Famous Private Detectives in
Novels, Movies, and Television--

Patrick Jane → Portrayed by Simon Baker
A con artist and police consultant in the TV series The Mentalist (Created by Bruno Heller).
•TV series: 2008‑2015.

Cordelia Gray → Portrayed by Helen Baxendale
A shy young woman who inherited a detective agency in two novels and several TV series including An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (Created by P. D. James).
•Novels: 1972, 1982 •TV series: 1997‑2001.

Sydney Kells → Portrayed by Valerie Bertinelli
Daughter of a now-deceased policeman in the TV series Sydney (Created by Michael J. Wilson).
•TV series: 1990.

Remington Steele → Portrayed by Pierce Brosnan
A former thief and con man hired to be a front P.I. in the TV series Remmington Steele  (Created by Robert Butler).
•TV series: 1982‑1987.

Dan Adams → Portrayed by Rod Cameron
A former United States Navy intelligence officer turned private detective in the TV series Coronado 9 (Directed by Dann Cahn).
•TV series: 1960‑1961.

Johnny Staccato → Portrayed by John Cassavetes
A jazz pianist and private detective in the TV series Johnny Staccato (Produced by Everett Chambers).
•TV series: 1959‑1960.

Hamilton Nash (aka The Continental Op) → Portrayed by James Coburn.
A master of deceit in the 36 short stories and two novels and the TV series The Dain Curse (Created by Dashiell Hammett).
•Short stories: 1923‑1927 •Novels: 1929  •TV series: 1978.

Dr. John Thorndyke → Portrayed in the 1964 TV series by Peter Copley
A medical doctor and forensic specialist in a series of novels and short stories and TV series including The Case of Oscar Brodski (Created by R. Austin Freeman).
•Novels: 1907‑1942.

Albert Campion → TV portrayal by Peter Davidson
An aristocrat in the early 20th century in several novels and the TV series Campion (Created by Margery Allingham).
•Novels: 1930‑1965 •TV series: 1989‑1990.

Phryne Fisher → Portrayed by Essie Davis
A wealthy aristocrat in a series of novels the TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (Created by Kerry Greenwood and others).
•Novels: 1989‑2008 •TV series: 2012‑.

Michael Westen → Portrayed by Jeffery Donovan
An unlicensed freelance private investigator in the TV series Burn Notice (Created by Matt Nix).
•TV series: 2007‑2013.

China Smith → Portrayed by Dan Duryea
A tough, shrewd, charming, and disreputable private eye in Singapore in the TV series China Smith (Written by Jack Laird and Robert C. Dennis).
•TV series: 1952‑1955.

Eddie Shoestring → Portrayed by Trevor Eve
A former computer expert in the British TV series Shoestring (Created by Robert Banks Stewart and Richard Harris).
•TV series: 1979‑1980.

Richard Castle (with detective Kate Beckett) → Portrayed by Nathan Fillion
A best-selling mystery novelist in the TV series Castle (Created by Andrew Marlowe).
•TV series: 2009‑2016.

Honey West → Portrayed by Anne Francis
A detective and ocelot owner who communicates with her partner via a radio hidden in her lipstick case in a book series and the TV series Honey West (Created by Gloria and Forest Fickling).
•Books: 1957‑1972 •TV series: 1965‑1966.

Martin Kane → Portrayed by several actors including William Gargan (shown)
A private-eye in the the radio series Martin Kane, Private Eye and the TV series The New Adventures of Martin Kane (No creator given).
•Radio: 1949‑1953 •TV series: 1957‑1958.

Don Corey (with partners Jed Sills and Dr. Carl Hyatt) → Portrayed by Anthony George, with partners Doug McClure and Sebastian Cabot
Owner of a detective agency named Checkmate, Inc. in San Francisco in the TV series Checkmate (Created by Eric Ambler).
•TV series: 1960‑1962.

Sid Halley → Portray on TV by Mike Gwilym
Former British jump racing Champion Jockey in a TV series based on novels such as Whip Hand (Created by Dick Francis).
•Novels: 1965‑1995 •TV series: 1979.

Paul Drake → Portrayed by William Hopper
The private detective working for Parry Mason Perry Mason (Created by Erle Stanley Gardner).
•Novels: 1933‑1973 •Movies: 1934‑1940  •TV series: 1985‑1995, 2020.

