Professor James Moriarty is the fictional archenemy of Sherlock Holmes in some of the stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He has appeared in several forms outside of the original stories.

Theatre In the William Gillette play, Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty was played on Broadway in the original (1899–1900) run by George Wessells (and again in 1905), then by Frank Keenan (1928), John Miltern (1929–30) and Philip Locke, Clive Revill and Alan Sues from 1974 to 1976. In the play Sherlock Holmes by Ouida Bergère (wife of actor Basil Rathbone), which ran at the New Century Theatre in New York City for only three performances from 30 to 31 October 1953, Moriarty was played by Thomas Gomez. Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke, who played Holmes and Watson in the Granada Television series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984–94), reprised their roles for Jeremy Paul's revisionist stage play, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes (1988–89). The only characters in the play are Holmes and Watson, and it highlights many aspects of their relationship from their first meeting to the Reichenbach Falls. In the second half, it is indicated that Moriarty never existed: he was a figment of Holmes' imagination, as the detective needed a worthy enemy as much as he needed a devoted friend like Watson.

Radio and podcasts Louis Hector played the villain in numerous episodes of NBC's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1934-1935). Orson Welles played Professor Moriarty opposite Sir John Gielgud's Holmes in the episode "The Final Problem" of the 1954 series The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Ralph Truman portrayed Moriarty in the 1955 BBC Home Service adaptation of "The Final Problem". In the BBC Radio 4 November 1992 broadcast of The Final Problem and 24 February 1993 broadcast of The Empty House, Moriarty was played by Michael Pennington. In the 1999 BBC radio comedy series The Newly Discovered Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty was played by Geoffrey Whitehead. In the podcast Hollywood Handbook, Moriarty is played by Hayes Davenport where he is usually fighting the antihero Santaman, played by Sean Clements. In Audible's podcast, Moriarty, Dominic Monaghan essays the character of Moriarty, depicted here as an antihero. In the podcast Sherlock & Co., Moriarty appears as an overarching villain using only voice modulation recycled soundbites and hacking the podcast as voices. While the identity of the voice is currently unknown, he is only referred to as "James M.", "The Spider" or "Napoleon". He first "speaks" to the main cast in an adaption of The Six Napoleons.

Film

Ernest Maupain portrayed Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (1916). Gustav von Seyffertitz portrayed Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (1922). Norman McKinnel portrayed Moriarty in The Sleeping Cardinal (1931). Ernest Torrence portrayed Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes (1932). Lyn Harding portrayed Moriarty in The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935) and Silver Blaze (1937). George Zucco portrayed Moriarty in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). Lionel Atwill portrayed Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942). Henry Daniell portrayed Moriarty in The Woman in Green (1945). Hans Söhnker portrayed Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962). Leo McKern portrayed Moriarty in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975). Laurence Olivier portrayed Moriarty in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), based on the 1974 revisionist novel of the same name. In this version he is not the story's villain, but merely a harmless man who becomes a victim of Holmes' increasingly paranoid delusions, brought on by his addiction to cocaine and based on the fact that Moriarty indirectly contributed to the death of Holmes' mother, who was his lover. In Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Anthony Higgins plays Holmes' schoolmaster, Rathe, who turns out to be an evil Egyptian mastermind called "Eh-Tar", who is presumed drowned after his last confrontation with the young Holmes and Watson. During the long credit roll at the end of the film, Eh-Tar (having survived his apparent death) is seen walking to an inn and signs the ledger as "Moriarty", indicating that he will become Holmes' archenemy in the future. Higgins later portrayed Holmes in Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993), making him one of only two actors to portray both Holmes and Moriarty on film (Richard Roxburgh being the other; Orson Welles played both Holmes and Moriarty in radio programmes). Vincent Price did the voice of Professor Ratigan, a character similar to Moriarty in The Great Mouse Detective (1986). He attempts an elaborate scheme to replace the mouse Queen with a clockwork robot that will appoint Ratigan her royal consort and give him full power over the empire, but Basil (the Holmes equivalent) exposes the deception, culminating in Ratigan falling from Big Ben during a final confrontation. Paul Freeman appeared as Moriarty in Without a Clue (1988); the film revolves around the premise that Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley), who is the real crime-solving genius, has hired a boozy, out-of-work actor (Michael Caine) to play "Holmes". Moriarty is aware of the deception and refers to "Holmes" as "that imbecile", as opposed to Watson, whom he grudgingly respects. The case concludes with Moriarty being defeated in a duel with "Holmes" and forced to flee the old theatre where he had set up a printing press to produce forged currency using stolen printing plates. Anthony Andrews appeared as Moriarty in Hands of a Murderer (1990). In the anime film Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street (2002), Professor Moriarty tells Conan Edogawa that he trained Jack the Ripper when Jack was a street urchin. Vincent D'Onofrio appeared as Moriarty in the TV movie Sherlock: Case of Evil (2002). In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), the film adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore, Richard Roxburgh portrays the main antagonist named the Fantom, whose true identity was eventually revealed to be Professor James Moriarty in the climax. After a duel with Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), he flees after delivering a fatal blow to the hunter, but is shot in the back by Tom Sawyer (Shane West) using Quatermain's rifle and shooting lessons. In the 2009 film, Sherlock Holmes, Moriarty appears as a shadowy, mysterious villain employing Irene Adler. The role was voiced by the film's dialect coach, Andrew Jack (although director Guy Ritchie refused to reveal his identity). Jared Harris played the role in the 2011 sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, as well as redubbing the character's lines from the first film in subsequent home releases and television broadcasts. Jamie Demetriou voiced a pie mascot version of Moriarty in the 2018 animated film Sherlock Gnomes. Ralph Fiennes portrayed Moriarty in the 2018 film Holmes & Watson, an otherwise comedic take on the Holmes and Watson characters. Sharon Duncan-Brewster portrayed a genderbent version of Moriarty in the 2022 film Enola Holmes 2. This version used the alias of Mira Troy (a flashback reveals that it is an anagram of her name) and posed as the secretary of Lord Charles McIntyre where they made use of corrupt police superintendent Grail and his fellow corrupt police officers in covering up their illegal activities.

