I just don’t have time for any wordy-posts this week (next week you get to read first instalment of The Thesis, you lucky lucky people), so I’ve decided to devote the whole week to posting pics, videos etc that get recommended by readers. Next up is one suggested by Marcia and Janice. 21-year old Basil Rathbone in one of his first Shakespearean roles.
It’s 1913. He’s been an actor for just two years. And the Great War has yet to do its work on him.
Here’s the original:
And the lovely close up sent by Janice:
The Baz 
Gorgeous
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Dec. 25th 1913..wonder who was lucky enought to get that pic as a Christmas present?
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He looks so young there, still almost a teen, and h always looked so young for his age until the late forties when he started looking ill rather than older really. What i’m trying to say is – is it possible he was actually younger than he claimed? Like, did he lie about his age, maybe to get his first job, and it stuck? Just a thought, don’t jump on me anyone:)
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Somebody get my spiked shoes and a rope….no no jumping on you. But altho I have never found a birth cert. or notice for his birth. I have found other documents that all have his birth date and place as June 13,1892 S.A. So I think it’s correct. Ouida,on the other hand…But Honstly I havent got the heart to put her down for lieing about her age.IMHO thats a womens God given right! It’s all the other lies that, that frost me.
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Lovely. I saw your blog on the LAMB site and have been enjoying all your back posts!
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Lovely photo!
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Delicious, thinking woman’s crumpet
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Smokin!!!
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Masculine beauty. It doesn’t get much better
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absolutely
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I never fully appreciated what a breathtakingly beautiful man he was.
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well the rest of us have known that for ages – so welcome aboard
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nice website. nice man.
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awesome blog! Thanks for posting…
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Lovely beautiful boy. And just four years later he was in the trenches!
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I just spent a half hour just gazing at this pics and crying. He was so beautiful. Look at his skin! It’s flawless.
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Thank you for this wonderful site, I got to it from Tumblr. It’s so amazing I feel like I died and went to Basil heaven!
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Oh God, he does look like a Leonardo painting. So poignant. And yes, lucky Juliet! Who was he playing opposite, was it Marion Foreman?
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I love these pics
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Sooooo perfect
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Hot. I love his eyes. Stunning beautiful eyes.
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I want to cry when I look at them and I don’t know why
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Thank you for posting this one, I never saw it before.
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Siiigh…Basil…..
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such a romantic looking Romeo
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Lovely!
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Love him so much
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I was going to say “sexy” but it felt wrong, because he looks so angelic. He’s beautiful, not sexy. Like the Angel Gabriel or something.
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He does. He almost looks like he should have one of those gold leaf haloes behind his head.
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I nominate this for photoweek
http://rattersboner.tumblr.com/post/33892622442/forlornfaghag-iwantosuckyoudryholmes-i
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Oh my seconded!
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That gets a vote from me definately
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Yay for photo week is what I say – can we please have the fantastic Sherlock gif that DreamworldReality made on Tumblr a few weeks ago. It had a LOT of reblogs, and it was from Voice of Terror I think!
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I don’t think I can place which one you mean can you give me the hyperlink?
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Hs face in repose can convey such sadness. But at 21 I doubt he had any actual sadness in his life did he?
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no it’s just a bone structure thing 😉
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Oh Basil! This site is killing me!
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me too
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He looks like a Renaissnace portrait that DaVinci might have done. His Juliet was one lucky gal!
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he so does. I think Michelangelo would have wanted him as a model 🙂
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Whew! You take the work out, so I can enjoy.
Thank you.
ghost.
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Thank you oh Ghost of WordPress, I hope you haunt this way again 🙂
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wow!
Now I must. Your witticisms will draw me back many times.
🙂
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Wow, are you the Ghost of WordPress Past or the Ghost of WordPress Present? Or the Ghost of WordPress Yet to Come?
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YUM!
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“…the most beautiful male I have ever laid eyes upon”, the schoolboy Larry Olivier writes in 1921. (I keep returning to this quote…)
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Laurence Olivier said that? So cool! When was that? Olivier was such a pervy guy about men and women.
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I found this in Roger Lewis’s biography, The Real Life of Laurence Olivier, the whole quote is: “In February 1921, Olivier went on a choir school outing to see Henry IV Part Two at the Royal Court: ‘Prince Hal. Oh, that magical Prince Hal, the most beautiful male I have ever laid eyes upon. His profile was that of a god, his figure pure Olympiad, his voice the most beautiful instrument I had yet heard, and even his name suggested the utmost in glamorous masculinity – Basil Rathbone.’ ” It’s from his diary.
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No wonder he wanted so much to be liked.I can see all the jealous public school boys making his life difficult out of jealousy.Sensitive soul,caring about the underdog,and gorgeous,too!
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I love the close up
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Does he have a scar on his temple or is it just a mark on the film?
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it looks like a scar to me
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funny, i was looking at pics night on ebay and there were 2 from 1955 both showed a scar on his face not this one but a diffrent one, on the other side[his left], right above his eyebrow realy clearly. here http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-Basil-Rathbone-Actor-Frank-Barger-Press-Photo-/400416420689?pt=Art_Photo_Images&hash=item5d3aadb351 from King David and here well here wont be here because the photo is gone now and no place can i find it but it showass crearly in the other one.
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the shoud read ‘shows as clearly’ carry on
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I zoomed in on the picure, and I don’t think it’s a scar, but a deep line (it’s on both sides) — as in a sign of aging. He doesn’t look well in the picture.
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Hmmm you could be right but i still looks like a scar to me.directly above his eybrow.right on the corner of bone. Lots of lines though. 1955 seems to have been a rough year for him.
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Did you intentionally make the three picture you’ve posted exactly ten and twenty years apart?
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