Professor Moriarty - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

and the archenemy

Archenemy

An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...

of the detective Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

inspector who was referring to Adam Worth

Adam Worth

Adam Worth was an American criminal. Scotland Yard detective Robert Anderson nicknamed him "the Napoleon of the criminal world", and he is commonly referred to as "the Napoleon of Crime".-Earlier life:...

, one of the real life models of Moriarty. The character of Moriarty as Holmes' greatest enemy was introduced primarily as a narrative device to enable Conan Doyle to kill off Sherlock Holmes, and only featured directly in two of the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, in more recent derivative work he is often given a greater prominence and treated as Holmes' primary antagonist.

Appearance in Doyle's fiction

Professor Moriarty's first appearance and his ultimate end occurred in Doyle's story "The Final Problem"

The Adventure of the Final Problem

"The Final Problem" is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in December 1893. It appears in book form as part of the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes...

, in which Holmes, on the verge of delivering a fatal blow to Moriarty's criminal ring, is forced to flee to the Continent to escape Moriarty's retribution. The criminal mastermind follows, and the pursuit ends atop the Reichenbach Falls

Reichenbach Falls

The Reichenbach Falls are a series of waterfalls on the River Aar near Meiringen in Bern canton in central Switzerland. They have a total drop of 250 m . At 90 m , the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps...

, during which, both Holmes and Moriarty apparently fall to their deaths while locked in mortal combat. During this story, Moriarty is something of a Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

Godfather: he protects nearly all of the criminals of England in exchange for their obedience and a share in their profits

Profit (economics)

In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...

. Holmes, by his own account, was originally led to Moriarty by the suggestion that many of the crimes he perceived were not the spontaneous work of random criminals, but the machinations of a vast and subtle criminal ring.

Moriarty plays a direct role in only one other of Doyle's Holmes stories: "The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915, and the first book edition was published in New York on 27 February 1915.- Part I: The Tragedy of Birlstone...

", which was set before "The Final Problem," but published afterwards. In "The Valley of Fear", Holmes attempts to prevent Moriarty's agents from committing a murder. Moriarty does not meet Holmes in this story. In an episode where Moriarty is interviewed by a policeman, a painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Jean-Baptiste Greuze was a French painter.-Early life:He was born at Tournus, Saône-et-Loire. He is generally said to have formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his father, were encouraged by a...

is described as hanging on the wall; Holmes remarks on another work by the same painter to show it could not have been purchased on a professor's salary. The work referred to is La jeune fille à l'agneau; some commentators have described this as a pun by Doyle upon the name of Thomas Agnew of the gallery Thomas Agnew and Sons, who had a famous painting stolen by Adam Worth

Adam Worth

, but was unable to prove the fact.

Holmes mentions Moriarty reminiscently in five other stories: "The Empty House

The Adventure of the Empty House

"The Adventure of the Empty House", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Public pressure forced Conan Doyle to bring the sleuth back to life, and explain his...

" (the immediate sequel to "The Final Problem"), "The Norwood Builder,"

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder

"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the second tale from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The story was first published in Strand Magazine in 1903 with original illustrations by Sidney...

"The Missing Three-Quarter,"

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter

"The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It was originally published in Strand Magazine in 1904 with illustrations by...

"The Illustrious Client,"

The Adventure of the Illustrious Client

"The Adventure of the Illustrious Client", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes.-Plot summary:...

, and "His Last Bow."

His Last Bow (story)

"His Last Bow" is one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and one of seven collected in the anthology His Last Bow. Unlike most other Holmes stories which are written from the point of view of Dr...

More obliquely, a 1908 mystery by Doyle that was named "The Lost Special

The Lost Special

"The Lost Special" is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in 1898. It is implied to be a Sherlock Holmes story, though his name is not used.-Synopsis:This story concerns the baffling disappearance of a special train on its journey to London...

" features a criminal genius

Genius

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

who could be Moriarty and a detective who could be Holmes, although neither is mentioned by name.
Although Moriarty appeared in only two of the 60 Sherlock Holmes tales by Conan Doyle, Holmes' attitude to him has gained him the popular impression of being Holmes' arch-nemesis – as "The Final Problem" clearly states: "Holmes spent months in a private war against Moriarty's criminal operations" – and he has been frequently used in later stories by other authors, parodies, and in other media.

In the Doyle stories, narrated by Holmes' assistant Dr. Watson, Watson never meets Moriarty (only getting distant glimpses of him in "The Final Problem"), and relies upon Holmes to relate accounts of the detective's battle with the criminal.

Doyle himself, however, is inconsistent on Watson's familiarity with Moriarty. In "The Final Problem", Watson tells Holmes he has never heard of Moriarty, while in "The Valley of Fear", set earlier on, Watson already knows of him as "the famous scientific criminal."

Moriarty's weapon of choice is the "air-rifle": a unique weapon constructed for the Professor by a blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

German mechanic (one Mr. von Herder), and used by his employee Colonel Sebastian Moran. It closely resembled a cane, allowing for easy concealment, was capable of firing revolver bullets and made very little noise when fired, making it ideal for sniping. The weapon became infamous for being Moriarty's favorite tool. Moriarty also has a marked preference for organising "accidents". His attempts to kill Holmes include falling masonry and a speeding horse-drawn van. He is also responsible for stage-managing

Stage management

Stage management is the practice of organizing and coordinating a theatrical production. It encompasses a variety of activities, including organizing the production and coordinating communications between various personnel...

the death of Birdy Edwards.

