MODERN - yes, we're pretty limited. Because it wasn't until post 2010 that anyone wanted (or got enough money to attempt) to reboot Sherlock Holmes as "modern" in the first place. =D
Prior to that though we have several awesome "old skool" Sherlock Holmes actors - both that acted in original movie/tv programs as well as those who acted in tv series/movies based or scripted off the original Doyle Stories.
As an old Sherlockian/Holmesian - I had to post .
And for my money - the best Sherlock Holmes actor, bar none, for me - Jeremy Brett. Played him for years as part of the PBS/BBC Sherlock Holmes Series (from the early 90s) which was a tv series adapting the original Doyle stories and books (and only the original). Brett epitomizes every aspect of the Holmes personality perfectly to me in his acting, and he looks dead-on too. (And for your older-loving Hollywood-philes a Younger Jeremy Brett sang the role of Freddie Einsford Hill in the "My Fair Lady" movie production opposite Aubrey Hepburn. Cracks me up to see Sherlock Singing down the sidewalk in that movie LOL =D).
He will always be "The Sherlock" to me. The one whom all other actors are measured against, for that character.
I'd get into the Stephen King discussion too but that just would keep all of this way off topic and i'm not trying to hijack really LOL. If anyone starts another thread debating adaptations of fiction (Or King specifically) we can talk there LOL. There are SO MANY good and bad adaptations, it really could be its own lecture on "doing it wrong vs. doing it right."
Some adaptations are better for sticking close to the source; some are better for not doing so. Only the finished project will show us and stand for itself. Only then will people find out if character/plot changes (whatever they might be and all of them that are there) were "worth it" or not. Sometimes it works great; sometimes its awful enough for authors to sue to have their names removed (*cough* Lawnmower Man *cough*)
On a related note: Yes, actually, I do consider the Ranklin Bass animated version of The Hobbit to be the far better adaptation than the PJ trilogy. LOTR PJ Trilogy is awesome - the animated Bass movies are "alright". But not his Hobbit; the animated version is far better and, ONE of the reasons I would say it is, is because it is a truer re-telling of the actual book's story - than the live-action trilogy ended up being.