“Why, it might be a description of Watson!” [CHAS]
Over the years, we have had a parade of actors who have done their best to inhabit the persona of the Canon's main character and narrator, Dr. John H. Watson. Some tiptoe around the scenes like polite visitors at 221B Baker Street — competent, forgettable, grateful for the tea.
And then there are those who settle into the basket chair beside the fireplace, and become not only Sherlock Holmes's biographer, but his friend and custodian as well.
Today we mourn Robert Duvall (1931–2026), and for those of us who keep green the memory of Sherlock Holmes, we remember him not only as an American acting titan (in roles such as Tom Hagen, Lt. Colonel Kilgore, or Augustus McCrae, or any of the towering men he embodied) but as a most unusual Dr. John H. Watson.
Because in 1976, in a film as strange and audacious as any pastiche ever put to celluloid, Duvall stepped into Watson’s shoes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution — and in doing so, gave us one of the most human portrayals of the good doctor ever committed to film.
A Holmes Who Needed Help
“the strain caused by his immense exertions” [‘The Reigate Squire’]
We all know the premise: adapted from Nicholas Meyer’s bestselling novel, was that Sherlock Holmes was not merely eccentric. He was addicted to cocaine. And that dependency led him to an obsession with Professor Moriarty, eventually leading to Holmes's health collapse.
And so it was Watson, not only a physician but Holmes's only friend, who duped him into traveling to Vienna to be treated by none other than Sigmund Freud.
That reversal is what makes Duvall’s performance so essential to Sherlockian history. For once, Watson was not the amiable biographer, the loyal chronicler scribbling in the margins of genius. He was the moral center. The steady hand. The man with the courage to deceive his friend in order to rescue him.
Duvall, despite being an American in London, delivered that moral truth that dedicated Sherlock Holmes fans required of such a role.
A Compassionate Watson
“your affectionate regard for me” [‘The Empty House’]
Robert Duvall did not play Watson as a bumbler. Nor as a foil. Nor as comic relief. He played him as Watson was, first and foremost: a physician.
Duvall's Watson is calculating without being cold, concerned yet restrained, and deeply sorrowful as he watches his friend unravel under the weight of paranoia and narcotics.
He is conflicted about having to deceive Holmes, but resolute in his effort to do so, as this is the only way to save him. Under his stalwart exterior, there is a quiet steel in his performance that modern portrayals often forget: Watson is not merely loyal; he is brave.
In an era of increasingly stylized Holmes adaptations, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution gave us something rare: a Watson whose love for his friend was expressed through admiration and true love as well as action.
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| Robert Duvall and Samantha Eggar as John and Mary Watson |
A Strong Watson
“who is supported... by another who is as clever as himself” [A Study in Scarlet]
Sherlock Holmes has always been the main attraction of the stories. But every enduring Holmes story ultimately depends on Watson — not merely to narrate the adventures, but to humanize them. Watson was our everyman.
It was through his eyes that the world of Sherlock Holmes became a reality to the world. We mere mortals had little hope of acquiring or applying the skills and methods of the great detective. But we could easily relate to his friend, who acted and reacted just as we would have, if we were in Baker Street.
Through Meyer's book and screenplay, the Watson we experience in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is exactly that, and Duvall picked up on it.
His Watson is the man who chooses compassion over pride. Who risks a friendship to preserve it. Who believes that even the greatest mind in England deserves help.
In an age when portrayals of Watson swing between comic sidekick and action hero, Duvall’s interpretation remains something rarer: restrained, dignified, and human.
Duvall's Watsonian Legacy
“It is with a heavy heart that I take up my pen” [‘The Final Problem’]
Robert Duvall’s career spanned decades and genres, from Westerns to war films to family dramas. But on the Sherlockian screen, he occupies a singular space.
He played the doctor who healed Sherlock Holmes.
And for readers and viewers who understand that Watson is the heart of Baker Street, that matters.
As the lamps dim a little tonight, one imagines Watson closing his notebook, setting down his pen, and offering a final, quiet benediction:
Well done, old friend. Bloody well done.
Related:
We have a special offering: a conversation with author Nicholas Meyer, BSI ("A Fine Morocco Case"), author of the book and the screenplay in which he tells the story about how Robert Duvall got the part of Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution.
It stemmed from wanting the audience to view the characters in a very different light. But it took a good deal of convincing director Herbert Ross to accept Duvall as the appropriate actor for the part.
Listen on Substack or Patreon.
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