George Sanders (actor)
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| George Sanders | |
 in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) |
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| Born | George Henry Sanders 3 July 1906 Saint Petersburg, Russia |
|---|---|
| Died | 25 April 1972 (aged 65) Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1929–1972 |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Larson (1940–1946) Zsa Zsa Gabor (1949–1954) Benita Hume (1959–1967) Magda Gabor (1970–1971) |
| Domestic partner(s) | Lorraine Chanel (1968-1972) |
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.
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[edit] Early life
Sanders was born at 6:00 am in Saint Petersburg, Russia at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov, of English parents, Henry Sanders (1873-1961) and Margaret Sanders (1875-1967). He had an older brother, Tom Conway (1904-1967), and a younger sister, Margaret Sanders (born 1912). In 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, when Sanders was 11, the family returned to England and, like his brother, he attended Brighton College, a boys' independent school in Brighton. He then attended Manchester Technical College in Manchester.
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.
[edit] Career
Sanders made his British film debut in 1929 and, after a series of British films, made his American debut in 1936, in the film Lloyd's of London as Lord Everett Stacy. In his films, he was known for his smooth, upper-crust English accent. 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 and Judith Anderson played persecutors of Joan Fontaine's character. He also played leading roles in less high-profile pictures such as Rage in Heaven.
During this time, he was also the lead in both The Falcon and The Saint film series. Sanders' look-alike brother Tom also became a movie actor. Sanders later handed over the role of The Falcon to him in The Falcon's Brother (1942). The only other film in which the two brothers appeared together was Death of a Scoundrel (1956). In both films, they played brothers.
Sanders played Lord Henry Wotton in the 1945 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. That same year, he gave one of his best performances as the lead in the little-known Albert Lewin directed film The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, based on a de Maupassant novel, opposite Angela Lansbury.
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 The George Sanders Mystery Theater. 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. In 1969, he had a supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter. 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] Writing and music
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 by women: 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. 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] Personal life
On 27 October, 1940, Sanders married Susan Larson. The marriage ended in divorce in 1949. From 1949 until 1954, Sanders was married to the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. (In 1956, he and Gabor starred together in the film Death of a Scoundrel.) On 10 February, 1959, Sanders married actress Benita Hume, the widow of actor Ronald Colman. She died in 1967. Sanders' final marriage, on 4 December, 1970, was to Magda Gabor, the older sister of his second wife; the marriage lasted only six 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.
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 be seen teetering in his last films. He also had a minor stroke, according to correspondence quoted in the book of his friend and biographer Brian Aherne. This is evidenced by his last film performance, in the low-budget horror film Psychomania, in which his speech is obviously impaired. 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. From then on, he drifted. He couldn't bear the idea of losing his health, of being dependent on someone else, and he became depressed. It was around this time that he dragged his grand piano outside and smashed it with an axe because he couldn't play it any more.
[edit] Death
His friend David Niven recorded in his autobiography Bring On The Empty Horses that Sanders had predicted in 1937, at the age of 31, that he would commit suicide when he was 65. On 23 April, 1972, he checked into a hotel in Castelldefels, a coastal town near Barcelona. He was found dead two days later, along with five empty bottles of Nembutal.[1] Sanders was 65 years old. 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.
Sanders' body was cremated and the ashes were scattered in the English Channel.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Television
- Screen Directors Playhouse (1956)
- The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957)
- What's My Line? 09/15/1957 (Episode # 380) (Season 9, Ep 3) Mystery Guest
- Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1965)
- The Rogues (1965)
- The Man From U.N.C.L.E. "The Gazebo in the Maze Affair" and "The Yukon Affair" (1965)
- Daniel Boone(1966)
- Batman (TV series) "Mr. Freeze" (1966)
- Mission Impossible (1971)
[edit] Broadway
- Conversation Piece, at the 44th Street Theatre, 1934
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (May 8, 1992). "Bored to Death". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,310396,00.html. Retrieved on 30 April 2009.
[edit] Bibliography
- 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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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Sanders |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Sanders |
- George Sanders (actor) at the Internet Movie Database
- George Sanders (actor) at the Internet Broadway Database
- George Sanders at the TCM Movie Database
- George Sanders (actor) at Find a Grave
- George Sanders :: Official Website
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