James Moriarty

Character
Name:	James Moriarty
Occupation:	Criminal Mastermind, Professor, army coach
Relationships:	Sherlock Holmes (archenemy), Colonel Sebastian Moran (side-kick, friend), Colonel James Moriarty (brother)
Fandom:	Sherlock Holmes
Other:
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Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Professor James Moriarty is widely considered Sherlock Holmes' archenemy in the Sherlock Holmes series, although he is only directly involved in two of the original stories. Moriarty is a popular antagonist for pastiches.

Canon

He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order.

- Sherlock Holmes on Professor Moriarty, The Final Problem by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes considers Moriarty to be his intellectual equal, and he admires Moriarty's skill even while he is horrified by his crimes. He considers Moriarty the most dangerous man in London, and even says of him, "if I could beat that man, if I could free society of him, I should feel that my own career had reached its summit."

Professor Moriarty is introduced in The Final Problem. Holmes is about to take down Moriarty's criminal operation, but fearing for his life Holmes flees England to Switzerland and the Reichenbach Falls. There, both he and Moriarty allegedly fall to their deaths, though it is later revealed that Holmes survives.

Moriarty is also referred to in The Empty House when Holmes returns and reveals how he survived, and he also plays a key role in the novel The Valley of Fear which was published after The Final Problem but is ostensibly set before that story.

Moriarty is a "man of good birth and excellent education," and he is a genius at mathematics. At the age of 21 he wrote "a treatise upon the Binomial Theorem" and as a result of this won the Mathematical Chair at an unspecified (though presumably British) university. He later resigned this chair due to "dark rumours" about him and moved to London where he became an army coach. He has at least one brother, although probably two - one, a Colonel, also named James, and a younger brother, name unknown, who is a stationmaster in the west of England. He has grey eyes and is said to have grey hair in The Valley of Fear. He is pale, tall and thin and his manner of speech is described as "soft" and "precise". He has a habit of "oscillating" his face from side to side. He is unmarried. Inspector Alec MacDonald describes him as "a very respectable, learned, and talented sort of man". Moriarty's best known acquaintance is Colonel Sebastian Moran, referred to as both Moriarty's chief of staff and as his friend and "bosom friend". He is said to own a painting by Jean Baptiste Greuze.

Occasionally, particularly in some early film adaptations, Moriarty's first name is given as Robert instead of James. This is not canonical and stems from the Sherlock Holmes play co-written by William Gillette which premiered in 1899, prior to the publication of The Empty House (1903) in which Conan Doyle gave Moriarty the first name James.

Moriarty appears to be partly based on a number of real life people including two notable real life criminals, the English thief-taker turned master criminal Jonathan Wild (who is referred to by Sherlock Holmes when discussing Moriarty in The Valley of Fear) and the real 'Napoleon of Crime', fraudster and crime boss Adam Worth whose most famous crime was the theft of the Gainsborough painting Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, a fact which may be reflected in Moriarty himself owning a valuable painting.

Other texts

Professor Moriarty is either referred to or appears in a huge number of other texts by other authors and in numerous screen and audio adaptations. Some of the most notable or best known examples are given below.

Pastiches

Moriarty-centred fiction has been produced by numerous professional authors. The most notable are probably:

• John Gardner; The Return of Moriarty (1974) and sequels
• Michael Kurland; The Infernal Device (1978) and sequels
• Neil Gaiman; A Study in Emerald (2003); Cthulhu Mythos crossover novelette.
• Kim Newman; Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles (2011 - collected Moriarty novelettes). Moriarty also appears as a vampire in Newman's Anno Dracula (1992) though he is not the focus of the story.
• Alan Moore; The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999)
• Anthony Horowitz; Moriarty (2014)
• Various authors, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty (2015)
• Gareth Rubin; Holmes and Moriarty (2024)

Sherlock Holmes (1931 film series)

Moriarty is a recurring villain in the films which feature Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes, appearing in The Sleeping Cardinal (1931), The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) and Murder at the Baskervilles (1937). He was played by Norman McKinnel in the first and then by Lyn Harding in the second two films. In Murder at the Baskervilles, also known as Silver Blaze, Professor Moriarty along with Colonel Moran is shown to be behind the Silver Blaze case, loosely based on the canonical story of that name.

Sherlock Holmes (1939 film series)

Professor Moriarty appears as the villain in three of the films starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, being played by a different actor each time, by George Zucco in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Lionel Atwill in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) and Henry Daniell in The Woman in Green (1945). Some elements of the films are loosely based on various canonical stories.