Television John Huston portrayed Moriarty in the made-for-TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) opposite Roger Moore's Holmes, attempting to rob the international gold exchange in New York while threatening Irene Adler’s son to prevent Holmes from investigating. Holmes and Watson are able to rescue the son and solve the crime regardless, forcing Moriarty to flee after a last attempt to kidnap Irene's son after Holmes exposes the truth behind the crime and is able to arrange for the rest of Moriarty's American forces to be arrested. In the Soviet series of television films The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1979–1986) by Igor Maslennikov, Moriarty was played by Viktor Yevgrafov and voiced by Oleg Dahl in the second film of the series, also titled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (1980). The film is made of three episodes: "The King of Blackmail" (based on "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton"), "Deadly Fight" (based on "The Final Problem") and "The Tiger Hunt" (based on "The Adventure of the Empty House"). An anthropomorphic incarnation of Moriarty appeared in the anime series Sherlock Hound (1984–1985), voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka for Japanese and Hamilton Camp for English. During the series, Moriarty is the main antagonist behind every crime in almost each episode. As the characters were depicted as anthropomorphic dogs, Moriarty himself is seen closely resembling a wolf. Eric Porter portrayed Moriarty in three episodes of the TV series Sherlock Holmes (1984–1994), starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes: "The Red-Headed League" (1985) "The Final Problem" (1985) and "The Empty House" (1986). The three episodes in question are the last two of the first series, known as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and the first one of the second series, known as The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Stock footage of Moriarty also appeared as a hallucination in the episode "The Devil's Foot" (1988), also from the second series. In the feature-length episode The Eligible Bachelor (1993), adapted from "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor", Holmes describes Moriarty as "a giant of evil" and says, "I regret Moriarty's death [because] without him, I have to deal with distressed children, cat-owners—pygmies, pygmies of triviality. You see, Moriarty combined science with evil. Organization with precision. Vision with perception. I know of only one person that he misjudged. Me." The episode is part of the third series, known as The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty appeared in two episodes of the animated series BraveStarr (1987–1988), voiced by Jonathan Harris. A holodeck simulation of Professor Moriarty, played by actor Daniel Davis, appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" (1988) and "Ship in a Bottle" (1993), accidentally achieving an artificial sentience when Geordi La Forge asks the holodeck to create an opponent able to defeat Data (rather than Sherlock Holmes). Moriarty also appears in the third season of Star Trek: Picard, once again played by Davis. "Elementary My Dear Winston", the third episode for the 1989 season of The Real Ghostbusters (1986–1992), features Holmes, Watson and Moriarty (voiced by Alan Shearman, Maurice LaMarche, and Rodger Bumpass, respectively) by way of "belief made manifest": so many people believed in them that they became real. Moriarty now has supernatural powers and employs the Hound of the Baskervilles as his henchman. Holmes and Moriarty are both sucked into the Ghostbusters' storage facility while wrestling, in the same manner as the conclusion of "The Final Problem". In the animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century (1999–2001), Moriarty (voiced by Richard Newman) was the villain behind nearly all of the crimes. He had been cloned back to life by a rogue geneticist, requiring Holmes to be "resurrected" as well in order to match him. The body of the original Moriarty was still frozen in ice behind the waterfall that he fell from during his battle with Holmes. Moriarty appears as a holographic character in the Futurama (1999–2013) episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" (2003), voiced by Maurice LaMarche. He comes out of the Holoshed of the Nimbus with Attila the Hun, Jack The Ripper, and Evil (Abraham) Lincoln.