Holmes described Moriarty as follows:
Holmes echoes and expounds this sentiment in "The Valley of Fear" stating:
The "smaller university" involved has been claimed to be one of the colleges that later comprised the University of Leeds

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

. However, in "Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography", the "smaller university" is said to be Durham

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

.

Doyle's original motive in creating Moriarty was evidently his intention to kill Holmes off. "The Final Problem" was intended to be exactly what its title says; Doyle sought to sweeten the pill by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous any further task would be trivial in comparison (as Holmes says in the story itself). Moriarty only appeared in one book because, quite simply, having him constantly escape would discredit Holmes, and would be less satisfying.

Eventually, public pressure and financial troubles forced Doyle to bring Holmes back.

A point of interest is that the "high, domed forehead

Forehead

For the Arsenal striker see GervinhoIn human anatomy, the forehead is the fore part of the head. It is, formally, an area of the head bounded by three features, two of the skull and one of the scalp. The top of the forehead is marked by the hairline, the edge of the area where hair on the scalp...

" was seen as the sign of a prodigious intellect during Conan Doyle's time. In giving Moriarty this trait, which had already appeared in both Sherlock Holmes and the detective's brother Mycroft

Mycroft Holmes

Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...

, Doyle may have intended to portray Moriarty as a man having an intellect equal or greater than that of Holmes, and thus the only man capable of defeating him. Moriarty died when he fell off the Reichenbach Falls

Reichenbach Falls

while Holmes, as revealed in "The Empty House", only faked his death to make the few remaining Moriarty's henchmen expose themselves.

Moriarty's family and first name

The stories give a number of indications about the Professor's family, some seemingly contradictory. In his first appearance (in the story "The Final Problem"), Moriarty is only referred to as Professor Moriarty – no first name is mentioned. Watson does, however, refer to the name of another family member when he writes of "the recent letters in which Colonel James Moriarty defends the memory of his brother." Later, in "The Adventure of the Empty House

The Adventure of the Empty House

" Holmes refers to Moriarty as "Professor James Moriarty". This is the only time Moriarty is given a first name, and oddly, it is the same as that of his brother. In "The Valley of Fear

The Valley of Fear

" (written after the preceding two stories, but set earlier), Holmes says of Professor Moriarty: "He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master

Station master

The station master was the person in charge of railway stations, in the United Kingdom and some other countries, before the modern age. He would manage the other station employees and would have responsibility for safety and the efficient running of the station...

in the west of England."

These references do not unambiguously establish how many Moriarty brothers there actually were. (It is possible the Colonel and the station master were the same brother, but it is unlikely given Victorian class distinctions.) Consequently, questions surrounding the number of Moriarty brothers there were, and which of them were called James, has provided much amusement for Sherlock Holmes fans in the years since the stories were first published.

Simon Newcomb and other real world role models

In addition to the master criminal Adam Worth

Adam Worth

, there has been much speculation among astronomers

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

and Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts that Doyle based his fictional character Moriarty on the American astronomer Simon Newcomb

Simon Newcomb

Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...

. Newcomb was revered as a multitalented genius, with a special mastery of mathematics, and he had become internationally famous in the years before Doyle began writing his stories. More pointedly, Newcomb had earned a reputation for spite and malice, apparently seeking to destroy the careers and reputations of rival scientists.

Professor Moriarty's reputed feats might also have been inspired by the accomplishments of real world mathematicians. If the names of the academic papers are reversed, they describe real mathematical events. Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...

wrote a famous paper on the dynamics of an asteroid in his early 20s, which certainly had a European vogue, and was appointed to a chair partly on the strength of this result. Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Srīnivāsa Aiyangār Rāmānujan FRS, better known as Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan was a Indian mathematician and autodidact who, with almost no formal training in pure mathematics, made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions...

wrote about generalisations of the binomial theorem, and earned a reputation as a genius by writing articles that confounded the best extant mathematicians. Gauss's story was well known in Doyle's time, and Ramanujan's story unfolded at Cambridge from early 1913 to mid 1914; The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915, and the first book edition was published in New York on 27 February 1915.- Part I: The Tragedy of Birlstone...

, which contains the comment about maths so abstruse that no one could criticise it, was published in September 1914.

Des MacHale

Des MacHale

Desmond "Des" MacHale is an associate professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, Ireland. He is a prolific author on various subjects, most notably humour...

, in his George Boole : his life and work (1985, Boole Press) suggests George Boole

George Boole

George Boole was an English mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,...

may have been a model for Moriarty.

The model which Conan Doyle himself mentions (through Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

) in The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear
The Valley of Fear is the fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story was first published in the Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915, and the first book edition was published in New York on 27 February 1915.- Part I: The Tragedy of Birlstone...

is the London arch-criminal of the 18th century, Jonathan Wild

Jonathan Wild

Jonathan Wild was perhaps the most infamous criminal of London — and possibly Great Britain — during the 18th century, both because of his own actions and the uses novelists, playwrights, and political satirists made of them...

. He mentions this when seeking to compare Moriarty to a real-world character that Inspector Alec MacDonald might know, but it is in vain as MacDonald is not so well read as Holmes.

It is averred the surviving Jesuit priests at Stonyhurst instantly recognized the physical description of Moriarty as that of the Reverend Thomas Kay, S.J., Prefect of Discipline, under whose aegis Doyle came as a wayward pupil. According to this hypothesis, Doyle as a private joke has Inspector MacDonald describe Moriarty: "He'd have made a grand meenister with his thin face and grey hair and his solemn-like way of talking."

