7. Robert Stephens
Robert Stephens played the infamous consulting detective in the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. The film was directed and produced by Billy Wilder, and was originally set to be a 165-minute epic with an intermission, though it was eventually whittled down to 125 minutes in length. Since the film was directed by comedy film legend Billy Wilder, The Private Life was ostensibly a comedy, and Stephens version of Holmes was seen as wildly unconventional, irreverent, and funny. Some critics believed he deserved an Oscar nod for his witty take on Holmes. Also, some have pointed to Stephens portrayal of Holmes as an important influence on the new BBC series, Sherlock.