Television and movies are dominated by detectives, with some of the best media following these iconic agents and sleuths as they investigate crime.
Throughout the years on both the big and small screens, audiences have been introduced to some seriously spectacular detectives and notorious sleuths. Shows and films depicting these tough and savvy heroes have become beloved favorites by fans, with viewers across the world being captivated by a juicy and hard-hitting mystery and colorful characters. Since the very creation of Hollywood’s entertainment industry, the cinema has been home to some intriguing and distinct detectives, with silent Sherlock Holmes shorts in the first years of the 20th century followed by famous detective movies like The Thin Man.
Over time, criminal investigators like private detectives and special agents have made for some of the best films ever created, ranging from the tough-as-nails Clint Eastwood San Francisco Inspector Dirty Harry to the aspiring FBI trainee Clarice Starling in the lauded Oscar-winning picture The Silence of the Lambs.
Audiences’ fascination with mystery and sleuths extends beyond the silver screen, with many impressive television shows also featuring unforgettable crime solvers, back to the early days of the great Johnny Staccato. Olivia Benson has been advocating for victims on the long-running crime drama Law & Order: SVU for 23 years, while Benedict Cumberbatch became a household name for his dazzling portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the British series Sherlock. These are some of the most iconic movie and TV detectives and special agents.
Solving crimes in a Hawaiian tropical paradise sounds like a pretty sweet gig, and private investigator Thomas Magnum looked stylish and cool doing it on the 1980s classic crime drama Magnum, P.I. Living a life of luxury on the beachfront estate of Robin’s Nest while cruising around the island of Oahu in his red Ferrari 308, Magnum tackled cases both big and small, precarious and bizarre, and was never afraid to investigate using his own methods of crime solving.
From paramilitary adventures to espionage, murder to drug operations, the character handled it all. Tom Selleck portrayed the Hawaiian shirt-wearing, mustached Magnum brilliantly, winning both an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for his charming and exciting performance; he famously passed on the role of another iconic characters, Indiana Jones, in order to portray the notorious private investigator.
The legendary Jack Nicholson portrayed the hardened and combative private investigator Jake Gittes in the 1974 Oscar-winning noir thriller Chinatown, following the Los Angeles private eye as he investigates what he believed to be a typical infidelity case but quickly finds himself tangled in a web of murder and mayhem. Screenwriter Robert Towne wrote the role of Gittes specifically with Nicholson in mind, with the pair having been close friends and even roommates, having repeatedly stated, “I could not have written that character without knowing Jack.”
Nicholson’s performance as the dangerous Gittes in the famed Roman Polanski thriller earned rave reviews and cemented the P.I. in cinema history, with Roger Ebert noting, “As Jake Gittes, he stepped into Bogart’s shoes. As a man attractive to audiences because he suggests both comfort and danger…From Gittes forward, Nicholson created the persona of a man who had seen it all and was still capable of being wickedly amused.” It remains arguably the greatest neo-noir of the '70s and all time.
Undoubtedly the brains behind the amateur teen sleuths Mystery, Inc. is hands down the sharp and savvy Velma Dinkley in the beloved Scooby-Doo franchise. The turtleneck loving Velma has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and just can’t help but lose her glasses while the gang is on a spooky and thrilling case. The character is constantly debunking any paranormal or otherworldly experiences, using her impressive wit and problem-solving abilities to solve the mystery first, often waiting till the very end to lay out her astute conclusions.
Velma’s creation and personality was inspired by the brainy sweater girl Zelda Gilroy from the early 1960s sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, with Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy also being based on characters from the show. In 2013, TV Guide ranked Scooby-Doo as the fifth greatest TV cartoon of all time, and those meddling kids would never have solved any mysteries if it weren't for Velma.
Silver screen icon Clint Eastwood appeared as the tough and hardened San Francisco Inspector Harry Callahan in the revered 1971 neo-noir thriller Dirty Harry, which features the steely lawman as he sets out to find a psychopath known as “the Scorpio Killer” who is terrorizing the residents of the city. The famed antihero is never one to shy away from abandoning professional boundaries and using questionable methods to gain intel, showcasing his impressive hand-to-hand combat skills and marksmanship throughout the picture.
With his trademark .44 Magnum six-shooter in tow, “Dirty” Harry is determined to protect and avenge those who have fallen victim to violent crimes, oftentimes using brute force to do so. The notorious Eastwood character went on to fight crime in four additional Dirty Harry movies, with both the film and Callahan being credited with establishing the popular “loose-cannon” cop genre.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential shows to change television, the mystery-horror serial drama Twin Peaks follows FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper as he travels to the titular Washington town to investigate the brutal murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. The offbeat and highly intelligent Cooper has a penchant for mythology and all things mystical, frequently relying on his intuition to help him make discoveries and solve cases.
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Creators David Lynch and Mark Frost wanted to create a series based in a small town, with Frost saying they set out to tell “a sort of Dickensian story about multiple lives in a contained area that could sort of go perpetually,” and named the lead character after the mysterious D.B. Cooper. Twin Peaks is acknowledged as a landmark turning point in television drama, and since its release has garnered a passionate cult following.
Admired for her profound resiliency and empathy for the victims she champions for, Detective and later Captain Olivia Benson is the longest-running primetime live-action character of all time, having been saving lives on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit since 1999. After overcoming a traumatic childhood of her own, Benson fiercely fights to deliver justice for the victims and cases she takes on, doing so brilliantly with her longtime partner Elliot Stabler for the first 12 seasons of the show.