Ellery Queen → Portrayed in the 1975 TV series by Jim Hutton
A mystery writer and editor of a magazine in novels, movies, and several TV series including The Adventures of Ellery Queen (Ghost writers as Ellery Queen).
•Novels: 1929‑71 •TV series:1950‑1956, 1975‑1976  •Movies: 1940‑1942.

Brother Cadfael → Portrayed by Derek Jacobi
An early 12th-century monk in the novel series and TV series Cadfael (Created by Ellis Peters also known as Edith Pargeter).
•Novels: 1977‑1994 •TV series: 1994‑1998.

Richard Diamond → Portrayed by David Janssen
A former police officer and a hard-boiled private detective in the TV series Richard Diamond Private Detective (Written by Blake Edwards).
•TV series: 1957‑1960.

Byomkesh Bakshi → Portrayed by Rajit Kapur
An Indian-Bengali fictional detective and refers to himself as a truth-seeker or Satyanweshi in the TV series Byomkesh Bakshi (Created by Basu Chatterjee).
•TV series: 1993‑1997 •Movie: 2015.

Rosemary Boxer (with Laura Thyme) → Portrayed by Felicity Kendal
A gardening detective in British TV series Rosemary andThyme (Created by Brian Eastman).
•TV series: 2003‑2007.

Nancy Drew → Portrayed by various actors over the years including Sophia Lillis in the 2019 film as seen in image.
A young high school graduate in many books, a TV series and several movies including the 2019 movie Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (Many writers under the ghost name Carolyn Keene ).
•Novels: 1930‑2003 •TV series: 1997, 1995, 2019  •Movies: 1938‑1939, 2002.

Rex Randolph with partner Cal Calhoun → Randolph portrayed by Richard Long and Calhoun portrayed by Andrew Duggan
Couple of PIs with an office above the Old Absinthe House in New Orleans' French Quarter in the TV series Bourbon Street Beat (Created by Charles Hoffman).
•TV series: 1959‑1960.

Dirk Gently (real name is Svlad Cjelli) → Portrayed by several actors includingStephen Mangan in the 2010 TV series and show here.
a "holistic detective" and psychic in the book series and TV series Dirk Gently (Created by Douglas Adams).
•Books: 1987, 1988, 2002 •TV series: 2010‑ 2012, 2016.

Emerson Cod → Portrayed by Chi McBride
The private detective who enlists the help of the pie-maker in solving murder cases in the TV series Pushing Daisies (Created by Bryan Fuller).
•TV series: 2007‑2009.

Charlie Wild → Portrayed by John McQuade
A private detective in the TV series Charlie Wild, Private Detective (Written by Peter Barry).
•TV series: 1950‑1952.

Sherlock Holmes-3 (with Joan Watson) → Portrayed by Jonny Lee Miller
A modern-day version of the famous detective in the TV series Elementary  (Created by Robert Doherty).
•TV series: 2012‑2019.

Simon Templar (known as The Saint) → Portrayed by Roger Moore in the TV series
A British amateur detective portrayed in books, radio, movies and TV by various actors over many years; for example, in the TV series The Saint (Originally created by Leslie Charteris).
•Books: 1928‑1963 •Movies: 1938‑1943  •Radio: 1944‑1951  •Comics: 1948‑1961.

Lew Archer (renamed to Harper in movies) → Portrayed by Paul Newman
An often world-weary P.I. working in Southern California in books, a TV series and movies such as Harper (Book written by Ross MacDonald).
•Books: 1949‑1976 •TV series: 1975  •Movies: 1966, 1974, 1975.

Johnny Midnight → Portrayed by Edmond O'Brien
New York City actor turned private detective in the TV series Johnny Midnight (Produced by Jack Chertok).
•TV series: 1960.

Jack Irish → Portrayed by Guy Pearce
A former criminal lawyer turned P.I. in the three Australian TV movies inclucing Jack Irish: Bad Debts (Created by Peter Temple).
•Books: 1996‑2003 •TV movies: 2012, 2013.

Jake Styles → Portrayed by Joe Penny
An investigator working with a fat prosecutor in the TV series Jake and the Fatman (Created by Dean Hargrove and Joel Steiger).
•TV series: 1987‑1992.

