Nothing captures the imagination like a good detective story. And while real-life detection may bear scant relation to its fictional version (in reality it’s far less glamorous, involves fewer arch-nemeses and considerably more coffee) we love a great detective story as much as anyone else.
The team at M19 Solutions has put together our list of the all-time greatest famous detectives – both fictional and real – for your enjoyment.
1. Sherlock Holmes
Who else could be number one other than Sherlock? He’s the most famous detective of all time – real or fictional – and in the Guinness Book Of Records as the most portrayed literary human character in film & TV, with a staggering 250+ adaptations. He’s been played by everyone from Basil Rathbone to Benedict Cumberbatch, to a mouse, also named Basil (kind of).
Here’s a video of Sherlock in action for all you Cumberbitches…
He’s come a long way from his humble origins, in 1887’s A Study In Scarlet – the creation of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Alongside his sidekick (and biographer) Doctor John Watson, Holmes appeared in four novels and 56 short stories written by the author, even being killed off at one point, only to be resurrected following a public outcry.
After Doyle’s death in 1930, Holmes’ canon continued to grow, with authors as diverse as Stephen King and Anthony Horowitz having penned stories. While recent onscreen adaptations include the action-orientated movies starring Robert Downey Jr., and the BBC’s phenomenally successful, modern day-set Sherlock.
Why’s he number one? To quote the great man himself, the answer’s “elementary.” Sherlock’s ability to uncover the truth through deductive reasoning is second to none, making him the go-to detective when police are stumped. He’s also highly observant, intelligent and has advanced knowledge of the sciences which often comes in useful.
2. Columbo
Sherlock Holmes aside, has any detective ever had as distinctive an image as Peter Falk’s Columbo? Beige raincoat, unkempt appearance, stood in a doorway shrewdly asking “Just one more thing….”
Throughout the ‘70s, Columbo was a feature on television, where he frequently brought down big Hollywood guest stars – everyone from Martin Sheen to William Shatner were on the receiving end of the detective’s legendary gaze.
Despite his quirky and apparently disorganised character, Columbo was imaginative and deceptively clever. In fact, he often put his seemingly harmless persona to use, lulling his suspects into a false sense of security before drawing out their confession. When he eventually hung up his raincoat in 2003, Columbo had an impressive 69 episodes under his belt, and was easily the most famous TV detective of all time.
3. Hercule Poirot
Agatha Christie may be the greatest writer of mystery stories who ever lived, and Poirot was arguably her greatest creation. The Belgian sleuth appeared in Christie’s most famous stories, Murder On The Orient Express and Death On The Nile as well as over 30 other novels and more than 50 short stories.
As famous for his moustache (in the books, nowhere near as ridiculous as sometimes portrayed onscreen) as his strong Belgian accent, he’s most famously embodied by David Suchet’s long-running portrayal. He’s been played by actors as diverse as Peter Ustinov, Orson Welles, and most recently Kenneth Branagh – sporting quite possibly the most over-the-top moustache ever to grace the screen.
Here are some of the best Poirot film adaptations. Which Poirot is your favourite?
A retired police officer turned detective, Poirot has an innate ability to read people. Unlike Sherlock, his focus is identifying motive in people’s words and actions, rather than studying forensic evidence. He also follows his conscience more than the law, making him more relatable to viewers than he first appears.
4. Philip Marlowe
Tough as nails, hard drinking, womanising, the spitting image of Humphrey Bogart – if there’s one character who shaped the public perception of a PI, it’s Raymond Chandler’s great detective.
He first appeared in 1939’s The Big Sleep, which, seven years later was adapted into one of the great film noirs starring Bogart and Lauren Bacall (and again adapted, much less successfully by Michael Winner in 1978). In the story, Marlowe is a solitary detective working in LA’s sleazy late 1930s underworld. Behind his hardened facade, he is an honest man with a strict set of moral principles that ensure justice is served.
If you’re interested in an alternate version of Marlowe, we’d recommend Robert Altman’s 1973 revisionist adaptation of The Long Goodbye, which offers a radically different take on the detective.
5. Raymond C. Schindler
He might not be one of the most famous detectives of all time, but Schindler is rightly regarded as one of the greatest. Born in 1882, this real-life detective joined the San Francisco Police aged 25, ostensibly to do historical research. However, his talents were obvious, and he found himself working alongside the police on cases.
Later, teaming up with a Secret Service agent, William J. Burns, Schindler honed his detective skills, becoming famous for employing the latest technologies – namely the dictograph – to solve crime. By the 1910s he headed up his own New York-based agency, The Schindler National Detective Agency and for over 50 years was widely regarded as America’s most brilliant private investigator.
