George Sanders

George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and author. His career as an actor spanned over forty years. His upper-class English accent and bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous characters. He is perhaps best known as Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940), Scott ffolliott in Foreign Correspondent (1940) (a rare heroic part), Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950), for which he won an Academy Award, Sir Brian De Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1952), King Richard the Lionheart in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Mr. Freeze in a two-parter episode of Batman (1966), the voice of the malevolent man-hating tiger Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967), and as Simon Templar, "The Saint", in five films made in the 1930s and 1940s.

Early life
Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His parents were Henry Peter Ernest Sanders (1868–1960), and Margarethe Jenny Bertha Sanders (née Kolbe; 1883–1967), who was born in Saint Petersburg, of mostly German, but also Estonian and Scottish, ancestry. A biography published in 1990 claimed that Sanders's father was the illegitimate son of a prince of the House of Oldenburg and a Russian noblewoman of the Czar’s court, married to a sister of the Czar. The actor Tom Conway (1904–1967) was George Sanders's elder brother. Their younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912.

In 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Sanders and his family moved to England. Like his brother, he attended Bedales School and Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton, then went on to Manchester Technical College after which he worked in textile research.

Sanders travelled to South America where he managed a tobacco plantation. The Depression sent him back to England. He worked at an advertising agency, where the company secretary, the aspiring actress Greer Garson, suggested that he take up a career in acting.

Early British work
Sanders learned how to sing and got a role on stage in Ballyhoo, which only had a short run but helped establish him as an actor.

He began to work regularly on the British stage, appearing several times with Edna Best. He co-starred with Dennis King in The Command Performance. He appeared in a British film, Love, Life and Laughter (1934).

Sanders travelled to New York to appear on Broadway in a production of Noël Coward's Conversation Piece (1934), directed by Coward, which only ran 55 performances.

He returned to England, where he had small parts in films like Things to Come (1936), Strange Cargo (1936), Find the Lady (1936), The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), and Dishonour Bright (1936).

Hollywood and 20th Century Fox
Some of these British films were distributed by 20th Century Fox who were looking for an actor to play a villain in their Hollywood-shot film Lloyd's of London (1936). Sanders was duly cast as Lord Everett Stacy, opposite Tyrone Power, in one of his first leads, as the hero; Sanders' smooth upper-class English accent, his sleek manner and his suave, superior and somewhat threatening air made him in demand for American films for years to come.

Lloyds of London was a big hit and in November 1936 Fox put Sanders under a seven-year contract (though he would frequently be loaned to other studios, notably RKO).

Fox cast him opposite Power again in Love Is News (1937), then he supported Wallace Beery in Slave Ship (1937) and Gloria Stuart in The Lady Escapes (1937).

Public response to Sanders had been strong, so Fox gave him his first heroic lead, in the B picture Lancer Spy (1937) with Dolores del Rio. He and del Rio were promptly reteamed in International Settlement (1938).

Sanders was second-billed (to Richard Greene) in John Ford's Four Men and a Prayer (1938), Fox had him play a villain in Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939).

Sanders returned to Britain to make The Outsider (1939) for Associated British Picture Corporation and So This Is London (1939) for Fox.

The Saint
Sanders returned to Hollywood where RKO wanted him to play the hero in a series of B-movies, The Saint. The Saint in New York (1938) had already been made starring Louis Hayward in the title role, but when he decided not to return to the role Sanders took over for The Saint Strikes Back (1939).

After playing an American Nazi in Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) for Warners, Sanders was The Saint in London (1939). Also for RKO he was a villain in Nurse Edith Cavell (1939), as German, with Anna Neagle and Allegheny Uprising (1939), with John Wayne.

He played a double role in The Saint's Double Trouble (1940) then went to Universal for Green Hell (1940) and The House of the Seven Gables (1940).

Alfred Hitchcock wanted him for a supporting role in Rebecca (1940), a huge success. After The Saint Takes Over (1940), Hitchcock used him again in Foreign Correspondent (1940).

MGM used him as a villain in Bitter Sweet (1940) and he performed a similar function for Edward Small in The Son of Monte Cristo (1940). Sanders made his last appearance as Simon Templar in The Saint in Palm Springs (1941), then MGM called him back for Rage in Heaven (1941), an early film noir, playing the trustworthy good guy whose best friend, Robert Montgomery, goes murderously insane and sets him up for the rap.

Sanders was a villain in Man Hunt (1941) but heroic in Sundown (1941).

The Falcon
RKO had been fighting with Leslie Charteris, creator of The Saint, so they stopped the series and put Sanders in a new B picture series about a suave crime fighter, The Falcon. The first entry was The Gay Falcon (1941). It was popular and quickly followed by A Date with the Falcon (1942).