Finally, Conan Doyle is known to have used his former school, Stonyhurst College

Stonyhurst College

Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...

, as inspiration for details of the Holmes series; among his contemporaries at the school were two boys named Moriarty.

Radio

Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

played Professor Moriarty opposite Sir John Gielgud's Holmes in the 1950s series broadcast of "The Final Problem".
In the BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

November 4, 1992 broadcast of "The Final Problem" and the February 24th 1993 broadcast of "The Empty House", Moriarty was played by Michael Pennington
Michael Pennington
Michael Vivian Fyfe Pennington is a British director and actor who, together with director Michael Bogdanov, founded the English Shakespeare Company...

.
In the BBC Radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

show The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

, Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

plays a character called Count Jim Moriarty, it is implied sometimes that this is the same Moriarty.

Film

George Zucco
George Zucco
George Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...

appeared as Professor Moriarty in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (film)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a 1939 film featuring the characters of the Sherlock Holmes series of books as created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It was the second film to feature Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, the final one they would make for 20th Century Fox, and...

.
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon"...

appeared as Professor Moriarty in Sherlock: Case of Evil.

Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

appeared as Moriarty in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (film)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution is a 1976 Universal Studios Sherlock Holmes film, directed by Herbert Ross and written by Nicholas Meyer. It is based on Meyer's 1974 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicol Williamson, Robert Duvall, Alan Arkin, and Laurence Olivier.-Plot synopsis:When Dr...

(1976). However, in this version he is not the story's villain, but merely a harmless man who becomes an increasingly paranoid victim of Holmes' delusions, based on the fact that Moriarty indirectly contributed to the death of Holmes' mother as her lover.

Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill
Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...

appeared as Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...

.

Henry Daniell
Henry Daniell
Henry Daniell was an English actor, best known for his villainous movie roles, but who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films....

appeared as Professor Moriarty in The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green is a 1945 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, with Hillary Brooke as the woman of the title and Henry Daniell as Professor Moriarty. It is mostly an original story, but scenes from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem and The...

.

Anthony Andrews
Anthony Andrews
-Life and career:Andrews was born in London, the son of Geraldine Agnes , a dancer, and Stanley Thomas Andrews, a musical arranger and musical conductor. He grew up in the North Finchley district of London...

appeared as Professor Moriarty in Hands of a Murderer.

Paul Freeman appeared as Professor Moriarty in the 1988 comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

Without a Clue
Without a Clue
Without a Clue is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley and Lysette Anthony.-Plot:...

, revolving around the premise that Holmes is a fictional creation of Watson's, and Watson is the real crime-solving genius; Moriarty is apparently aware of the deception, with 'Holmes' clearly terrified at the thought of facing him, although he shows his skills when facing Moriarty in a duel at the film's conclusion.

In Young Sherlock Holmes
Young Sherlock Holmes
Young Sherlock Holmes is a 1985 mystery/adventure film directed by Barry Levinson, produced by Steven Spielberg and written by Chris Columbus, based on characters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...

, Anthony Higgins
Anthony Higgins (actor)
Anthony Higgins is an English actor.-Career:Higgins started to play in school theatre in England. After graduation, he studied at the school of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company. In 1967 he became a professional stage actor. He received positive reviews for his Romeo in William...

plays Holmes' schoolmaster, Rathe, who turns out to be an evil mastermind. After the end credits, there's a brief scene in which Rathe enters an inn and signs the ledger as Moriarty. Higgins also portrayed Holmes in the 1993 TV film Sherlock Holmes Returns
Sherlock Holmes Returns
Sherlock Holmes Returns is a 1993 American television movie about the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, that stars Anthony Higgins as Holmes. It was written and directed by Kenneth Johnson.-Plot:...

, making him one of the only two actors to portray both Holmes and Moriarty on film, Richard Roxburgh
Richard Roxburgh
Richard Roxburgh is an Australian actor who has starred in many Australian films and has appeared in supporting roles in a number of Hollywood productions, usually as villains.-Early life:...

being the other. (Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...

has played both Holmes and Moriarty on radio programs.)

In the 2003 film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 superhero film adaptation loosely based on characters from the comic book limited series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, who is also famous for Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell. It was released on July 11, 2003, in the...

, Richard Roxburgh
Richard Roxburgh
Richard Roxburgh is an Australian actor who has starred in many Australian films and has appeared in supporting roles in a number of Hollywood productions, usually as villains.-Early life:...

portrays the main villain named the Fantom, whose true identity was eventually revealed to be Professor James Moriarty. Three clues to the Fantom's real name were subtly slipped into the course of the film's dialog. His final atrocity is to stab League leader Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain
Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...

(Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...

) in the back while he's saving ally Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer
Thomas "Tom" Sawyer is the title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Tom Sawyer Abroad , and Tom Sawyer, Detective .Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom...

(Shane West
Shane West
Shane West is an American actor, musician and songwriter. West is best known for portraying Eli Sammler in Once and Again, Landon Carter with Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember, Darby Crash in What We Do Is Secret, and Dr...

), but during Moriarty's escape from his bombed-and-burning fortress, Sawyer takes Quatermain's rifle and takes the Professor down with one fatal shot. By a curious coincidence, Roxburgh also portrayed Holmes in the 2002 TV adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an...