Throughout his career, Schindler worked on over 10,000 cases and solved numerous crimes where police methods failed to produce concrete evidence. He also cleared several people of crimes they’d been falsely accused of. Such was his fame at the time, that a TV movie was made about his exploits in 1952, featuring Rod Steiger.
6. Nancy Drew
Yes, the top spots on the list are all held by men, but did any of them start in their mid-teens, assisted by her two best friends Bess and George, while having to cope with a typically complicated teenage love life? No, they didn’t, so all credit then to Nancy Drew, the world’s most famous female detective, and one of child fiction’s most enduring characters.
After debuting in 1930, the creation of author Edward Stratemeyer (who also created the Hardy Boys), she’s since appeared in countless books, comics, magazines, tv series, films, and even video games. The books are still running today, almost a hundred years later, in the form of the popular Nancy Drew Diaries.
So what’s Nancy Drew best known for? Well, even after being adapted several times to suit more modern attitudes, this female heroine remains a role model due to her courage to speak her mind and her determination to fight for what she believes in.
7. Jessica Fletcher
As portrayed by the indominable Angela Lansbury, Jessica Fletcher was both a famous writer of mystery novels, and one of the world’s greatest amateur detectives. Running for a staggering 264 episodes between 1984 and 1996, Murder, She Wrote was one of the longest-running, most popular TV shows in history – and a staple of Sunday afternoon TV ever since.
Take a moment to watch Angela Lansbury’s best scenes…
Despite her harmless demeanour, Fletcher was more than a match for the countless criminals she encountered over the years, using her sharp mind for both crime-solving and writing with equal aplomb. Her busybody character wasn’t liked by everyone, but her ability to outsmart police and weed out the real suspect secured her place as one of fiction’s best female detectives.
8. Sam Spade
Sam Spade is the hero of film noir’s crowning glory (in our opinion anyway) The Maltese Falcon, and the prototype for Philip Marlowe (and also played by Bogart). Dashiell Hammett’s detective was created specifically for that story and although he made several subsequent literary and filmic appearances, it’s Bogart’s Falcon version that rightly endures.
This no-nonsense PI is both shrewd and handsome, with a desire to reach the truth at all costs. Using ploys to trick suspects into admitting their true intentions, Spade is the ultimate player, setting a precedent for the many famous detectives that followed.
9. Cormoran Strike
When she’s not writing about boy wizards, J.K. Rowling likes to pretend to be author Robert Galbraith, and write a series of grown-up but still Potter-sized crime novels. The titular character Strike is a former SIB investigator and Afghan veteran turned PI, who prioritises means and opportunity over motive and always gets the job done.
With five entries in the series so far, and a successful BBC adaptation to boot, the adventures of Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott may not be about to eclipse those of the boy wizard, but it’s every bit as enthralling a series as Harry Potter, giving a great modern twist on the genre.
10. Dave Toschi
You might not know the name, but you’ll know his work. Toschi was the real-life detective who spearheaded the – ultimately unsuccessful – hunt for the notorious Zodiac Killer over 9 years. Instantly recognisable due to his bow ties, loud suits and oversized trench coat, Toschi didn’t look like your typical homicide detective. Despite this, he worked by the book and was awarded for his meritorious conduct in 1985.
His character also influenced several famous TV detectives, with Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry based on him, and Steve McQueen’s Bullitt. Star Wars creator George Lucas was also a fan, even naming a location in the movie after him – the ‘Toschi station’ Luke Skywalker wants to visit.
In this KPIX News footage from December 28th 1969, you can watch an interview with SFPD’s Inspector Dave Toschi, who describes the public response to their release of the latest Zodiac killer correspondence…
11. Perry Mason
Although a defence attorney by trade, Mason’s penchant for getting his clients off the hook by solving the crimes himself earns him a well-deserved place on this list. Best known as portrayed by Raymond Burr in the long-running 50s-60s TV series, Mason was the creation of author Erle Stanley Gardner, who wrote over 80 novels featuring him. It’s the third best-selling book series in history, beaten only by Harry Potter and Goosebumps. His works have been adapted for radio, films, and several other TV adaptations, including a new HBO series only last year. Combined, this exposure in various media has made Perry Mason one of the most famous TV detectives ever.
12. John Luther
Although he first hit the big time in The Wire, it was Luther that turned Idris Elba into a superstar. The obsessive, occasionally violent Luther first appeared in 2010, offering a darker, more realistic version of the effect crime has on those who investigate it than many viewers were perhaps used to.
Writer Neil Cross borrowed elements of both Holmes and Columbo to create this ingenious character, with bouts of violence and a slightly unhinged edge thrown in. But the show’s dark undertones haven’t deterred audiences though (probably aided by the good looks of Elba), with a recently announced feature film in development.
