George Sanders

Overview

Born
July 3, 1906 · St. Petersburg, Russian Empire [now Russia]
Died
April 25, 1972 · Castelldefels, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain (suicide by barbiturate overdose)
Birth name
George Henry Sanders
Height
6′ 2½″ (1.89 m)

George Sanders was born of English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy. His film debut, in 1936, was as Curly Randall in Find the Lady (1936). His U.S. debut, the same year, with Twentieth Century-Fox, was as Lord Everett Stacy in Lloyd's of London (1936). During the late 1930s and early 1940s he made a number of movies as Simon Templar--the Saint--and as Gay Lawrence, the Falcon. He played Nazis (Maj. Quive-Smith in Fritz Lang's Man Hunt (1941)), royalty (Charles II in Otto Preminger's Forever Amber (1947)), and biblical roles (Saran of Gaza in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949)). He won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as theatre critic Addison De Witt in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950). In 1957 he hosted a TV series, The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957). He continued to play mostly villains and charming heels until his suicide in 1972.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Sanders told David Niven in 1937 that he intended to commit suicide when he got older. In 1972 he fulfilled his promise, leaving this note: "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".
Famously stated that he loathed giving interviews because he did not get paid for them; never gave autographs and rather enjoyed being perceived as "a rude and disagreeable person".
His first steady employment was in the tobacco industry, traveling through Brazil and Argentina. He was sacked from jobs twice, the first time after turning up at his boss's wedding in a drunken stupor, the second time after having fought a pistol duel over a paramour.
Possessed of a fine baritone singing voice, often raised at parties, Sanders released an album entitled "The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady" (ABC-Paramount: 1958), today a much sought-after collector's item.
After being convinced by a woman he had taken up with, Sanders sold his beloved house in Majorca, Spain. Soon afterward he checked into a hotel in Barcelona, and two days later his body was discovered next to five empty tubes of Nembutal.

A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be.
Acting is like roller-skating. Once you know how to do it, it is neither stimulating nor exciting.
I am not one of those people who would rather act than eat. Quite the reverse. My own desire as a boy was to retire. That ambition has never changed.
I don't ask questions. I just take their money and use it for things that really interest me.
I was beastly but never coarse. A high-class sort of heel.