, making him one of the only two actors to portray both Holmes and Moriarty on film, Anthony Higgins
Anthony Higgins (actor)
Anthony Higgins is an English actor.-Career:Higgins started to play in school theatre in England. After graduation, he studied at the school of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company. In 1967 he became a professional stage actor. He received positive reviews for his Romeo in William...

being the other.

In the Disney animated film The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective
The Great Mouse Detective is a 1986 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, originally released to movie theaters on July 2, 1986 by Walt Disney Pictures...

, the character Professor Ratigan (the archnemesis of Basil of Baker Street, the Holmes-esque hero of the film ) is an obvious parallel and tribute to the character of Moriarty, even sharing his alleged first name. Basil also describes Ratigan as "The Napoleon of Crime", the same designation Holmes gave Moriarty in "The Final Problem". Ratigan was voiced by the late Vincent Price
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

.

Leo McKern
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO was an Australian-born British actor who appeared in numerous British and Australian television programmes and movies, and more than 200 stage roles.-Early life:...

portrayed a comedic Moriarty in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother is a 1975 English/American comedy film with Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Roy Kinnear and Leo McKern. The film was Wilder's directorial debut....

.

In the 2009 film, Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 action-mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon...

, Moriarty appears as a shadowy, mysterious villain employing Irene Adler
Irene Adler
Irene Adler is a fictional character featured in the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in July 1891...

. The role is uncredited.

Jared Harris
Jared Harris
Jared Francis Harris is a British character actor, well known for playing the obnoxious Mac McGrath in the Adam Sandler film Mr. Deeds, and for his portrayal of Lane Pryce on the AMC series Mad Men.- Personal life :...

is playing the role in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is an upcoming 2011 British-American action mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey, and Dan Lin. It is a sequel to the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur...

.

Moriarty is the only character in the Sherlock Holmes films to have been killed off two (not three) times in the same series. Both deaths occurred in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Holmes films, and all three involved him falling from a great height (possibly a nod to his demise at the Reichenback Falls in "The Final Problem").

In Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon
Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of Sherlock Holmes films.- Plot :Sherlock Holmes pretends to be a Nazi spy to aid scientist Dr. Franz Tobel and his new invention, a bombsight, in escaping a Gestapo trap in Switzerland...

, he fell sixty feet into the sewers.
In The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green is a 1945 Sherlock Holmes film starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, with Hillary Brooke as the woman of the title and Henry Daniell as Professor Moriarty. It is mostly an original story, but scenes from Arthur Conan Doyle's The Final Problem and The...

, he fell from a high building when a drainpipe that he was clutching onto broke.

(He also falls in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Here Holmes throws a straight left into Moriarty's jaw sending him through a battlement and off the top of the Tower of London. But this is not part of the 12 movie series from Universal, despite the use of Basil Rathbone

Basil Rathbone

Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...

and Nigel Bruce

Nigel Bruce

William Nigel Ernle Bruce , best known as Nigel Bruce, was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Doctor Watson in a series of films and in the radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...

Television

Eric Porter
Eric Porter
Eric Richard Porter was an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early life:Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth Spall...

portrayed Professor Moriarty in two episodes of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...

as Holmes: "The Red-Headed League" and "The Final Problem", and briefly in the Return of Sherlock Holmes episode: "The Empty House". The first two stories were filmed in 1985, with Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett
Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...

as Holmes, and David Burke as Watson, and the third in 1986 with Edward Hardwicke
Edward Hardwicke
Edward Hardwicke , sometimes credited as Edward Hardwick, was an English actor.-Early life and career:...

taking over the role of Watson. He also appeared as a hallucination in the Return of Sherlock Holmes episode "The Devil's Foot". In the feature-length episode The Eligible Bachelor (an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor
"The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor", one of the 56 short Sherlock Holmes stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the tenth of the twelve stories collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes...

"), Holmes describes Moriarty as "a giant of evil" and says, "Moriarty combined science with evil. Organization with precision. Vision with perception. I know of only one person that he misjudged. Me." He adds, "I regret Moriarty's death [because] without him, I have to deal with distressed children, cat owners – pygmies, pygmies of triviality."
In House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...

, the second season finale "No Reason" features House being shot by an unnamed man. He and the man, played by Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas
Elias Koteas is a Canadian actor of film and television, best known for his roles in The Prophecy, Fallen and the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films.-Early life:...

, battle wits throughout the episode. In the credits the unnamed man is named Moriarty.
Moriarty was the one behind nearly all the crimes in the cartoon Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century
Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century is a animation series, in which Sherlock Holmes is brought back to life in the 22nd century. The series is a co–production by DiC and Scottish Television and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Special Class Animated Program.- Overview :The concept series was...

, having been cloned back to life by a rogue geneticist, requiring Holmes to be 'resurrected' as well in order to match him. The body of the original Moriarty was still covered in ice behind the waterfall he fell from during his battle with Holmes.
John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...

portrayed Moriarty in the made-for-TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York
Sherlock Holmes in New York
Sherlock Holmes in New York is a 1976 film about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, played by Roger Moore and Patrick Macnee.-Plot:The great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusted companion Dr...

opposite Roger Moore's
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...

Holmes.
In the Soviet series of television films The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson by Igor Maslennikov
Igor Maslennikov
Igor Fyodorovich Maslennikov is a Russian film director.He was born in Gorky. In 1954 Maslennikov completed his education in the department of journalism of the Leningrad University and worked as an editor, script writer, and cameraman on Leningrad television...

