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George Sanders (July 3, 1906 â?? April 25, 1972) was an English actor in British and American films.
Birth in Russia
Sanders was born in St Petersburg, Russia of British parents. In 1917, when he was eleven, the family returned to Britain on the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and he attended Brighton College. After graduation he worked at a British advertising agency. It was there that the company secretary, an aspiring actress named Greer Garson, suggested a career in acting. His elder brother Tom Conway was also a film actor, to whom Sanders handed over the role of 'The Falcon'.
Film
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 was utilised in American films during the next decade. He played memorable supporting roles in prestige productions such as Rebecca, in which he goaded the sinister Judith Anderson as Mrs Danvers, in her persecution against Joan Fontaine and he 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.
All about Eve
In 1950 he gave his most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the acid-tongued, manipulative, cold-blooded theatre critic "Addison DeWitt" in All About Eve, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
Television
He moved into the field of television and was responsible for the successful series George Sanders Mystery Theatre and provided the voice for the malevolent Shere Khan in the Walt Disney production of The Jungle Book. Sanders is noted as the first of the 'Urbane Villains' in many of the Disney animations that followed. Scar of the Lion King (Jeremy Irons) and Judge Frollo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame (Tony Jay) are two recent examples.
Benita Hume
Offscreen Sanders cultivated the image of a cultured playboy, a role not far removed from his screen characterisations, but in reality he was very happily married to actress Benita Hume from 1959 until her death in 1967. It was during this period that he completed his autobiography Memoirs of a Professional Cad, a work that, though now out of print, is still celebrated for its wit.
Singing
Sanders not only had dramatic flair, he was a talented singer. He released an album entitled The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady and went to great lengths to get himself signed to sing in South Pacific, but severe anxiety over the role caused him to quickly drop it. Sanders' voice can be heard in one of his later films, Call Me Madam.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
He had been married from 1940 - 1949 to Susan Larson and ended up in divorce. From 1949 until 1954, he was married to the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. He and Zsa Zsa remained close friends after their divorce; it was Zsa Zsa that urged Sanders to marry another of the Gabor sisters - Magda - after Hume's death, but this union lasted less than a year.
Death
For many years Sanders lived in Spain and it was in Castelldefels (a coastal town near Barcelona, Catalonia) that he committed suicide with an overdose of barbituates, 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. One of Sanders's final screen roles was in the 1972 feature film version of the popular television series Doomwatch.
Trivia
- Sanders published an autobiography in 1960 titled Memoirs of a Professional Cad.
- 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. Sellars and Sanders acted together in the Pink Panther sequel, "A Shot In The Dark".
- He has been honoured with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - for Motion Pictures at 1636 Vine St, and for Television at 7007 Hollywood Blvd.
- He is mentioned in the Kinks' song "Celluloid Heroes": "And if you covered him with garbage/George Sanders would still have style," referring in fact to his star on Hollywood Blvd and referring allegorically to Sander's screen persona.
Selected filmography
- Lloyd's of London (1936)
- Things to Come (1936)
- The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
- Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
- The Saint in London (1939)
- Foreign Correspondent (1940)
- Rebecca (1940)
- The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
- Rage in Heaven (1941)
- Tales of Manhattan (1942)
- This Land Is Mine (1943)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
- The Strange Woman (1946)
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
- Forever Amber (1947)
- Samson and Delilah (1949)
- All About Eve (1950)
- Call Me Madam (1953)
- Witness to Murder (1954)
- Viaggio in Italia (1954)
- Moonfleet (1955)
- While the City Sleeps (1956)
- Death of a Scoundrel (1956)
- Never Say Goodbye (1956)
- Village of the Damned (1960)
- The Rebel (1961)
- Operation Snatch (1962)
- A Shot in the Dark (1964)
- Warning Shot (1967)
- The Jungle Book (1967)
- Good Times (1967)
- The Kremlin Letter (1970)
- Endless Night (1971)
- Doomwatch (1972)
External links
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