| Philo Vance | |
|---|---|
_-_Philo_Vance,_1933.jpg) E. M. Jackson illustrated the first appearance of The Kennel Murder Case for Cosmopolitan (November 1932 – February 1933) | |
| First appearance | The Benson Murder Case |
| Last appearance | The Winter Murder Case |
| Created by | S. S. Van Dine |
| Portrayed by | William Powell Basil Rathbone Warren William Paul Lukas Edmund Lowe Wilfrid Hyde-White Grant Richards James Stephenson William Wright Alan Curtis José Ferrer John Emery Jackson Beck Giorgio Albertazzi Jiří Dvořák |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Private detective |
| Nationality | American |
Philo Vance is a fictional amateur detective originally featured in 12 crime novels by S. S. Van Dine in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, films, and radio. He was portrayed as a stylish—even foppish—dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent. "S. S. Van Dine" was the pen name of Willard Huntington Wright, a prominent art critic who initially sought to conceal his authorship of the novels. Van Dine was also a fictional character in the books, a sort of Dr. Watson figure who accompanied Vance and chronicled his exploits.