George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a Russian-born British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous characters. He is remembered for his roles as the wicked Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940), Scott Ffolliott in Foreign Correspondent (1940, a rare heroic part), The Saran of Gaza in Samson and Delilah (1949, the most popular film of the year), theatre critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Sir Brian De Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1952), King Richard the Lionheart in King Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Mr. Freeze in a two-part episode of Batman (1966), and the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967). He also starred as Simon Templar, in five of the eight films in The Saint series (1939–1941), and as a suave Saint-like crimefighter in the first four of the sixteen The Falcon films (1941–1942).
Sanders was born on 3 July 1906 in Saint Petersburg, at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov, to rope manufacturer Henry Sanders and horticulturist Margaret (née Kolbe), who was also born in Saint Petersburg, of mostly German, but also Estonian and Scottish ancestry. (Sanders wrote of his mother's descent from "the Thomas Clayhills of Dundee, who went to Estonia in 1626 to establish a business there".) Sanders referred to his parents as "well-off" and noted his mother's "forebears of solid social position and impeccable respectability", stating that "to the best of (his) knowledge, (his) father came in the mail".
A biography published in 1990 alleged that family members' "recent disclosures... indicate" that Sanders' father was the out-of-wedlock son of a Russian noblewoman of the Tsar's court, and a prince of the House of Oldenburg who was married to a sister of the Tsar. At the time of Henry Sanders' birth, the Anglo-Russian Sanders family were living at Saint Petersburg; the mother, Dagmar, was a lady-in-waiting to the Dowager Empress, and it was said to be through this connection Henry came to be adopted by the Sanders family.
In 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Sanders and his family moved to Great Britain. Like his brother, he attended Bedales School and Brighton College, then went on to Manchester Technical College, after which he worked in textile research.
Sanders travelled to South America, where he managed a tobacco plantation. The Depression sent him back to Britain. He worked at an advertising agency, where the company secretary, aspiring actress Greer Garson, suggested that he take up a career in acting.
Sanders learned how to sing and got a role on stage in Ballyhoo, which had only a short run, but helped establish him as an actor.
He began to work regularly on the British stage, appearing several times with Edna Best. He co-starred with Dennis King in The Command Performance.
Sanders travelled to New York to appear on Broadway in a production of Noël Coward's Conversation Piece (1934), directed by Coward, which ran for only 55 performances.
Hollywood and 20th Century-Fox
20th Century-Fox was looking for an actor to play a villain in its Hollywood-made film Lloyd's of London (1936). Sanders was duly cast as Lord Everett Stacy, opposite Tyrone Power, in one of his first leads, as the hero; Sanders' smooth, upper-class English accent, his sleek manner, and his suave, superior, and somewhat threatening air made him in demand for American films for years to come. Lloyd's of London was a big hit, and in November 1936, Fox placed Sanders under a seven-year contract.
Sanders returned to Hollywood, where RKO wanted him to play the hero in a series of B-movies, The Saint. The Saint in New York (1938) had already been made starring Louis Hayward in the title role, but when he decided not to return to the role, Sanders took over for The Saint Strikes Back (1939). In 1940, Sanders played Jack Favell in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, opposite Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. He worked again with Hitchcock that same year on Foreign Correspondent.
Sanders was borrowed by United Artists to play the lead in The Moon and Sixpence (1942), based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
RKO had cancelled its Saint series and replaced it with The Falcon in 1941. George Sanders was assigned the leading role of Gay Laurence, debonair man about town always involved in murder cases. Saint author Leslie Charteris thought the resemblance between the Falcon and the Saint was obvious, and sued the studio for unfair competition. Sanders himself was also unhappy about playing still another screen sleuth in still more "B" pictures, and bowed out of the series in 1942 after only four films. (He was replaced by his elder brother, Tom Conway.)
In July 1942, Fox suspended Sanders for refusing the lead in The Undying Monster. "I like to be seen in pictures that at least seem to be slightly worthwhile." In September, he was again suspended for refusing an "unsympathetic role" in The Immortal Sergeant (he was replaced by Morton Lowry). In November 1942, Fox and Sanders came to terms, with the studio offering him a raise in pay and the lead in a film, School for Saboteurs, which became They Came to Blow Up America.
RKO called him back for This Land Is Mine (1943). They bought an original story for him, Nine Lives, but the film was never made. He was lent to Columbia Pictures for Appointment in Berlin (1943).
In February 1943, Fox announced it was developing three film projects for Sanders – The Porcelain Lady, a murder mystery, plus biopics of Charles Howard, 20th Earl of Suffolk, and a hero of World War II, and Canadian physician Norman Bethune. Fox originally announced that he would play the detective in Laura (1944) alongside Laird Cregar, but neither ended up being in the final film. In 1947, Sanders portrayed King Charles II in Fox's lavish production of the scandalous historical bodice-ripper, Forever Amber.
Sanders signed a new three-film contract with RKO, starting with Action in Arabia (1944). Superficially, the film looked expensive but it was actually a low-budget feature, embellished by spectacular location footage filmed in 1933 for an unfinished production about Lawrence of Arabia.
For his role as the acerbic, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve (1950), Sanders won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.