At Fox he was in Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) with Tyrone Power, then it was back to The Falcon Takes Over (1942), based on Farewell, My Lovely.

MGM used him in Her Cardboard Lover (1942) and he was one of several stars in Tales of Manhattan (1942).

Sanders was tiring of The Falcon, so he handed the role to his brother Tom, in The Falcon's Brother (1942), in which both appeared (and Sanders was killed off). The only other film in which the two siblings appeared together was Death of a Scoundrel (1956), in which they also played brothers.

A-picture leading man
Sanders was borrowed by United Artists to play the lead in an A film, The Moon and Sixpence (1942), based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham.

In July 1942 Fox suspended him for refusing the lead in The Undying Monster (1942). "I like to be seen in pictures that at least seem to be slightly worthwhile." In September they suspended him again for refusing an "unsympathetic role" in The Immortal Sergeant (he was replaced by Morton Lowry). In November Fox and Sanders came to terms, with the studio offering him a pay rise and the lead in a film, School for Saboteurs, which became They Came to Blow Up America.

Sanders was a pirate villain in The Black Swan (1943), again fighting Tyrone Power, at Fox; the same studio used him in Quiet Please, Murder (1943).

RKO called him back for This Land Is Mine (1943). They bought an original story for him, Nine Lives, but it does not appear to have been made.

He was loaned to Columbia for Appointment in Berlin (1943).

In February 1943 Fox announced they were developing three films for Sanders - The Porcelain Lady, a murder mystery, plus biopics of the Earl of Suffolk and Bethune.

Fox originally announced him to play the role of the detective in Laura (1944) alongside Laird Cregar, but neither ended up being in the final film.

Fox finished his long-term contract with them in Paris After Dark (1943) and The Lodger (1944), playing the romantic lead to Laird Cregar's title villain.

RKO
Sanders signed a new three-film contract with RKO, starting with Action in Arabia (1944). After Summer Storm (1944), Fox called him back to a Lodger follow up with Cregar, Hangover Square (1945).

Sanders played Lord Henry Wotton in the film version of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) at MGM and had the lead in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1946) at Universal. He did three for United Artists: A Scandal in Paris (1946), The Strange Woman (1946), and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947).

Sanders was the third lead in the elegiac The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) at Fox, supporting Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison.

After playing the lead in Lured (1947) Fox cast him as Charles II in their expensive blockbuster Forever Amber (1949). The same studio used him in The Fan (1949). He was a villain in Cecil B. DeMille's biblical epic Samson and Delilah (1949), the most popular film of the year.

All About Eve and beyond
For his role as the acerbic, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950), Sanders won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He was a leading man in Black Jack (1950) but back to supporting/villain roles in I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951). He signed a three picture deal with MGM for whom he did The Light Touch (1951) and Ivanhoe (1952), playing Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert and dying in a duel with Robert Taylor after professing his love for the Jewish maiden Rebecca, played by Elizabeth Taylor. It was a huge success.

He followed it with Assignment – Paris! (1952), a thriller; Call Me Madam (1953), a rare musical role for Sanders; and Witness to Murder (1954). He starred as King Richard the Lionheart in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954).

Sanders went to Italy to appear opposite Ingrid Bergman in Journey to Italy (1954). Back in Hollywood he made several for MGM: Jupiter's Darling (1955), Moonfleet (1955), The Scarlet Coat (1955), and The King's Thief (1955) (again as Charles II).

In 1955 it was announced he would host and occasionally appear in The Ringmaster, a TV series about the circus. The series was never made. Instead Sanders was in "A Portrait of a Murderer" on The 20th Century-Fox Hour, a remake of Laura (1944), playing the role of Waldo Lydecker, made famous by Clifton Webb.

Sanders was now usually a supporting actor: Never Say Goodbye (1956), While the City Sleeps (1956), That Certain Feeling (1956). On television Sanders appeared with his wife Zsa Zsa Gabor in The Ford Television Theatre ("Autumn Fever") and he had roles in Screen Directors Playhouse.

Sanders played the lead in Death of a Scoundrel (1956) and the TV series The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957).

Sanders was in The Seventh Sin (1957), The Whole Truth (1958), From the Earth to the Moon (1958), and That Kind of Woman (1959). He was seen on TV in Schlitz Playhouse, Studio 57 and Decision.

He worked one last time with Power on Solomon and Sheba (1959); Power died during filming and was replaced by Yul Brynner.

Sanders was in A Touch of Larceny (1960) and The Last Voyage (1960). He had a rare lead in Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960) then after Cone of Silence (1960) had the star part in Village of the Damned (1960), a surprise hit.

