Brett was the British actor probably most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.  He trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.  He made his first (although uncredited) appearance on film in 1954, and on stage in 1956.  He played many classical and Shakespearean roles on stage, and a wide variety of roles on film.

He auditioned for the role of James Bond twice, but lost both times to George Lazenby and Roger Moore.

His singing in My Fair Lady was overdubbed, although he was actually a very good singer.

He was married to actress Anna Massey during 1958-62 (after which they divorced), and they had one son in 1959, David Huggins.  He is now a cartoonist and novelist.

Brett remarried in 1976 to Joan Wilson, an American producer for PBS.  She died of cancer in 1985, and he was devastated by the loss.  His health began to decline and he never recovered from it.  He never remarried again.

Brett was a very heavy cigarette smoker, but he also took up the pipe after being cast as Sherlock Holmes.  He based his portrayal of Holmes on the original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, rather than on previous portrayals by other actors (which is what just about every other actor seems to have done).  An obvious difference is the pipes he used as Holmes.  They are both historically accurate and in line with the descriptions given in the stories--not a single calabash to be seen.

Jeremy Brett suffered from bipolar disorder, which worsened after Joan Wilson's death.  He died of heart failure in 1995, probably brought on not only by his heavy cigarette smoking, but also by the medication he had to take to control his bipolar disorder and by a case of rheumatic fever he had when he was 16.