George Sanders
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 03/Jul/1906 (St. Petersburg, Russia)
- died: 25/Apr/1972 (Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain) - suicide
Biography
George Sanders was an English actor in British and American films.
Sanders was born in St Petersburg, Russia of British parents. When he was eleven the family returned to Britain on the outbreak of the Russian Revolution and he attended Brighton College. After graduation he worked at 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".
He 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 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. He played Lord Henry Wotton in a film version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
In 1950 he gave his most widely recognised performance and achieved his greatest success as the acid-tongued, manipulative, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve", winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
For many years Sanders had lived in Spain and it was in Castelldefels (a coastal town near Barcelona, Catalonia) that he committed suicide with an overdose of barbituates, leaving behind a suicide note that attributed his action to boredom:
"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."
One of his final screen roles was the 1972 feature film Endless Nights, which was scored by Bernard Herrmann.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
- Rebecca (1940) - cast: Jack Favell
- Foreign Correspondent (1940) - cast: Scott ffolliott
Other films of note...
- The Lodger (1944) - cast: Inspector John Warwick