, Moriarty was played by Viktor Yevgrafov and voiced by Oleg Dahl in the second film of the series.
A holodeck simulation of Professor Moriarty, played by actor Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis is an American stage, screen, and television actor best known for portraying Niles the butler on the popular sitcom The Nanny and his guest appearances as Professor Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, affecting an upper class English accent for both roles.-Biography:Davis was...

, appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...

episodes "Elementary, Dear Data
Elementary, Dear Data (TNG episode)
"Elementary, Dear Data" is the 29th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:Geordi asks the holodeck to make a Sherlock Holmes villain that can defeat Data, creating a foe more powerful than originally planned.-Plot:...

" and "Ship in a Bottle
Ship in a Bottle (TNG episode)
"Ship in a Bottle" is the 138th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:The sentient holodeck character Professor James Moriarty puts the Enterprise in jeopardy in his quest to be freed to live outside the confines of a holographic environment.-Plot:Data and La...

", accidentally achieving sentience when Geordi LaForge asks the holodeck to create an opponent able to defeat Data
Data (Star Trek)
Lieutenant Commander Data is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe portrayed by actor Brent Spiner. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek...

(rather than Sherlock Holmes).
Moriarty appears as a holographic character in the Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...

episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch
Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch
"Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" is the first episode in season four of Futurama. It first aired on January 12, 2003.-Plot:Amy is unhappy with her long-distance relationship with Kif and wants to see him in person again. When the crew is sent to deliver a giant pill to a planet near where Kif is...

", where he comes out of the Holoshed of the Nimbus with Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...

, Jack The Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...

, and Evil (Abraham) Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

.
On Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....

was made to be the Moriarty to the Doctor's
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

.
The Darkwing Duck
Darkwing Duck
DarkWing Duck is an American animated television series produced by The Walt Disney Company that ran from 1991–1992 on both the syndicated programming block The Disney Afternoon and Saturday mornings on ABC. It featured the eponymous anthropomorphic duck superhero whose alter ego is mild-mannered...

TV series (1991–1993) featured a mole-themed villain named Professor Moliarty, an obvious parody/homage.
In The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It is a 1977 comedy starring John Cleese. It is a low-budget spoof of the Sherlock Holmes detective series, as well as the mystery genre in general.- Plot :...

, Connie Booth
Connie Booth
Constance "Connie" Booth is an American-born writer and actress, known for appearances on British television and particularly for her portrayal of Polly Sherman in the popular 1970s television show Fawlty Towers, which she co-wrote with her then-husband John Cleese.-Biography:Booth's father was a...

plays Moriarty's granddaughter, Francine, who is disguised as the modern-day Mrs. Hudson.
In the Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Batman: The Brave and the Bold is an American animated television series based in part on the DC Comics series The Brave and the Bold which features two or more super heroes coming together to solve a crime or foil a super villain...

episode "Trials of the Demon!", both Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

and Dr. Watson guest star. Dr. Watson mentions Moriarty, suggesting that he might be the one responsible for stealing the souls of women (the real culprit is Jim Craddock
Gentleman Ghost
Gentleman Ghost is a fictional character, a supervillain published by DC Comics publications. He first appeared in Flash Comics #88 , and was created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert.-Fictional character biography:...

). Holmes quickly ruled out Moriarty as a suspect based on Moriarty's weapon choice.
"Elementary My Dear Winston", the third episode for the 1989 season of The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters is an American animated television series based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters. The series ran from 1986 to 1991, and was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, DiC Enterprises, and Coca-Cola Telecommunications. "The Real" was added to the title after a dispute with...

, features Holmes, Watson and Moriarty by way of "belief made manifest": so many people believed in them that they became real. Moriarty now has supernatural powers and employs the Hound of the Baskervilles as his henchman. Holmes and Moriarty are both sucked into the Ghostbusters' storage facility while wrestling, in the same manner as the conclusion of "The Final Problem."
A version of the character also appeared in the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

series Sherlock Hound
Sherlock Hound
is an anime television series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series where almost all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic dogs. The show featured regular appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology, adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series...

, being the villain behind every crime in the series. In this version he was an anthropomorphic dog, and more of a comical role.
Moriarty also appears in the BBC 2010 modern-day adaptation Sherlock as a "consulting criminal", helping to arrange the crimes that take place in the first two episodes. In the third episode, he targets Holmes directly, presenting him with a series of investigative 'games' leading eventually to the first confrontation between the two arch-enemies. In this version he called himself Jim and not James. He's played by actor Andrew Scott
Andrew Scott (actor)
Andrew Scott is an Irish film, television, and stage actor. He received the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs production of A Girl in a Car with a Man and an IFTA award for the film Dead Bodies...

.
In series two of the British television comedy "Coupling", during the episode titled "The Melty Man Cometh", Melty Man (a flaccid penis) is described by Jeff as "Professor Moriarty in groin form."

Theatre

Jeremy Brett

Jeremy Brett , born Peter Jeremy William Huggins, was an English actor, most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series.-Early life:...

and Edward Hardwicke

Edward Hardwicke

Edward Hardwicke , sometimes credited as Edward Hardwick, was an English actor.-Early life and career:...

played Holmes and Watson in the Sherlock Holmes TV series

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (TV series)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the name given to the TV series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations produced by British television company Granada Television between 1984 and 1994, although only the first two series bore that title on screen. The series was broadcast on the ITV network in the UK,...

made by Granada Television

Granada Television

Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....

