Celebrity Birthday of the Day

Happy Birthday, Basil Rathbone! 

Born in South Africa in 1892, Rathbone's given name was actually the even more hilarious Philip St. John Basil Rathbone. After serving England in World War 1, Rathbone became an actor, eventually becoming one of the great snits of the cinema, playing suave pussies almost exclusively. 

Being incredibly British, Rathbone also had a passion for fencing, which, when combined with his habit of playing bad guys, led to him being stabbed to death at the climax of many, many movies. 

In his long career, Rathbone would be stabbed countless times, including twice by Errol Flynn, despite the fact that Flynn could apparently only barely fence, preferring instead to screw teenagers. 

Attempting to spend a little less time on screen being a douche, Rathbone eventually took on the role of Sherlock Holmes in 1939's The Hound of the Baskervilles. The film was a success, to the point where he made 13 other Holmes films over the next six years. 

Somehow, this led to Rathbone being typecast as Holmes, which he came to resent (editor's note: tough shit). This amazing and completely unpredictable typecasting eventually led to a somewhat dimished career, as shown in this depressing video: 

So Happy Birthday to ya, Basil. Thanks for getting stabbed all those times. We had fun watching it.