Biography:
George Sanders (July 3, 1906 – April 25, 1972) was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor. Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, of British parents. In 1917, when he was eleven, the family returned to Britain on the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and, like his brother, he attended Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton.
After graduation he worked at an advertising agency. It was there that the company secretary, an aspiring actress named Greer Garson, suggested a career in acting. His older brother, Tom Conway, was also an actor, to whom Sanders later handed over the role of "The Falcon". He made his British film debut in 1934 and after a series of British films made his American debut in 1936 with a role in "Lloyd's of London". His British accent and sensibilities, combined with his suave, snobbish and somewhat menacing air were utilised in American films during the next decade.
He played supporting roles in prestige productions such as "Rebecca", in which he goaded the sinister Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, in her persecution of Joan Fontaine. He also played leading roles in lesser pictures such as "Rage in Heaven". During this time he was also the lead in both "The Falcon" and "The Saint" film series.
He played Lord Henry Wotton in a film version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray". In 1947 he co-starred with Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison in The "Ghost and Mrs. Muir". In 1950 he gave his most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the acid-tongued, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve", winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
He moved into the field of television and was responsible for the successful series "George Sanders Mystery Theatre". Sanders played an upper crust English villain in a 1965 "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." episode. "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair". He also portrayed Mr. Freeze in two episodes of the 1960s live-action "Batman" TV series.
Later, he provided the voice for the malevolent Shere Khan in the Walt Disney production of The "Jungle Book". One of Sanders's final screen roles was in the 1972 feature film version of the popular television series "Doomwatch".
Sanders' smooth voice, urbane manner and upper-class British accent were the inspiration for the Peter Sellers' character "Hercules Grytpype-Thynne" in the famous BBC radio comedy series "The Goon Show". Sellers and Sanders appeared together in the "Pink Panther" sequel, "A Shot in the Dark".
He was honoured with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 1636 Vine St, and for Television at 7007 Hollywood Blvd. In popular culture, he is mentioned in The Kinks' song "Celluloid Heroes" and his ghost makes an appearance in Clive Barker's 2001 novel Coldheart Canyon.
Sanders released an album entitled The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady. He went to great lengths to get himself signed to sing in South Pacific, but was overwhelmed with anxiety over the role he quickly dropped out. Sanders' singing voice can be heard in "Call Me Madam" and "The Jungle Book". 1946 saw the publication of the crime novel, "Stranger at Home" by George Sanders. In fact, this was published simply to cash in on his screen success; it was ghost-written by Leigh Brackett.
In 1940, he married Susan Larson; the marriage ended in divorce in 1949. From 1949 until 1954, he was married to the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Sanders was married to actress Benita Hume from 1959 until her death in 1967. His last wife was Magda Gabor, his second wife's sister; the marriage lasted a year. It was during this period that he completed his autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad.
Sanders committed suicide in Castelldefels (a coastal town near Barcelona, Catalonia) with an overdose of barbiturates, leaving behind a suicide note that attributed his action to boredom. His friend David Niven recorded in his autobiography that Sanders had predicted his own suicide many years earlier.
On April 23, 1972, George Sanders checked into a hotel near Barcelona. He was in poor health, lonely, bewildered, without a home: a woman he had taken up with in his last years had convinced him to sell his beloved house in Majorca. Two days later, his body was discovered next to five empty tubes of Nembutal. A note read, "Dear World. I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck."
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Complete Filmography:
- 1. Endless Night (1972) as Lippincott
- 2. Psychomania (1971)
- 3. The Kremlin Letter (1970) as The Warlock
- 4. The Body Stealers (1970) as General Armstrong
- 5. The Candy Man (1969) as Sidney Carter [Candy Man]
- 6. One Step to Hell (1969) as Captain Phillips
- 7. The Best House in London (1969) as Sir Francis Leybourne
- 8. Warning Shot (1967) as Calvin York
- 9. The Jungle Book (1967) as Shere Khan The Tiger
- 10. Good Times (1967) as Mr. Mordicus
- 11. The Quiller Memorandum (1966) as Gibbs
- 12. Trunk to Cairo (1966) as Professor Schlieben
- 13. The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) as The Banker
- 14. Ecco (1965) as Narrator
- 15. A Shot in the Dark (1964) as Benjamin Ballon
- 16. Dark Purpose (1964) as Raymond Fontaine
- 17. Cairo (1963) as Major Pickering
- 18. In Search of the Castaways (1962) as Thomas Ayerton
- 19. Operation Snatch (1962) as Major Hobson
- 20. Call Me Genius (1961) as Sir Charles Brouard
- 21. Five Golden Hours (1961) as Mr. Bing
- 22. Trouble in the Sky (1961) as Sir Arnold Hobbes, Queen's Counsel
- 23. Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960) as Landru
- 24. The Last Voyage (1960) as Capt. Robert Adams
- 25. A Touch of Larceny (1960) as Sir Charles Holland
- 26. Village of the Damned (1960) as Gordon Zellaby
- 27. Solomon and Sheba (1959) as Adonijah
- 28. That Kind of Woman (1959) as The Man [A. L.]