. Eric Porter

Eric Porter

Eric Richard Porter was an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early life:Porter was born in Shepherd's Bush, London, to Richard John Porter and Phoebe Elizabeth Spall...

played the professor. In the late 1980s Brett and Hardwicke appeared in the stage play The Secret of Sherlock Holmes by Jeremy Paul, a regular contributor to the series. The only characters in the play are Holmes and Watson and it highlights many aspects of their relationship from their first meeting to the Reichenbach Falls

Reichenbach Falls

. In the second half it is indicated that Moriarty never existed: he was a figment of the imagination of Holmes who needed a worthy enemy as much as he needed a devoted friend like Watson. It might be noted that in The Adventure of the Final Problem
The Adventure of the Final Problem
"The Final Problem" is a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes. It was first published in Strand Magazine in December 1893. It appears in book form as part of the collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes...

Watson and Moriarty never actually come face-to-face. The play has been re-staged with other actors.

Literature

T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

, a fan of Sherlock Holmes fiction, used the phrase the Napoleon of crime, in homage, to describe Macavity in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a collection of whimsical poems by T. S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It is the basis for the record-setting musical Cats....

.
In Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

's Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

winning short story "A Study in Emerald
A Study in Emerald
"A Study in Emerald" is a short story written by British fantasy and graphic novel author Neil Gaiman. The story is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche transferred to the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story. The title is a reference to...

", the Moriarty and Holmes of an alternate history reverse roles. Moriarty (who, though never named as such in the story, is identified as the author of Dynamics of an Asteroid) is hired to investigate a murder. The murder has apparently been carried out by Sherlock Holmes (who signs his name Rache, an allusion to Doyle's first novella starring Holmes and Watson, A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet
A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year...

, in which the word Rache – German for revenge – is found written above the body of a murder victim) and Dr. Watson. The story is narrated by Colonel Sebastian Moran, given the rank of Major (Ret.) by Gaiman.
In a 2006 comic book story featuring Lee Falk
Lee Falk
Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross , was an American writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity attracted over a hundred million readers every day...

's The Phantom
The Phantom
The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.The Phantom is...

, the 19th Phantom has to fight Professor Moriarty. The climax of the story features the Phantom and Moriarty falling down a waterfall in the Bangalla jungles. At the end of the story, Moriarty is shown to be alive, as he returns to London to find "a detective named Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

".
In Nicholas Meyer
Nicholas Meyer
Nicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, producer, director and novelist, known best for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature film series, and the 1983 television movie The Day After.Meyer graduated from...

's 1976 novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. is a 1974 novel by American writer Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was made into a film of the same name in 1976....

, Professor Moriarty is portrayed as Holmes's childhood mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

tutor, a whining little man with a guilty secret. He is incensed to hear that Holmes, apparently under the influence of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

, has depicted him as a criminal mastermind. Because of Holmes' worsening condition, and Moriarty's threats to tell the authorities about Holmes' addiction, Dr. Watson seeks the help of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

, who uncovers the truth behind Holmes' perception of "the Napoleon of Crime". This is one of many works to seize on the fact that Moriarty never actually shows his face in the Holmes canon. The novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution: Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. is a 1974 novel by American writer Nicholas Meyer. It is written as a pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes adventure, and was made into a film of the same name in 1976....

was made into a 1976 film and starred Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...

as Professor Moriarty.
In Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright's novel Enter the Lion: A Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes, Jerrold Moriarty, the father of the Professor and his brothers, is Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...

' immediate superior in the Foreign Office and plays an important part in a plot by former Confederate officers to involve the British government in a scheme to overthrow the United States government. His exposure by Mycroft and Sherlock leads to his suicide to avoid arrest, for which Professor Moriarty blames the Holmes brothers, and provides an explanation as to the antagonism between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. The Professor himself makes two appearances in the novel.
Michael Kurland
Michael Kurland
Michael Joseph Kurland is an American author, best known for his works of science fiction and detective fiction....

has written a series of novels in which Moriarty is the hero: His organisation of crime is the method by which he raises the money required for his experimental physics apparatus. In the first book of the series, The Infernal Device, he foils a plot against Queen Victoria, reluctantly allying with Sherlock Holmes.
John Gardner
John Gardner (thriller writer)
John Edmund Gardner was an English spy novelist, most notably for the James Bond series.-Early life:Gardner was born in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. He graduated from St John's College, Cambridge and did postgraduate study at Oxford...

has written three novel featuring the arch-villain: The Return of Moriarty, in which the Professor, like Holmes, is shown to have survived the meeting at the Reichenbach, The Revenge of Moriarty and Moriarty (released posthumously in 2008 after the author's death in 2007). In these novels, Moriarty is depicted as a Victorian-era Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...

or Don Corleone
Don Corleone
Don Corleone may refer to four major characters in Mario Puzo's The Godfather saga:*Vito Corleone, the original Don, played by Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro*Michael Corleone, Vito's son, played by Al Pacino, who took over the running of the family...

, single-handedly controlling London's organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

structure. "The Professor" is not really Professor James Moriarty, but is really Professor Moriarty's younger brother who is also named James, who is just as brilliant as his older brother and who has taken over his brother's identity after impersonating, disgracing and then murdering the elder brother. It is possible, though not confirmed at this time, that the third book's title was to have been The Revolt of Moriarty.
Moriarty appears in Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...

's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...