Sherlock Holmes (Granada)

In the Sherlock Holmes (Granada) TV series, Moriarty's role was expanded on somewhat, showing him as being connected to The Red-Headed League plot. The character was played by Eric Porter.

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

In Young Sherlock Holmes, it is finally revealed at the very end of the film that the young Holmes's fencing instructor Professor Rathe is Moriarty. He is played by Anthony Higgins.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

In Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes film, Professor Moriarty is a shadowy character manipulating Irene Adler. In the film's sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), Moriarty is the film's main antagonist. The character is played by Jared Harris and is one of the few portrayals to show Moriarty as a mathematics professor as well as a criminal mastermind.

Sherlock (BBC)

Jim Moriarty, played by Andrew Scott, is the main antagonist of the series. This depiction of Moriarty is possibly psychologically disturbed, and he plays a "game" with Sherlock Holmes where people die if Sherlock doesn't figure out a case in the allotted time frame.

Jim really plays up the hoyay between himself and Sherlock, much to the delight of fans.

Elementary

Although not the main series villain, the identity of Moriarty was important in the climax of the first season of Elementary. Elementary is fairly unique in having a female Moriarty, called Jamie Moriarty.

Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century

In Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, the long-dead Moriarty is cloned and resumes his life of crime in the future. This prompts Detective Beth Lestrade to resurrect Holmes to stop him, thus beginning the series. Moriarty is the antagonist behind nearly all the crimes in the show.

Yuukoku no Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)

Yuukoku no Moriarty or Moriarty the Patriot is a manga series (published starting in 2016) which has also been adapted into a 24 part anime series and 2 stage plays. In it Professor Moriarty is effectively split into three characters, the Moriarty brothers William James, Albert James and Louis James Moriarty who together become the 'Lord of Crime' and key parts of their backstory is covered. William James though is the actual Professor Moriarty who also works as a mathematics professor. The three brothers are also aided by their other associates including Sebastian Moran and James Bonde. Moriarty is shown as far younger than in most portrayals of the character and much of the focus is on William's sometimes antagonistic but also mutually respectful and friendly relationship with Sherlock Holmes.

Moriarty (podcast)

Moriarty is a drama podcast created and written by Charles Kindinger, produced by Treefort Media and Audible, with two seasons, Moriarty: The Devil's Game (2022) and Moriarty: The Silent Order (2023). It effectively reverses the usual narrative, portraying Moriarty largely as an innocent man who is framed for murder and having Sherlock Holmes be far more villainous. It is also a rare example of Moriarty being portrayed as a romantic figure and of him being put into a heterosexual relationship. Sebastian Moran also features in it as a major character who becomes Moriarty's friend. Moriarty is played by Dominic Monaghan.

Sherlock & Co.

In the Sherlock & Co. podcast, Professor James Moriarty has been briefly mentioned or alluded to a number of times across various episodes.

Influence

Star Trek: The Next Generation

A holographic version of Moriarty, played by Daniel Davis, appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Originally created to be a challenging holodeck opponent for Data, it gained self-awareness, built equipment to seize control of the Enterprise, and demanded its rights as a sentient being.

Doctor Who

The Master was made to be the "Moriarty" to The Doctor's "Sherlock Holmes".

The Librarians (2014)

In the second season of The Librarians the fictional sorcerer Prospero, who has become real thanks to the belief of generations of audiences, uses a surge of magic to summon Moriarty (David S. Lee) from a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories and bring him into the real world as his agent.

Fandom

Shipping

Moriarty's most common parings are Moriarty/Moran and the enemyslash pairing of Holmes/Moriarty. Outside of BBC's Sherlock, which has the somewhat common Jim/Molly pairing, het pairings involving Moriarty are very rare.

• Moriarty/Moran

Common Tropes and Storylines in Fanworks

• Backstory: very little is known about Moriarty's past, other than he was intelligent, well educated, was a mathematics professor and became a criminal mastermind. This leaves it open for fans to fill in the gaps of Moriarty's upbringing and rise to power however they wish in their fanworks
• Recurring Character: Moriarty only really features in one canon story, The Final Problem, although he does play a key role in The Valley of Fear and the remnants of his criminal network are a major plot point in The Empty House. Many fans will increase Moriarty's presence in their fanworks, having him become a recurring antagonist, either by increasing his involvement with Holmes before their fatal showdown at Reichenbach Falls, or have Moriarty return somehow and have them be a repeated threat to Holmes and Watson.

Example Fanworks

Fanfic

• The Devil by tiger_moran (2020)

Meta

• The Mythology of Moriarty and Moran by tiger_moran (2023)

External Resources

• Professor Moriarty entry on Wikipedia