Then it was back to supporting parts: Five Golden Hours (1961), Erik the Conqueror (1961), The Rebel (1961), Operation Snatch (1962), In Search of the Castaways (1962). On TV he guest starred on Goodyear Theatre, Alcoa Theatre, General Electric Theater, and Checkmate.

Sanders was top billed in Cairo (1963) then appeared in The Cracksman (1963), Dark Purpose (1964), and The Golden Head (1964). Peter Sellers and Sanders appeared together in the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark (1964). Sanders had earlier inspired Sellers's character Hercules Grytpype-Thynne in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show (1951–60).

Sanders guest starred in The Rogues, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Daniel Boone. He played an upper-crust English villain, G. Emory Partridge, in two episodes of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in 1965, "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair" and "The Yukon Affair". He also portrayed Mr. Freeze in two episodes of the live-action TV series Batman, both shown in February 1966.

In films he was in Last Plane to Baalbek (1965), Trunk to Cairo (1965), The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965), The Quiller Memorandum (1966), Warning Shot (1967), and Good Times (1967) with Sonny and Cher.

Sanders's last significant performance was voicing the malevolent Shere Khan in the Walt Disney production of The Jungle Book (1967).

Sanders declared bankruptcy in 1966 due to some poor investments.

Final films
After being top billed in The Body Stealers (1967), Sanders was in One Step to Hell (1968), another version of Laura (1968) (again as Waldo), The Girl from Rio (1968), The Candy Man (1969), and The Best House in London (1969).

He had a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter (1969), in which his first scene showed him dressed in drag and playing the piano in a gay bar in San Francisco. In 1969 he announced he was leaving show business.

However, he continued to act. His final roles were "Fade Out" with Stanley Baker on ITV Sunday Night, The Night of the Assassin (1970), Mission: Impossible ("The Merchant"), Rendezvous with Dishonour (1971); Doomwatch (1972), a feature film version of a contemporary BBC television series; Endless Night (1972), and Psychomania (1973).

Novels
Two ghostwritten crime novels were published under his name to cash in on his fame at the height of his wartime film series. The first was Crime on My Hands (1944), written in the first person, and mentioning his Saint and Falcon films. This was followed by Stranger at Home in 1946. Both were written by female authors: the former was by Craig Rice, and the latter by Leigh Brackett.

Singing
In 1958 Sanders recorded an album called The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady. The album, released by ABC-Paramount Records, featured lush string arrangements of romantic ballads, crooned by Sanders in a fit baritone/bass (spanning from low to middle C), including "Such is My Love", a song he had himself composed. After going to great lengths to get the role, he appeared in the Broadway cast of South Pacific, but was overwhelmed with anxiety over the singing and quickly dropped out. His singing voice can be heard in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry and in Call Me Madam (1953). He also signed on for the role of Sheridan Whiteside in the stage musical Sherry! (1967), based on Kaufman and Hart's play The Man Who Came to Dinner, but he found the stage production demanding and quit after his wife Benita Hume discovered that she had terminal bone cancer.

During the production of The Jungle Book, Sanders refused to provide the singing voice for his character Shere Khan during the final recording of the song, "That's What Friends Are For". According to Richard Sherman, Bill Lee, a member of The Mellomen, was called in to substitute for Sanders.

Personal life
On 27 October 1940 Sanders married Susan Larson (real name Elsie Poole). The couple divorced in 1949. From later that year until 1954 Sanders was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor, with whom he starred in the film Death of a Scoundrel (1956) after their divorce. On 10 February 1959 Sanders married Benita Hume, widow of Ronald Colman. She died in 1967, the same year Sanders's brother Tom Conway died of liver failure; Sanders had become distant from his brother because of his drinking problem. Sanders endured a further blow in the same year with the death of their mother, Margarethe.

Sanders's autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad, was published in 1960 and gathered critical praise for its wit. Sanders suggested the title A Dreadful Man for his biography, which was later written by his friend Brian Aherne and published in 1979. Sanders's last marriage, on 4 December 1970, was to Magda Gabor, the elder sister of his second wife. This marriage lasted only 32 days, after which he began drinking heavily.

Final years and death
Sanders suffered from dementia, worsened by waning health, and visibly teetered in his last films, owing to a loss of balance. According to Aherne's biography, he also had a minor stroke. Sanders could not bear the prospect of losing his health or needing help to carry out everyday tasks and became deeply depressed. At about this time he found that he could no longer play his grand piano, so he dragged it outside and smashed it with an axe. His last girlfriend persuaded him to sell his beloved house in Majorca, Spain, which he later bitterly regretted. From then on he drifted.