Despite constantly being put through the ringer and enduring both physical abuse and sexual violence as a devoted detective, the multi-layered character never loses her fighting spirit and remains more determined than ever to protect the citizens of New York City. For her role as Olivia Benson, Mariska Hargitay has received both an Emmy and Golden Globe Award, with the San Francisco Chronicle calling the courageous detective, “our own special hero. She battles evil, avenges her mother, faces her demons but refuses to date them.”
Amateur detective and best-selling mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher finds herself at the heart of a series of gruesome murders in the small coastal community of Cabot Cove, Maine in the long-running crime drama Murder, She Wrote. The creative and savvy Fletcher regularly uses her remarkable deductive reasoning and astute observations to help piece clues together regarding the many murders that plague the sleepy town, many times outperforming the authorities.
Angela Lansbury was extremely protective of her character, having creative input over Fletcher’s appearance, personality and relationship status; the actress saw Jessica as a positive role model for older female viewers, having expressed her “enormous, universal appeal – that was an accomplishment I never expected in my entire life.” Many have accredited Jessica Fletcher as paving the way for older female protagonists and shows, such as the ‘80s staple The Golden Girls.
The superb Jodie Foster earned the Academy Award for Best Actress in the critically-acclaimed 1991 psychological horror film The Silence of the Lambs, in which she portrays the aspiring FBI trainee Clarice Starling, who seeks the help from the imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter to catch a terrifying murderer. The intellectually brilliant Lecter provides the steadfast agent cryptic clues in discovering the identity of the killer, with the pair forming an unusual mutual respect for one another.
Foster was a fan of the novel and has called the role one of her favorites, having been pleased that it featured “a real female heroine” and saying that its plot was not “about steroids and brawn, but about using your mind and using your insufficiencies to combat the villain.” Her portrayal of the driven and bold Clarice Starling is highly ranked as one of the greatest cinema performances of all time, landing in the top ten of AFI’s greatest heroes and villains list.
Iconic dream team Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (David Duchovny & Gillian Anderson) are renowned FBI special agents famous for tackling unsolved cases regarding paranormal phenomena on the smash hit sci-fi drama The X-Files, with the duo brilliantly balancing one another due to Mulder being a staunch believer and Scully a true skeptic. Mulder is constantly generating theories regarding extraterrestrials and otherworldly experiences, while his partner and medical doctor Scully chooses to base her beliefs on what science can prove.
Despite being seemingly mismatched, the special agents push and motivate one another to look at every angle of a case, successfully solving crimes and protecting countless innocent lives. Chris Carter created the juggernaut series after growing tired of working on comedies, and opened up about the two dynamic characters, having said, “Mulder and Scully came right out of my head. A dichotomy. They are the equal parts of my desire to believe in something and my inability to believe in something. My skepticism and my faith.”
The distinguished writer Agatha Christie created the first-rate Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, making him one of her most famous and long-running characters, having appeared in more than 33 novels and 50 short stories. The eccentric and highly-intelligent Poirot is extremely fond of punctuality and has obsessive-compulsive tendencies, which often helps him notice minute details that may have otherwise been overlooked.
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The logical and clue based detective has been portrayed on both radio, film and television by a slew of notable performers like Albert Finney, Orson Welles, and John Malkovich, with Kenneth Branagh playing Poirot most recently in the 2022 mystery film Death on the Nile. The 1974 British picture Murder on the Orient Express (which Branagh also remade) starred the aforementioned Finney as Poirot, and is regarded by the author herself and critics as one of the finest on-screen adaptations of her work to date.
Portrayed by the charming Peter Falk, the shrewd blue-collar homicide detective Frank Columbo works for the Los Angeles Police Department solving many high profile cases, using his disarming demeanor and laid-back attitude to lower the defenses of his homicide suspects. Famous for his rumpled beige raincoat, Peugeot 403 convertible, and love of cigars, Columbo may come off as self-effacing but he secretly possesses an encyclopedic knowledge that serves him well on all his fascinating cases.
Memorable for always having “just one more thing” to ask and analyze (usually leading to him catching the culprit), Columbo is relentless in his investigative approach and search for the truth. The character’s wardrobe actually belonged to Falk, and the actor frequently ad-libbed Columbo’s idiosyncrasies, believing it helped cause a genuine impatient and confused reaction from his on-screen co-stars.
The most portrayed literary character in television and film history, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic detective Sherlock Holmes is renowned for his keen observations and deduction skills, utilizing both forensic science and logical reasoning to solve his countless cases. Holmes has appeared in 56 short stories and four novels by the legendary author, and by the 1990s the beloved detective had already been the subject of over 25,000 stage adaptations, shows, films, and publications.
Conan Doyle had said that the character was inspired by the real-life Scottish surgeon and lecturer Joseph Bell, whom the author met and worked for; he noticed how gifted Bell was at drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. The eccentric Sherlock Holmes is aided by his best friend and assistant Dr. John H. Watson, with the duo drawing upon their own strengths when tackling cases. In recent years, Benedict Cumberbatch has brilliantly portrayed the character on the British series Sherlock and Robert Downey Jr. was a scene-stealer as the eccentric Holmes in the film series.