. Recruited from university by British Intelligence, he supposedly set up his criminal empire as part of an undercover operation which got out of hand. Having survived the encounter with Sherlock Holmes, he went on to become the head of British Intelligence under the code-name "M
M (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...

" (a nod to the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

novels and films), but still maintained his criminal interests. He instigated the creation of the League as a covert ops
Covert operation
A covert operation is a military, intelligence or law enforcement operation that is carried clandestinely and, often, outside of official channels. Covert operations aim to fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation...

unit with plausible deniability
Plausible deniability
Plausible deniability is, at root, credible ability to deny a fact or allegation, or to deny previous knowledge of a fact. The term most often refers to the denial of blame in chains of command, where upper rungs quarantine the blame to the lower rungs, and the lower rungs are often inaccessible,...

and used them to recover an anti-gravity mineral called Cavorite
The First Men in the Moon
The First Men in the Moon is a 1901 scientific romance novel by the English author H. G. Wells. The novel tells the story of a journey to the moon undertaken by the two protagonists, the impoverished businessman Mr Bedford and the brilliant but eccentric scientist Dr. Cavor...

which had been stolen by his crime lord rival The Doctor
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...

. He then used the Cavorite to bomb the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

in an attempt to destroy The Doctor but was thwarted by the League which had uncovered the double-cross. Following his supposed death (indicated, but not clearly portrayed, as he "falls" into the sky, due to the Cavorite), he was ironically succeeded as "M" by Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes
Mycroft Holmes is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. He is the elder brother of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.- Profile :...

, Sherlock's older brother. In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...

, it is suggested that Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...

's Dean Moriarty (from On the Road
On the Road
On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...

) is his great-grandson, and the rivalry between the two criminals is continued by the fact that The Doctor's great-grandson is Kerouac's other creation, Doctor Sax
Doctor Sax
Doctor Sax is a novel by Jack Kerouac published in 1959. Kerouac wrote it in 1952 while living with William S. Burroughs in Mexico City.-Plot summary:...

. In the third volume of the series, set over 60 years later, Mina Murray comes across his carcass, still holding onto the cavorite inside a block of ice floating through space.
A similar character appeared in the Solar Pons
Solar Pons
Solar Pons is a fictional detective created by August Derleth as a pastiche of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.-Approach:On hearing that he had no plans to write more Holmes stories, the young Derleth wrote to Conan Doyle, asking permission to take over the job...

series, which was a pastiche of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The Moriarty figure was Baron Knoll, a German spy and a socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....

who appeared in only two stories (much like Moriarty).
Moriarty appears in Anne Lear's short story "The Adventure of the Global Traveller" (1978). Surviving the falls via a net which in turn drops a dummy, he travels back in time, inadvertently creating the paradoxical lines of Third Murderer in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

. The story is told in the form of a note addressed to Holmes, posing the question of where these lines came from.
In Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...

's short story "The Red Planet League" (collected in Gaslight Grimoire
Gaslight Grimoire
Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes is an anthology of short fiction combining the character of Sherlock Holmes with elements of fantasy, horror, adventure and supernatural fiction....

), Moriarty is responsible for inspiring H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...

to write The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...

after perpetrating a scientific hoax on a rival scientist. Newman's novel Anno Dracula depicts Moriarty as the spokesman of a league of villains drawn from popular fiction. In this Moriarty is a vampire and is no longer interested in criminal pursuits as he now has an eternal life which he can dedicate to intellectual contemplation.
In DC Comics'
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

Crime Bible: The Five Books of Blood#1 it's stated that within the Crime Bible
Crime Bible
The Crime Bible is a fictional religious book that has appeared in various comic book series published by DC Comics. The book and the religious groups that have formed around it exist within DC's main shared universe, known as the DC Universe....

exist the "Book of Moriarty".
Commenting on Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...

's prolonges struggle with the powerful crime boss Arnold Zeck, Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda , a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.-Career:Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the...

– book critic for The Washington Post – wrote "I was thrilled when Wolfe finally encountered his own Moriarty in the archvillain Arnold Zeck," . British author and literary critic David Langford
David Langford
David Rowland Langford is a British author, editor and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter Ansible.-Personal background:...

has also noted that the relationship between Zeck and Wolfe compares to that of Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes.
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....

's Science Fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

/Steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...

parallel novel
Parallel novel
This is a partial list of works of fiction that are written within, or derived from, the framework of another work of fiction by another author. This list does not include franchised book series, which are typically works licensed by the publisher of the original work to use its settings and...

"The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is a science fiction/Steampunk parallel history novel written by American author Philip José Farmer in 1973. It was originally published by DAW Books and later reprinted in 1979 by Hamlyn and again in 1982 by Tor Books...

" asserts that Moriarty and Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

's Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....

were one and the same person.
Moriarty appears in a short story by Donald Thomas
Donald Thomas
Donald Serrell Thomas is an English author of Victorian-era historical, crime and detective fiction, as well as books on factual crime and criminals, in particular several academic books on the history of crime in London...

, in his collection The Secret Cases of Sherlock Holmes, as the mastermind of a blackmail plot involving the alleged bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...

of Prince George
George V
George V was king of the United Kingdom and its dominions from 1910 to 1936.George V or similar terms may also refer to:-People:* George V of Georgia * George V of Imereti * George V of Hanover...

. His younger brother, Col. James, also appears as the antagonist of another short story in Thomas's The Execution of Sherlock Holmes.
In The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes
The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes
The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes is a non-canonical Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel by Jamyang Norbu, originally published in India in 1999....