On 23 April 1972, Sanders checked into a hotel in Castelldefels, a coastal town near Barcelona. He died of a cardiac arrest two days later, after swallowing the contents of five bottles of the barbiturate Nembutal. He left behind three suicide notes, one of which 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."

Sanders's body was returned to Britain for funeral services. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the English Channel.

David Niven wrote in Bring on the Empty Horses (1975), the second volume of his memoirs, that in 1937 his friend George Sanders had predicted that he would commit suicide from a barbiturate overdose when he was 65 and that in his 50s he had appeared to be depressed since his marriages had failed and several tragedies had befallen him.

Honours and references in popular culture
Sanders has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for films at 1636 Vine Street and television at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.

He is mentioned in the song "Celluloid Heroes" by the Kinks: "If you covered him with garbage/George Sanders would still have style."

Sanders' ghost makes an appearance in Clive Barker's novel Coldheart Canyon (2001), as well as in the animated feature film Dante's Inferno (2007). In 2005, Charles Dennis played Sanders in his own play High Class Heel at the National Arts Club in New York City.

In the "House Arrest" episode of The Sopranos, Tony tells Doctor Melfi of his boredom and states "I'm ready for the George Sanders long walk here."

In the 2000 film Wonder Boys, Sanders is one of the people Tobey Maguire's character mentions when he is naming high-profile suicides that have taken place in distant memory.

