Three months ago, I put together a list of the 19 scruffiest detectives in crime film and TV. I wrote in that list that “[t]he scruffy detective is one of the purest, most persistent tropes in the crime genre” and that is true. But such is also the case for the suave, polished detective! Crime fiction contains multitudes, what can I say?
The gentleman sleuth character is deeply entrenched in the genre, going back to the 19th century. The archetype flourished during the Golden Age of detective fiction at the start of the 20th century, giving us countless well-heeled, refined sleuths ripe for adaptation to television and film.
As I did with this list’s rumpled-focused companion, I decided to put together a list of some of the most iconic entrants in this category. As with its counterpart, it is not a comprehensive list! There are many more possibilities than the nineteen I have set down here. This list is a mere survey, a pleasing selection of the erudite, the elegant, the urbane and all-around dignified detectives of modern entertainment.
And! As with my “Scruffy Detectives” list from days past, there are no “regular cops” on here—just detectives, of the amateur, private, and police variety. There are also no FBI or CIA or MI6 agents on this list, just good ol’ gentlemen sleuths (a term which I say includes women!) When I think “suave detective,” I think of Trevor Howard in The Third Man
This list is not ranked, because that would be extremely difficult. Why would I put myself through that?
Rick Castle, Castle
Bestselling author-cum-PI Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) lives in a huge Soho loft, drives a convertible, and has a monthly poker game with James Patterson, Stephen J. Cannell, Michael Connelly, and Dennis Lehane. He’s a rock star of the crime fiction world, and this doesn’t mean he lives a debauched, sloppy life. Nope, he’s very put-together. He has the resources to be!
Neal Caffrey, White Collar
In White Collar, a show I love and will not hear slander about, Matt Bomer plays Neal Caffrey, a very, very suave conman/forger/racketeer/thief who sweet-talks his way into serving his out prison sentence by solving white-collar crimes with the FBI. He also gets the swankiest living situation of probably any person on this list (including you, Amos Burke). He winds up renting a top-floor studio apartment in a Riverside Drive mansion from an elegant, elderly widow (Diahann Caroll) who has a special place in her heart for sexy bad boys and who is happy to lend Neal her late husband’s wardrobe of Devore suits, skinny ties, and fedoras. Which allows Neal to spend his meager FBI salary on nice wines and art supplies.
Perry van Shrike, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
In Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Val Kilmer plays the extremely put-together, on-top-of-things PI Perry van Shrike, or “Gay Perry,” as his sort-of sidekick Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) calls him. He wears suits very well, but his best outfit in the movie is actually the navy blue tracksuit he wears towards the end.
Frank Pembleton, Homicide: Life on the Street
Though audiences now might know the great Andre Braugher best for playing the extremely polished Captain Raymond Holt in Brooklyn 99. But in the 90s, he played the brilliant, Jesuit-schooled, Latin-and-Greek-reading, all-around-scholarly Frank Pembleton in Homicide. Frank Pembleton brought the brooding scholarly, gentlemanly detective back to the procedural, people!
Will Trent, Will Trent
The new TV show, based on Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series, features Ramón Rodríguez as the dyslexic genius Will Trent, who overcomes the trauma of his past by striving for perfection, both professionally and sartorially.
Adam Dalgliesh, Dalgliesh
P.D. James’s poet-detective Adam Dalgliesh has been adapted to the screen many, many times, but I’m choosing Bertie Carvel’s recent characterization from Dalgliesh, the newish TV series starring Bertie Carvel that chronicles Dalgliesh’s career from the 70s onward.
Philip Marlowe, The Big Sleep
Elliott Gould’s Philip Marlowe might have made it onto the Scruffy Detectives list, but Humphrey Bogart’s is firmly on this list. Extremely well-dressed and refined, he bears greater resemblance to Chandler’s original characterization.
Benoit Blanc, Knives Out & Glass Onion
Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc is introduced to us in Knives Out as having been profiled in The New Yorker as “the last of the gentleman sleuths.” I rest my case, your honor. If you need further proof, look at his striped bespoke bathing costume in Glass Onion.
Amos Burke, Burke’s Law
Burke’s Law was a show from the 60s about an LAPD detective chief who also happened to be a millionaire. He lives in a mansion, wears tailored suits, and takes a chauffeured Rolls-Royce to work, even to crime scenes, which maybe was super cool in the 60s but is less so now.
Virgil Tibbs, In the Heat of the Night
No one in the whole world has ever been as suave as Sidney Poitier and this is a fact. Howard Rollins‘s Virgil Tibbs from the TV show adaptation of the same name is very suave, but there’s no out-suaveing Sidney.
Honey West, Honey West
Anne Francis stars in this classic high-tech PI show that ran from 1965 to 1966, about a woman who inherits her father’s detective business. Honey West is the coolest, most put-together person in all of 60s TV (an American, non-espionage equivalent of Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel from The Avengers). She knows martial arts, she has a pet ocelot, she has a male sidekick… she’s just cool. And there is never, ever one hair out of place.
Lord Peter Wimsey, A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery
This series is not the only Wimsey adaptation out there, but if I have to pick one to emblematize the “polished” gentleman sleuth, I think I’ll go with the series that starred Edward Petherbridge as a staid, scholarly Peter Wimsey, rather than the one with Ian Carmichael, which features Wimsey as a little goofy and eccentric.
Inspector Morse, Inspector Morse
John Thaw’s Inspector Endeavour Morse is the epitome of the gentleman sleuth. Although he’s technically a working-class police detective, he has champagne tastes: he’s an opera-loving, classics-reading, crossword puzzle-solving Renaissance Man with a love of classic cars and authentic beers.
Sgt (Lady) Harriet “Harry” Makepeace, Dempsey and Makepeace
Dempsey and Makepeace was a classic British detective procedural featuring an odd-couple, opposites-attractive detective team. A tough, blue-collar Brooklynite NYPD officer links up with a refined English noblewoman who also happens to be an MPS detective sergeant. Makepeace (Glynis Barber) is elegant, clever, and circumspect (and obviously going to slowly fall in love with her new partner).
Albert Campion, Campion
Crime queen Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion novels have been adapted numerous times throughout the years, notably in a TV series in 1959 and longer one in 1989. I’m using the latter show as my reference point. Peter Davison plays Albert Campion, the aristocratic Englishman who helps the police solve difficult crimes.
Remington Steele, Remington Steele
I feel like I don’t even need to say anything about this one. I mean, duh.
Laura Holt, Remington Steele
Actually you know who else is absolutely RAVISHING? Laura Holt, the real “Remington Steele” behind Remington Steele. Let’s give her credit, please!
DCI John Luther, Luther
Idris Elba’s John Luther is an impossibly suave, imposingly confident detective—who always looks put-together even when his personal life is falling apart. That drip! As the kids say.
Hercule Poirot, Poirot
“I say, Poirot!” Yes, Hastings, you are correct. There have been many, many Poirots throughout film and TV history, but I’m giving David Suchet’s Hercule a spot on this list. In terms of charmingly vain punctiliousness of presentation, he’s the GOAT. This list isn’t ranked, but if it were, he’d be numéro un anyway.