- 29. From the Earth to the Moon (1958) as Stuyvesant Nicholl
- 30. The Whole Truth (1958) as Carliss
- 31. Outcasts of the City (1958) as Announcer
- 32. The Seventh Sin (1957) as Tim Waddington
- 33. Death of a Scoundrel (1956) as Clementi Sabourin
- 34. That Certain Feeling (1956) as Larry Larkin
- 35. While the City Sleeps (1956) as Mark Loving
- 36. Never Say Goodbye (1956) as Victor
- 37. The Scarlet Coat (1955) as Dr. Jonathan Odell
- 38. The King's Thief (1955) as Charles Ii
- 39. Night Freight (1955) as Radio Announcer
- 40. Moonfleet (1955) as Lord [James] Ashwood
- 41. The Big Tip Off (1955) as Orator
- 42. Jupiter's Darling (1955) as Fabius Maximus
- 43. King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) as King Richard The Lion-Hearted
- 44. Witness to Murder (1954) as Albert Richter
- 45. Call Me Madam (1953) as Gen. Cosmo Constantine
- 46. Ivanhoe (1953) as De Bois-Guilbert
- 47. Viaggio in Italia (1953)
- 48. Run for the Hills (1953) as Television Commentator
- 49. Assignment--Paris (1952) as Nick Strang
- 50. Hold That Line (1952) as Football Player
- 51. Captain Black Jack (1952) as Mike Alexander
- 52. The Light Touch (1951) as Felix Guignol
- 53. Kentucky Jubilee (1951) as Barker
- 54. I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951) as J. F. Noble
- 55. All About Eve (1950) as Addison Dewitt
- 56. Samson and Delilah (1950) as The Saran Of Gaza
- 57. The Fan (1949) as Lord Robert Darlington
- 58. Forever Amber (1947) as King Charles Ii
- 59. The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) as Miles Fairley
- 60. The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) as Georges Duroy
- 61. Lured (1947) as Robert Fleming
- 62. The Strange Woman (1946) as John Evered
- 63. A Scandal in Paris (1946) as Eugene-François Vidocq
- 64. The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) as Harry Melville Quincy
- 65. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) as Lord Henry Wotton
- 66. Hangover Square (1945) as Dr. Allan Middleton
- 67. Summer Storm (1944) as Fedja Michailovitch Petroff
- 68. The Lodger (1944) as Inspector John Warwick
- 69. Action in Arabia (1944) as Michael Gordon
- 70. Paris After Dark (1943) as Dr. Andre Marbel
- 71. Appointment in Berlin (1943) as Keith Wilson
- 72. This Land Is Mine (1943) as George Lambert
- 73. They Came to Blow Up America (1943) as Carl Steelman
- 74. Quiet Please Murder (1943) as Jim Fleg
- 75. The Black Swan (1942) as Captain Billy Leech
- 76. The Falcon's Brother (1942) as Gay Lawrence, Also Known As "The Falcon"
- 77. Tales of Manhattan (1942) as Williams
- 78. The Moon and Sixpence (1942) as Charles Strickland
- 79. Her Cardboard Lover (1942) as Tony Barling
- 80. The Falcon Takes Over (1942) as Gay Lawrence, Also Known As "The Falcon"
- 81. Son of Fury (1942) as Sir Arthur Blake
- 82. A Date with the Falcon (1942) as Gay Lawrence "The Falcon"
- 83. The Gay Falcon (1941) as Gay Lawrence, Also Known As "The Falcon"
- 84. Sundown (1941) as Major [A. L.] Coombes
- 85. Man Hunt (1941) as [Major] Quive-Smith
- 86. Rage in Heaven (1941) as Ward Andrews
- 87. The Saint in Palm Springs (1941) as Simon Templar, Also Known As The Saint
- 88. The Son of Monte Cristo (1941) as [General] Gurko Lanen
- 89. Bitter Sweet (1940) as Baron Von Tranisch
- 90. Foreign Correspondent (1940) as [Scott] Ffolliott
- 91. The Saint Takes Over (1940) as Simon Templar, The Saint
- 92. So This Is London (1940) as Dr. Dereski
- 93. The House of Seven Gables (1940) as Jaffrey Pyncheon
- 94. Rebecca (1940) as Jack Favell
- 95. Green Hell (1940) as Forrester
- 96. The Saint's Double Trouble (1940) as Simon Templar, "The Saint"/Boss Duke Bates
- 97. Allegheny Uprising (1939) as Capt. Swanson
- 98. Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) as Capt. Heinrichs
- 99. The Saint in London (1939) as Simon Templar, Also Known As "The Saint"
- 100. Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) as [Franz] Schlager
- 101. The Saint Strikes Back (1939) as The Saint [Simon Templar]
- 102. Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939) as Eric Norvel
- 103. Four Men and a Prayer (1938) as Wyatt [Leigh]
- 104. International Settlement (1938) as Del Forbes
- 105. Lancer Spy (1937) as Lieutenant Michael Bruce
- 106. Slave Ship (1937) as Lefty
- 107. The Lady Escapes (1937) as Rene Blanchard
- 108. The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1937) as Indifference
- 109. Love Is News (1937) as Count Andre De Guyon
- 110. Lloyd's of London (1937) as Lord Everett Stacy
Cast (Special):
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- 111. Frances Langford Presents (1959) as Guest in a Special (TV/Other)
- 112. You're the Top (1956) as Guest in a Special (TV/Other)
