Jude Law spotters who were watching a digital channel re-run recently of the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, the hugely popular 1980s and 1990s ITV television series starring Jeremy Brett, will have seen one of the Hollywood heart-throb's earliest TV outings.
He played a cross-dressing servant in the story based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Adventure Of Shoscombe Old Place.
Twenty years on, and with a big fat casebook of Hollywood film and West End and Broadway stage roles under his belt, the still youthful 38-year-old star is doing Sherlock again.
This time he is on the big screen and in the higher profile - bigger bucks - role of the super sleuth's side-kick Dr Watson in the second of director Guy Ritchie's films based loosely on the much loved detective stories.
'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows' is due out at Christmas with Law reprising the part he played in the 2009 money-spinning 'Sherlock Holmes' movie, the first in the franchise. That movie, also starring Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock, took a staggering $517m at the box office worldwide, catapulting Law in to the mega earnings league.
He had already been bankable for years but only relatively recently burst through the $10m pay barrier and can now command serious money for every film appearance.
He earned a mere $745,000 for 'The Talented Mr Ripley' in 1999, considered his breakthrough performance (he won an Oscar nomination), but went on to earn $9.5m for 'Closer' and $8m for 'Alfie', both in 2004.
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| Elementary: Law and Robert Downey Jnr in Sherlock Holmes |
Law's 2004 divorce from wife Sadie Frost, mother of three of his children, depleted his reserves somewhat (she got a big settlement, including their £3m up-market Primrose Hill, North London house) and he has been busily rebuilding his cash pile ever since.
A brief fling with New Zealander Samantha Burke led to the birth of a fourth child Sophia in 2009 and put further strain on Law's bank balance. The Daily Mail suggests this will cost him $2m over the girl's childhood, including $5,000 a month in maintenance.
But don't feel too worried for the hard-pressed actor. He has enough spare cash to be planning a £500,000 renovation of his £8m eight-bedroom Georgian house in Highgate, North London, which includes digging a giant cellar (to the dismay of neighbors) and installing a state-of-the-art gym.Law's personal life has certainly attracted as much attention as his film work over the years, providing juicy fodder for the press. His on-off relationship with glamorous actress Sienna Miller recovered following revelations in 2005 of an affair with his children's nanny while the pair were engaged - but it was soon off again - and then on - and then off again for good (apparently) earlier this year.
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| Star couple: Jude Law and Sienna Miller |
Meanwhile he is throwing himself into his work and was recently in talks about appearing in a new film version of Anna Karenina alongside Keira Knightly.
He also has two further potential blockbusters in the release pipeline this year; 'Contagion' (also starring Matt Damon) and 'Hugo Cabret' (with Johnny Depp).
Law's acting bug certainly took a hold early. Born in December 1972 in Southeast London, he joined the National Youth Music Theatre at the age of 12 and at 17 won a role in the tv soap Families (giving up his A levels in the process).
His passion for theatre, however, brings him back to the stage regularly and in 2009 he starred as Hamlet in the West End winning rave reviews - so much so the production was quickly profitable and transferred to Broadway.
He will be back in the West End in August this year appearing in a production the Eugene O'Neill play Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden.
Law also cashes in on his pretty boy looks beyond the silver screen, topping up his income with sizeable fees from endorsements for big cosmetics and fashion brands, including Dior Homme fragrance and the Alfred Dunhill.
But he has a generous streak. As one of the three actors who stood in for Heath Ledger who died during the making of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus' in 2008, he donated his fee towards the upbringing of the late actor's daughter Matilda.
He also gets heavily involved in fundraising for several causes including Make Poverty History, the Young Vic Theatre in London, UNICEF and Macmillan Cancer Support. He is politically aware and in March joined a demonstration against oppression in Belarus.
Last month Law began fighting for his own cause – his privacy - and through his lawyers announced legal action against the News of the World over phone hacking.
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| Talented Mr Ripley: Jude Law, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon |
His case will be used as one of five test cases to help decide in January 2012 the level of compensation phone-hacking victims should be awarded by the publication. His ex-fiancée Miller recently accepted a £100,000 settlement from the newspaper for hacking into her phone.
It is not the best solution as the cost of bridging loans could soon mount up.
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