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."
------------------------------ 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. Mordicus11. The Quiller Memorandum (1966) as Gibbs
12. Trunk to Cairo (1966) as Professor Schlieben
13. The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) as The Banker14. 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
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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)