George Sanders (actor)

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This article is about the actor. For other people with the name George Sanders, see George Sanders (disambiguation).
George Henry Sanders

from the trailer for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
Born July 3, 1906 (1906-07-03)
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died April 25, 1972 (aged 65)
Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Years active 1929 - 1972
Spouse(s) Susan Larson
(m. October 27, 1940, div. 1949)
Zsa Zsa Gabor
(m. April 2, 1949, div.April 2, 1954)
Benita Hume
(m. February 10, 1959, died November 1, 1967)
Magda Gabor
(m. December 4, 1970, div. January 16, 1971)

George Sanders (born George Henry Sanders) (July 3, 1906 – April 25, 1972) was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, of British parents. In 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, when Sanders was 11, the family returned to Britain and, like his brother, he attended Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton. He then attended Manchester Technical College in Manchester, England. After graduation he worked in an advertising agency. It was there that the company secretary, an aspiring actress named Greer Garson, suggested to him a career in acting. Sanders' lookalike older brother, Tom Conway, was also a movie actor, to whom Sanders later handed over the role of The Falcon in The Falcon's Brother (1942). The only other film in which the two real-life brothers appeared together was Death of a Scoundrel (1956). In both films they played brothers.

[edit] Career

Sanders 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 throughout the next decade. He played supporting roles in prestige productions such as Rebecca, in which he joined forces with Judith Anderson in her persecution of Joan Fontaine. He also played leading roles in such less high-profile pictures as Rage in Heaven. During this time he was also the lead in both The Falcon and The Saint film series, and also 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 Sanders gave his most widely recognised performance, and achieved his greatest success, as the acerbic, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

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, G. Emory Partridge, in a 1965 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. episode, "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair", and reprised the role later that year in "The Yukon 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.

[edit] Other projects

Sanders has two crime novels to his credit: Crime on My Hands (1944, written in the first person and mentioning his "Saint" and "Falcon" movies) and Stranger at Home (1946). These were published simply to cash in on his screen success, and both were ghostwritten: the former by Craig Rice, the latter by Leigh Brackett.

In 1958 Sanders recorded an album entitled The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady. Released by ABC-Paramount Records, the album offered lush string arrangements of romantic ballads, crooned by Sanders in a persuasive baritone. He went to great lengths to get himself signed to sing in South Pacific, but was overwhelmed with anxiety over the role and quickly dropped out. Sanders' singing voice can be heard in Call Me Madam and Disney's The Jungle Book as Shere Khan. He signed for the role of Sheridan Whiteside in the stage musical Sherry! (1967) based on the Kaufman - Hart play The Man Who Came to Dinner, but felt overwhelmed by the demands of the production, and resigned when his wife, actress Benita Hume, found she had terminal bone cancer.

[edit] Marriages

On 27 October 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. (In 1956 Sanders and Gabor starred together in the film Death of a Scoundrel.) On 10 February 1959 Sanders married actress Benita Hume, widow of actor Ronald Colman. Benita Hume died in 1967. on 4 December 1970, Sanders married Magda Gabor, the older sister of his second wife; the marriage lasted only 6 weeks. Following this he began to drink heavily.

His autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad, was published in 1960 and received critical praise for its wit. Sanders, himself, suggested the title A Dreadful Man for the biography of him later written by Brian Aherne and published in 1979.

[edit] Later Life

In his later years, Sanders suffered from bewilderment and bouts of anger, both made worse by health problems. He was losing his balance, among other things, and can actually be seen visibly teetering his way about in his very last films. He also had a minor stroke, according to correspondence quoted in the book of his friend and biographer Brian Aherne. His latest girlfriend, a Mexican woman, much younger than himself, induced him to sell his beloved house in Majorca, Spain - an act which he regretted bitterly afterwards. From then on, he drifted. But house or no house, what stands out is that he couldn't bear the idea of losing his health, of being dependant on someone else's care. By this time Sanders was fed up with life anyway. It was around this time he dragged his grand piano out into the lawn and smashed it to pieces with an axe because he couldn't play it anymore. (Source: from George Sanders biography book)

[edit] Death

Soon after, he checked into a hotel in Castelldefels, a coastal town near Barcelona, Spain. His body was discovered two days later, along with five empty bottles of Nembutal. He left behind a suicide note that 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."

His friend David Niven recorded in his autobiography Bring On The Empty Horses that Sanders had predicted, many years earlier, in 1937 at age 31, that he would commit suicide at the age of 65. In 1972, he fulfilled this prediction.

His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the English Channel.

[edit] Tribute

To mark his 102nd birthday on July 3, 2008 the cable channel Turner Classic Movies will be showing his movies from seven in the morning until about eight at night. They are starting off with Samson and Delilah and have Assignment in Paris, Witness to Murder and so on.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

[edit] Theatre and Stage Productions

Title: Conversation Piece

44th Street Theatre

Opening: 23 October, 1934

Closing: 8 December, 1934

Total Performances: 55

Category: Play, Romantic Comedy, Original, Broadway

Description: A play in three acts

Setting: Brighton, England, 1811.

[edit] Further reading

  • Aherne, Brian (1979), A Dreadful Man, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0671247972 
  • Sanders, George (1960), Memoirs of a Professional Cad, G.P. Putnam's Sons, ISBN 0810825791 
  • Vanderbeets, Richard (1990), George Sanders: An Exhausted Life, Madison Books, ISBN 0819178063 


[edit] External links

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Awards
Preceded by
Dean Jagger
for Twelve O'Clock High		 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1950
for All About Eve		 Succeeded by
Karl Malden
for A Streetcar Named Desire


Persondata
NAME Sanders, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg, Russia
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1972
PLACE OF DEATH Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain