (2020)
    All Quiet on the Holmes Front
    • characters and works of
    • based on a short story by
    • TV Series
    • 2020–2023
  • Studium w szkarlacie: Dziwne przygody Sherlocka Holmesa (Audioplay) (2022)
    Studium w szkarlacie: Dziwne przygody Sherlocka Holmesa (Audioplay)
    • based on a novel by
    • Video
    • 2022
  • Mark Redfield, J.R. Lyston, and Carol Mason in The Midnight Matinee the Redfield Arts Audio Podcast the Blue Carbuncle (2022)
    The Midnight Matinee the Redfield Arts Audio Podcast the Blue Carbuncle
    • Writer
    • Podcast Series
    • 2022
  • Sherlock Holmes Ki Romanchak Kahaniyan (2022)
    Sherlock Holmes Ki Romanchak Kahaniyan
    • author
    • Podcast Series
    • 2022
  • Laura Levko and Tomás Machálka in Sherlock Holmes: Tahy králu (2022)
    Sherlock Holmes: Tahy králu
    • characters
    • Short
    • 2022
  • Kate Lassman in Sherlock Holmes (2021)
    Sherlock Holmes
    • based on a original story by
    • TV Mini Series
    • 2021–2022
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Dancing Men (2022)
    Sherlock Holmes: The Dancing Men
    • based on the novel by
    • 2022
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (2022)
    The Hound of the Baskervilles
    • novel
    • 2022
  • Voice of Land (2021)
    Voice of Land
    • paragraph
    • 2021
  • Mike Archer, Ross K. Foad, and Kelsey Williams in No Place Like Holmes (2010)
    No Place Like Holmes
    • characters and works of
    • TV Series
    • 2010–2021
  • Sherlock Holmes (2021)
    Sherlock Holmes
    • based on characters created by
    • Video
    • 2021
  • Sherlock: The Russian Chronicles (2020)
    Sherlock: The Russian Chronicles
    • characters
    • TV Series
    • 2020
  • Cineficción Radio (2019)
    Cineficción Radio
    • novel "The Lost World"
    • stories
    • Podcast Series
    • 2019–2020

Producer

  • The Copper Beeches (1912)
    The Copper Beeches
    • producer
    • supervising producer
    • Short
    • 1912

Actor

  • The Lost World (1925)
    The Lost World
    • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
    • 1925
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos3

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)
Trailer 1:34
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)
Trailer 1:10
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)
Trailer 1:25
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes (VG)

Personal details

Edit
  • Official sites
    • Facebook
    • Official Site
  • Alternative names
    • Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle
  • Height
    • 6′ 1″ (1.86 m)
  • Born
    • May 22, 1859
    • Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
  • Died
    • July 7, 1930
    • Crowborough, Sussex [now East Sussex], England, UK(heart disease)
  • Spouses
      Jean LeckieSeptember 18, 1907 - July 7, 1930 (his death, 3 children)
  • Other works
    Novel: "Round the Fire Stories".
  • Publicity listings
    • 8 Biographical Movies
    • 14 Print Biographies
    • 24 Portrayals
    • 23 Articles

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    His most famous creation, the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, is the most portrayed fictional character in movies.
  • Quotes
    Life is infinitely stranger than the mind of man can imagine." "Singularity is almost invariably a clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more difficult is it to bring it home.
  • Nicknames
    • A.C. Smith
    • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Production art
Photos
IMDb's Top Picks for May
See the list
Production art
Photos
The Best Pics of the Week
See the gallery

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

Demo reel thumbnail
Make your IMDb page stand out by adding a demo reel
Upload your demo reel

Add demo reel with IMDbPro

Make your IMDb page stand out by adding a demo reel
Upload your demo reel
Demo reel thumbnail

How much have you seen?

Keep track of how much of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work you have seen. Go to your list.
Production art
Photos
IMDb's 2023 Summer Movie Guide
See the list

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.