Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is more than a character from a book. He is a Cult Figure, complete with action figure. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the books and something about them caught the imagination of, well, almost everybody. Though he wrote lots, including plays, poetry, and pamphlets, he only wrote four Sherlock Holmes novels and a number of short stories featuring the detective.

Since then, Sherlock Holmes has been immortalized in movies, television, comic books, and books by other authors featuring the man as a character. My favorite of these is The Beekeeper's Apprentice. 

io9 features an entertaining article about instances where SH turns up in science fiction, complete with video clips.