Tom Conway
| Tom Conway | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for Grand Central Murder (1942) |
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| Born | Thomas Charles Sanders 15 September 1904 St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Died | 22 April 1967 (aged 62) Culver City, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1940–64 |
| Spouse | Queenie Leonard (11 February 1958–11 February 1963, divorced) Lillian Eggers (10 August 1941–24 July 1953, divorced) |
Tom Conway (15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film and radio actor, and elder brother of actor George Sanders.[1]
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[edit] Early life
Conway was born to English parents as Thomas Charles Sanders in St. Petersburg, Russia. His younger brother was actor George Sanders, whom Conway strongly resembled physically and facially, and also, most notably, in his speaking-voice. A younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution (1917), the family moved back to England, where the brothers were educated at Brighton College. The two brothers tossed a coin to decide which would change his surname to avoid any confusion with each other.[citation needed]
[edit] Career
Conway is remembered today for playing "The Falcon" in ten of that series' entries, taking over from his brother in The Falcon's Brother, in which they both starred. Conway also played Sherlock Holmes during the 1946–1947 season of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, following Basil Rathbone's departure from the series. In spite of managing an uncanny similarity to the sound of Rathbone's voice, he was not accepted as Holmes by the listening audience, and was replaced in the same year by John Stanley. Conway also starred in three of film producer Val Lewton's horror films while working as a contract actor for RKO Pictures. He played Dr. Louis Judd in two otherwise unrelated films: Cat People (1942) and The Seventh Victim (1943)—even though the character was killed in the first film. The third Val Lewton film in which he starred was I Walked with a Zombie (1943).
Conway's screen career diminished in the 1950s, but he appeared in a number of English films, as well as on radio and television. In 1951, he replaced Vincent Price as the star of the radio mystery series The Saint, taking on a role that his brother, George Sanders, had played on film a decade earlier. In 1956, the two brothers both featured (as brothers) in the film Death of a Scoundrel, although it was younger brother George who had the starring role.
From 1951–1954, Conway played debonair British police detective Mark Saber, who worked in the homicide division of a large American city, in the ABC series entitled Inspector Mark Saber - Homicide Detective. In 1957, the series resumed on NBC, renamed Saber of London, with Donald Gray in the title role.[2]
In October 1957, Conway performed as Max Collodi in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "The Glass Eye", to critical praise.
[edit] Later life and death
Despite having made over $1 million in his twenty-four-year film career, Conway later struggled to make ends meet. Failing eyesight and prolonged bouts with alcohol took their toll on him in his last years. His second wife, Queenie Leonard, divorced him in 1963, owing to his drinking problem, and his brother also broke off all contact with him because of it.
Conway underwent cataract surgery during the winter of 1964–5. In September 1965, he briefly returned to the headlines, having been discovered living in a $2-a-day room in a Venice, California, flophouse. Gifts, contributions and offers of aid poured in for a time. Conway, still standing tall and trim, his hair now white, peered owl-like through thick-lensed glasses at the newspaper cameras.
His last years were marked with further visits to the hospital. It was there that former sister-in-law Zsa Zsa Gabor visited him one day, and gave him $200. "Tip the nurses a little bit so they'll be good to you," she told him. The following day, the hospital called her to say that Conway had left with the $200, gone to his girlfriend's house, and died in her bed. It was April 22, 1967, and he died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 62.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] References
- ^ Obituary Variety, April 26, 1967.
- ^ Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present. New York City: Random House Publishing Co., 2003. http://books.google.com/books?id=DyS3t8z6_ckC&pg=PA740&lpg=PA740&dq=Saber+of+London+(TV+series)+1957&source=bl&ots=RdvzVljvSa&sig=CEIVV5YtXF5BqcWcUr3vWCiQFLw&hl=en&ei=SwcJTZXVE4GC8gbf0rRe&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Saber%20of%20London%20(TV%20series)%201957&f=false. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tom Conway |
- Tom Conway at the Internet Movie Database
- Tom Conway at AllRovi
- Tom Conway at the TCM Movie Database
- Tom Conway at Find a Grave
- 1904 births
- 1967 deaths
- People from Saint Petersburg
- British film actors
- British radio actors
- Burials at Chapel of the Pines Crematory
- Deaths from cirrhosis
- English film actors
- English television actors
- English people of Russian descent
- English voice actors
- People educated at Brighton College
- People from Brighton
