Philip Marlowe

Philip Marlowe was created by Raymond Chandler, one of the preeminent mystery writers of the mid-1900s. Marlow, an ex-cop, scrapes out a meager existence in a gray-half world next to crime, tangling with gangsters, pillars of society with hidden secrets, and cops, some crooked and some not. Although he does not necessarily obey the law, he always obeys his own sense of justice.

Along with Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler was one the founders of the hardboiled detective story. Before they achieved popularity, the amateur, sometimes gentleman, detective was the dominant genre; think of Ellery Queen, literature's Philo Vance, and Lord Peter Wimsey.

Chandler's Marlowe and Hammett's Continental Op (much more than the better-known detective from the Thin Man, Nick Charles) set the style for generations of writers who followed and for many of the private eye shows on old time radio. Marlowe, in particular, was a favorite of Hollywood, being portrayed by actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Dick Powell and, more recently, and, in my opinion, less effectively, by Powers Booth.

For more information, see Wikipedia.

Series description provided by Frank Bell.