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George Sanders
George Sanders (July 3, 1906 - April 25, 1972) was an actor in British and American films.
Sanders was born in St
Petersburg, Russia of British
parents. While he was a child the family returned to Britain with the advent of
the Russian
Revolution and educated at Brighton College, a country he came to adore,
before finding employment with a British advertising agency. It was there that
the company secretary, an aspiring actress named Greer Garson, suggested a career in acting. His
elder brother Tom Conway was
also a film actor, to whom Sanders handed over the role of 'The Falcon', for
which Conway is best remembered.
He made his British film debut in 1934
and after a string 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 was utilised in American films during the next decade. He played
memorable supporting roles in prestige productions such as Rebecca, in which he goaded the sinister Judith Anderson as Mrs
Danvers, in her persecution against Joan Fontaine and he 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.
In 1950 he gave his
most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the
acid-tongued, manipulative, cold-blooded theatre critic "Addison De Witte" 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 and provided the voice for the malevolent Shere Khan in the Walt Disney production of The Jungle Book.
Offscreen Sanders cultivated the image of a cultured playboy, a role not far
removed from his screen characterisations, but in reality he was very happily
married to actress Benita Hume from 1959
until her death in 1967. It was during this period that he completed his
autobiography Memoirs of a Professional Cad, a work that, though now out
of print, is still celebrated for its wit.
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