, set during Holmes's three-year fake 'death', Holmes encounters Moriarty during his trip in Tibet, where he learns that Moriarty is actually the Dark One, a former Tibetian mystic possessing great psychic powers who lost his memories in an attack on the Dalai Llama, only for his near-death experience on the Reichenbach Falls to restore his memory. He attempts to acquire an artefact that would allow him to wield even greater power, but is defeated when it is revealed that Holmes is partly possessed by the spirit of the Dark One's old rival, allowing him to wield similar powers to Moriarty's and delay him long enough to turn Moriarty's powers against him, vapourising his body and destroying him once and for all.
In The Beekeeper's Apprentice
The Beekeeper's Apprentice
The Beekeeper's Apprentice is the first book in the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King. It was nominated for the Agatha best novel award and was deemed a Notable Young Adult book by the American Library Association....

by Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King
Laurie R. King is an American author best known for her detective fiction. Among her books are the Mary Russell series of historical mysteries, featuring Sherlock Holmes as her mentor and later partner, and a series featuring Kate Martinelli, a fictional lesbian San Francisco, California, police...

, an elderly Holmes and his protegee, Mary Russell, are pursued by Moriarty's middle-aged daughter, also an Oxford mathematics don, and a criminal kingpin in her own right, who attempts to force Holmes to 'admit' that he framed her father out of jealousy, only for Holmes to provoke her into making crucial mistakes.
In the Italian comic book
Italian comics
Italian comics are comics made in Italy. They are locally known as fumetto – plural form fumetti – although this latter term is often used in English to describe a specific comic genre . The most popular Italian comics have been translated into many languages...

Martin Mystère
Martin Mystère
Martin Mystère is an Italian comic book. Created by writer Alfredo Castelli and drawn by Giancarlo Alessandrini, it was first published in Italy by Sergio Bonelli Editore in 1982....

Moriarty wasn't killed at Reichenbach Falls
Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbach Falls are a series of waterfalls on the River Aar near Meiringen in Bern canton in central Switzerland. They have a total drop of 250 m . At 90 m , the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps...

. Both he and Holmes survived and continued with their previous works. At the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

Moriarty stole a formula of a poison gas
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...

from the British government. When he attempted to sell the formula to the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...

, he was discovered by Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty was killed by Holmes, but before his death, Moriarty managed to fatally wound Doctor Watson.

Other media

The PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

game Eagle Eye Mysteries
Eagle Eye Mysteries
Eagle Eye Mysteries is a two-part series of educational computer games developed by Stormfront Studios and published by EA*Kids. The game is a first-person detective game that involves reading, writing and puzzle-solving. The in-game protagonists are twins Jake and Jennifer Eagle who form the Eagle...

features a character named Mark Moriarty, a high school student who is at the heart of many of the mysteries the player has to solve. In one mystery, on the subject of Sherlock Holmes, he actually mentions that he has the same name as Holmes' nemesis.
The male lead in Liar-Soft's 2008 visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...

Shikkoku no Sharnoth ~What a beautiful tomorrow~, who initially goes by the pseudonym "M", is later revealed to be Moriarty.
The 1950s radio comedy programme The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

had, as one of its principal characters, an incompetent 'Criminal Mastermind' named Count Jim Moriarty
Count Jim Moriarty
Count Jim Moriarty is a character from the 1950s BBC Radio comedy The Goon Show. He was voiced by Spike Milligan...

.
Moriarty was also seen in the PC game Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened is an adventure game developed by Frogwares and published in 2006 for Microsoft Windows. The game follows an original plotline as Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. John H...

, in which Moriarty has survived the falls of Reichenbach and is in weak condition in a mental hospital
Mental Hospital
Mental hospital may refer to:*Psychiatric hospital*hospital in Nepal named Mental Hospital...

.
In the online game Wizard101
Wizard101
Wizard101 is a 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of students of Wizardry to save the Spiral , and battle a variety of creatures by casting spells using a turn-based combat system similar to collectible card games...

, a cat version of Moriarty (Meowiarty) is the main villain in a London-style world, Marleybone.
Moriarty, along with Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...

and Dracula
Count Dracula
Count Dracula is a fictional character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula and archetypal vampire. Some aspects of his character have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince Vlad III the Impaler...

, is referenced in The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...

' song "The Village Green Preservation Society"
In the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

universe, Creator Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....

compared the relationship between Reed Richards and Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom
Victor von Doom is a fictional character who appears in Marvel Comics publications . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #5 wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak...

to that of Holmes and Moriarty.
Similarly, in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

universe, the main character the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

was compared to Holmes, while his own archnemesis the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....

was compared to Moriarty.
In the media franchise Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
is a media franchise owned by the Japanese trading card game company Bushiroad. It consists of an Internet radio drama, released in December 2009; an anime adaptation by J.C.Staff, the first season of which aired between October 7, 2010 and December 23, 2010; a manga adaptation serialized in Comp...

, there is a young character named "Mori Arti" that attends the same academy as Milky Holmes. Her name is an obvious reference to Professor Moriarty.
In the game Portal 2
Portal 2
Portal 2 is a first-person puzzle-platform video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The sequel to the 2007 video game Portal, it was announced on March 5, 2010, following a week-long alternate reality game based on new patches to the original game...

, the incompetent villain, Wheatley, describes his relationship with the protagonist, Chell, as "Holmes vs. Moriarty".

External links

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