Complete filmography

 * Love, Life and Laughter (1934) as Singer in Public Bar (uncredited)
 * Things to Come (1936) as Pilot (uncredited)
 * Strange Cargo (1936) as Roddy Burch
 * Find the Lady (1936) as Curly Randall
 * The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) as Indifference
 * Dishonour Bright (1936) as Lisle
 * Lloyd's of London (1936) as Lord Everett Stacy
 * Love Is News (1937) as Count Andre de Guyon
 * Slave Ship (1937) as Lefty
 * The Lady Escapes (1937) as Rene Blanchard
 * Lancer Spy (1937) as Baron Kurt von Rohback / Lt. Michael Bruce
 * International Settlement (1938) as Del Forbes
 * Four Men and a Prayer (1938) as Wyatt Leigh
 * Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939) as Eric Norvel
 * The Outsider (1939) as Anton Ragatzy
 * So This Is London (1939) as Dr. de Reseke
 * The Saint Strikes Back (1939) as Simon Templar / The Saint
 * Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) as Schlager
 * The Saint in London (1939) as Simon Templar / The Saint
 * Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) as Capt. Heinrichs
 * Allegheny Uprising (1939) as Capt. Swanson
 * The Saint's Double Trouble (1940) as Simon Templar aka The Saint / 'Boss' Duke Bates
 * Green Hell (1940) as Forrester
 * The House of the Seven Gables (1940) as Jaffrey Pyncheon
 * Rebecca (1940) as Jack Favell
 * The Saint Takes Over (1940) as Simon Templar / The Saint
 * Foreign Correspondent (1940) as Scott ffolliott
 * Bitter Sweet (1940) as Baron von Tranisch
 * The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) as Gen. Gurko Lanen
 * The Saint in Palm Springs (1941) as Simon Templar / The Saint
 * Rage in Heaven (1941) as Ward Andrews
 * Man Hunt (1941) as Major Quive-Smith
 * Sundown (1941) as Coombes
 * The Gay Falcon (1941) as Gay Laurence / The Falcon
 * A Date with the Falcon (1942) as Gay Laurence / The Falcon
 * Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) as Sir Arthur Blake
 * The Falcon Takes Over (1942) as Gay Lawrence / The Falcon
 * Her Cardboard Lover (1942) as Tony Barling
 * Tales of Manhattan (1942) as Williams
 * The Falcon's Brother (1942) as Gay Lawrence / The Falcon
 * The Moon and Sixpence (1942) as Charles Strickland
 * The Black Swan (1942) as Capt. Billy Leech
 * Quiet Please, Murder (1942) as Jim Fleg
 * This Land Is Mine (1943) as George Lambert
 * They Came to Blow Up America (1943) as Carl Steelman / Ernst Reiter
 * Appointment in Berlin (1943) as Wing Cmdr. Keith Wilson
 * Paris After Dark (1943) as Dr. Andre Marbel
 * The Lodger (1944) as Inspector John Warwick
 * Action in Arabia (1944) as Michael Gordon
 * Summer Storm (1944) as Fedor Mikhailovich Petroff
 * Hangover Square (1945) as Dr. Allan Middleton
 * The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) as Lord Henry Wotton
 * The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) as Harry Melville Quincey
 * A Scandal in Paris (1946) as Eugène François Vidocq
 * The Strange Woman (1946) as John Evered
 * The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947) as Georges Duroy
 * The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) as Miles Fairley
 * Lured (1947) as Robert Fleming
 * Forever Amber (1947) as King Charles II
 * The Fan (1949) as Lord Robert Darlington
 * Samson and Delilah (1949) as The Saran of Gaza
 * All About Eve (1950) as Addison DeWitt
 * Black Jack (1950) as Mike Alexander
 * I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951) as J.F. Noble
 * The Light Touch (1951) as Felix Guignol
 * Ivanhoe (1952) as De Bois-Guilbert
 * Assignment – Paris! (1952) as Nicholas Strang
 * Call Me Madam (1953) as General Cosmo Constantine
 * Witness to Murder (1954) as Albert Richter
 * King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) as King Richard I
 * Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) (1954) as Alexander 'Alex' Joyce
 * Jupiter's Darling (1955) as Fabius Maximus
 * Moonfleet (1955) as Lord Ashwood
 * The Scarlet Coat (1955) as Dr. Jonathan Odell
 * The King's Thief (1955) as Charles II
 * Never Say Goodbye (1956) as Victor
 * While the City Sleeps (1956) as Mark Loving
 * That Certain Feeling (1956) as Larry Larkin
 * Death of a Scoundrel (1956) as Clementi Sabourin
 * The Seventh Sin (1957) as Tim Waddington
 * Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) as Danny Poole (1959) (scenes cut)
 * The Whole Truth (1958) as Carliss
 * From the Earth to the Moon (1958) as Stuyvesant Nicholl
 * That Kind of Woman (1959) as A.L.
 * Solomon and Sheba (1959) as Adonijah
 * A Touch of Larceny (1960) as Sir Charles Holland
 * The Last Voyage (1960) as Captain Robert Adams
 * Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960) as Henri Landru
 * Cone of Silence (1960) as Sir Arnold Hobbes
 * Village of the Damned (1960) as Gordon Zellaby
 * The Rebel (aka, Call Me Genius, 1961) as Sir Charles Brewer
 * Five Golden Hours (1961) as Mr. Bing
 * Le Rendez-vous (1961) as J.K. / Kellermann
 * Operation Snatch (1962) as Maj. Hobson
 * In Search of the Castaways (1962) as Thomas Ayerton
 * Cairo (1963) as The Major
 * The Cracksman (1963) as Guv'nor
 * Dark Purpose (1964) as Raymond Fontaine
 * The Golden Head (1964) as Basil Palmer
 * A Shot in the Dark (1964) as Benjamin Ballon
 * Last Plane to Baalbeck (1965) as Prince Makowski
 * The Golden Head (1965) as Basil Palmer
 * The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) as The Banker
 * Trunk to Cairo (1965) as Professor Schlieben
 * The Quiller Memorandum (1966) as Gibbs
 * Witchdoctor in Tails as the narrator (1966)
 * Warning Shot (1967) as Calvin York
 * Good Times (1967) as Mordicus / Knife McBlade / White hunter / Zarubian
 * The Jungle Book (1967) as Shere Khan, the Tiger (voice)
 * Laura (1968 TV movie) as Waldo Lydecker
 * King of Africa (1968) as Captain Walter Phillips
 * The Candy Man (1969) as Sidney Carter
 * The Girl from Rio (1969) as Masius
 * The Body Stealers (1969) as General Armstrong
 * The Best House in London (1969) as Sir Francis Leybourne
 * The Kremlin Letter (1970) as Warlock
 * Rendezvous with Dishonour (1970) as General Downes
 * Doomwatch (1972) as The Admiral - Sir Geoffrey
 * Endless Night (1972) as Andrew Lippincott
 * Psychomania (1973) as Shadwell

Television

 * Screen Directors Playhouse (1956) as Charles Ferris / Baron
 * Ford Star Jubilee "You're the Top" (1956)
 * The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957)
 * What's My Line? 15 September 1957 (Episode No. 380) (Season 9, Ep 3) Mystery Guest
 * The Rogues (1965) as Leonard Carvel
 * Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea "The Traitor" (1965) as Fenton
 * The Man From U.N.C.L.E. "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair" and "The Yukon Affair" (1965) as G. Emory Partridge
 * Daniel Boone (1966) as Col. Roger Barr
 * Batman (1966) as Mr. Freeze
 * Mission: Impossible: The Merchant (1971) as Armand Anderssarian

Broadway

 * Conversation Piece, at the 44th Street Theatre, 1934