Eliza Scarlet → Portrayed by Kate Phillips
A Victorian young woman who continues her father's detective agency after his death Miss Scarlet and the Duke (Created by Rachael New).
•TV series: 2020‑2021.

Jeff Randall (and his ghost partner Hopkirk) → Portrayed by Mike Pratt. (Hopkirk portrayed by Kenneth Cope)
A womanizing P.I. in the British TV series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (Created by Dennis Spooner).
•TV series: 1969‑1970.

Beatrice Adela Bradley → Portrayed by Diana Rigg
A widowed socialite in the novel series and British TV series The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries (Created by Gladys Mitchell).
•Novels: 1929‑1975 •TV series: 1999‑2000.

Shawn Spencer (with Burton Guster) → Portrayed by James Roday
A wise-cracking sleuth in the TV series Psych  (Created by Steve Franks).
•TV series: 2006‑2014.

Elly Chandler (with partner Dee Tate shown on the right) → Portrayed by Catherine Russell and her co-star Barbara Flynn
Two female private detectives, Elly Chandler and Dee Tate, who run their own private investigation agency in London in the British TV series Chandler & Co. (Created and written by Paula Milne).
•TV series: 1994‑1995.

Angie Everett (with partner Matt Kevin) → Portrayed by Cindy Sampson
With her partner, private investigators solving crimes in Toronto in the Canadian TV series Private Eyes (Created by Tim Kilby and Shelley Eriksen).
•TV series: 2016‑2021.

Varg Veum → In movies portrayed by Trond Espen Seim
A Norwegian private detective in a series of novels and several movies such as Bitre Blomster (Created by Gunnar Staalesen).
•Novels: 1977‑2014 •Movies: 2007‑2012.

Adrian Monk → Portrayed by Tony Shalhouby
A brilliant police consultant with obsessive compulsive disorder in the TV series Monk (Created by Andy Breckman).
•TV series: 2002‑2009.

Dan Turner → Portrayed in the 1990 movie by Marc Singer
Known as the Hollywood Detective in the comic book series appearing in in the second issue of the pulp magazine Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (Created by Robert Leslie Bellem).
•Comic strip: 1942‑1950 •Movie: 1990.

Peter Gunn → Portrayed by Craig Stevens
A sophisticated, well-dressed P.I. in the TV series Peter Gunn (Created by Blake Edwards).
•TV series: 1958‑1961.

Hercule Poirot → Portrayed in the British TV series by David Suchet
A dignified and meticulous Belgian detective in novels, short stories, movies and TV including Agatha Christie's Poirot (Created by Agatha Christie).
•Novels: 1926‑1975 •Movies: 1931‑1986  •TV series: 1989‑2013.

Spenser → Portrayed by in the TV series Robert Urich
A smart-mouthed tough P.I. in novels, movies and the TV series Spenser: For Hire (Created by Robert B. Parker).
•Novels: 1973‑2014 •TV series: 1985‑1988  •Movies: 1999, 2000, 2001.

E. L. ("Early Leroy") "Tenspeed" Turner (with partner Lionel "Brownshoe" Whitney) → Portrayed by Ben Vareen
A hustler who worked as a detective to satisfy his parole requirements in the TV series Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (Created by Stephen M. Cannell).
•TV series: 1980.

Jonathan and Jennifer Hart → Portrayed by Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers
A millionaire couple in the TV series Hart to Hart (Created by Sidney Sheldon).
•TV series: 1979‑1984.

Father Brown → Portrayed by Mark Williams
A Catholic priest in several media including the TV series Father Brown (Created by G. K. Chesterton).
•TV series: 1974, 2013.

Jack Cleary → Portrayed by Michael Woods
An ex-cop working in 1950s L.A. in the TV series Private Eye (Created by Anthony Yerkovich).
•TV series: 1987‑88.

Sister Fidelma →
A Celtic nun in the middle of the 7th century who solves mysteries in the book series Sister Fidelma Mysteries (Created by Berresford Ellis, aka Peter Tremayne).
•Books: 1994‑2015.

Michael Tree (image from a comic book cover) →
A female private detective who takes over her murdered husband's investigation business in the comic series Ms. Tee (Created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty).
•Comic strip: 1982‑1993.