13. Benoit Blanc
While he’s a recent addition to the detective genre – his only appearance to date is in 2019’s Knives Out – Benoit Blanc became an instant smash. As portrayed by Daniel Craig, “the last of the gentleman sleuths” has a somewhat bizarre southern drawl and eccentric manner, which belies a keen intelligence and razor-sharp, analytical mind.
The movie’s an instant classic, a fun, complex murder mystery (or is it?) with an array of A-list suspects – the kind of film they supposedly don’t make any more. Obviously, no one told Netflix, as they recently paid $400 million for the rights to two further adventures of Monsieur Blanc.
14. John McClane
Ok, we admit it, he may not do much, if any, actual detective work, but the protagonist of Die Hardis a New York police detective and we love him. Even if his skill set consists solely of fighting bad guys, creative swearing and delivering some of the best one-liners in movie history.
Fun fact – this famous detective is famously portrayed by Bruce Willis, but his casting was controversial at first, as his image didn’t fit that of a 1980s action hero. Even so, viewers loved Willis’ depiction and John McClane remains his best-known character.
15. Batman (Bruce Wayne)
Yes, that Batman. Although more famous onscreen for his fighting prowess and collection of – let’s be honest – seriously cool gadgets, the Batman of the comics is as much detective as he is fighter.
Indeed, since making his 1939 debut – in an issue of Detective Comics no less – he’s frequently referred to as the “world’s greatest detective,” (although if he was, he wouldn’t be at number 15 on this list – how hard can it be to constantly arrive at the conclusion “The Joker did it?”) It’s a shame we’ve not seen more of this side of him on the big screen. We guess good old detective work isn’t quite as cinematic as him hitting people.
16. Allan Pinkerton
The Pinkerton Detective Agency has endured since the 1850s, and it’s founder is a legend in detective circles. A Scottish immigrant, Pinkerton turned to law enforcement and rose to prominence thwarting a series of train robberies. He later served as the head of the Union Intelligence Service during the first years of the Civil War, thwarting an assassination attempt on President Abraham Lincoln.
Although the company is now known simply as “Pinkerton,” having diversified into other areas of security over the years, it’s retained the name – a fitting tribute to its auspicious founder.
17. Eddie Valiant
On the one hand, Eddie Valiant is your typical, hard boiled, no nonsense private eye. He’s a drunk, down on his luck, unkempt, and has a troubled past (his brother was murdered). On the other, he is good-hearted, loyal and lives in a world where humans rub shoulders with real-life cartoon characters.
Portrayed by the late, great Bob Hoskins, Valiant is best known for his most famous case – Who Framed Roger Rabbit? After solving it and avenging his brother, the story ends happily with this famous detective overcoming his struggles with alcoholism for good.
18. John Munch
A staple of both Homicide: Life On The Street and Law And Order: SUV, Detective Munch is one of the longest-running characters on American TV, played by actor Richard Belzar for over 20 years. But that alone wouldn’t earn him a place on this list. The reason that Munch is so special is the fact that he’s appeared in more TV shows than any other character in history – ten in total. Besides various Law And Order spinoffs, Munch has shown up in the likes of The Wire, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and even The X-Files!
19. Mulder and Scully
Talking of The X-Files, there’s no way we could omit the indomitable Mulder and Scully.
While there’s some great detectives on this list, all their cases involve, well, boring old humans. Not so this pair of FBI agents, who spent the ‘90s (and several subsequent revivals) investigating aliens, the paranormal, monsters, as well of all manner of nefarious conspiracies. It was one of the biggest hits of the era, turning both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson into household names, despite the fact that half the time, you had no idea what the hell was going on.
20. Inspector Gadget
Ok, we admit it, he’s a rubbish detective, but we love him anyway. While most of (ok, all) the crime solving is done by his niece Penny and her dog, Brain, the hapless Gadget constantly gets himself into trouble with his collection of, well, gadgets.
Watch this full episode to see him in action!
In possibly the greatest example of nominative determinism ever seen, Gadget’s entire MO consists of deploying his extensive collection of gadgets (Gadget legs, Gadget copter and so on) in futile attempts to thwart the plans of the evil Dr. Claw, while Penny and Brains actually stop him. Maybe we should have put them on the list instead of him, but then they haven’t got an insanely catchy theme tune.
Famous detectives vs discreet investigators
While it’s fun to run down our list of famous TV detectives, in truth the best detectives stay far away from the limelight. As a team of private investigators in Manchester, M19 Solutions specialises in discreet, professional investigative services for both individual and corporate clients.
Whether it’s a cheating partner, missing person, background check or vehicle tracking, we’ll deliver the results you need without detection. Contact us today on 0161 706 0057 or info@m19solutions.co.uk to talk more about your requirements.
