"Acting is like roller-skating. Once you know how to do it, it is neither stimulating nor exciting."
English actor (1906-1972). He was born to English parents in
St. Petersburg, Russia -- they all hurried back to
England after the
Russian Revolution began. After working in a
textile mill, as a
tobacconist, and as an ad writer, he was encouraged to get into
acting by none other than
Greer Garson, who at the time, was employed as a secretary at the
ad agency he worked for -- he got his start on the
stage as a
chorus boy in
London. After acting in a few mostly-forgettable
films, he landed the role of
Simon Templar,
the Saint, in 1939's "
The Saint Strikes Back" and its numerous
sequels. He also appeared in a number of films as
the Falcon, who was something of a knockoff of the Saint.
Sanders'
brother was fellow actor
Tom Conway. They appeared together in a couple of movies, including "
The Falcon's Brother" in 1942. Sanders handed over the role of the Falcon to Conway, who played the character in another nine films.
Sanders excelled at portraying
smooth,
cynical,
debonair characters, particularly
villains,
scoundrels, and
cads.
He was married four times. His first wife,
Benita Hume, died; he was so
grief-stricken by her death that he had to leave a
Broadway-bound
musical he was working on. His other three
marriages -- to
Susan Larson,
Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Zsa Zsa's sister,
Magda Gabor -- all ended in
divorce.
Back in 1937, Sanders had told
David Niven that he planned to commit
suicide when he got older, and in fact, he did kill himself with five tubes of
Nembutal, in a hotel in
Barcelona, Spain in 1973. His
suicide note 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 appeared in well over 100 films, including: "
Lloyd's of London," "
Four Men and a Prayer," "
Mr. Moto's Last Warning," "
The Saint Strikes Back," "
Confessions of a Nazi Spy," "
The Saint in London," "
The Saint's Double Trouble" (he played both the Saint and a
crime boss), "
Green Hell," "
The House of the Seven Gables," "
Rebecca," "
Foreign Correspondent," "
The Son of Monte Cristo," "
The Saint Takes Over," "
The Saint in Palm Springs," "
Rage in Heaven," "
The Gay Falcon," "
A Date with the Falcon," "
The Falcon Takes Over," "
The Falcon's Brother," "
The Black Swan," "
Quiet Please: Murder," "
Paris After Dark," "
The Moon and Sixpence," "
The Lodger," "
The Picture of Dorian Gray," "
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "
Samson and Delilah," "
All About Eve" (he won the
Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing
cynical
critic Addison DeWitt), "
Ivanhoe," "
Assignment: Paris," "
Call Me Madam," "
Death of a Scoundrel," "
The Seventh Sin," "
From the Earth to the Moon," "
Village of the Damned," "
Cairo," "
A Shot in the Dark," "
The Jungle Book" (he was the voice of
Shere Khan!), "
Thin Air," "
The Candy Man," "
The Kremlin Letter" (in which he appeared in
drag), "
Endless Night," and "
Doomwatch." He also hosted a
television series called "
The George Sanders Mystery Theatre" and was the first
Mr. Freeze on the
campy "
Batman" series in the 1960s.
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)