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. His U.S. debut, the same year, with Twentieth Century-Fox, was as Lord Everett Stacy in Lloyd's of London. 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), royalty (Charles II in Otto Preminger's Forever Amber), and biblical roles (Saran of Gaza in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah). He won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as theatre critic Addison De Witt in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve. In 1957 he hosted a TV series, The George Sanders Mystery Theater. He continued to play mostly villains and charming heels until his suicide in 1972.


Brother of the actor Tom Conway. The two appeared together in The Falcon's Brother (1942), in which they portrayed -- appropriately enough -- brothers, and which was Sanders' final appearance as "The Falcon," a role he had grown tired of. In this entry, Sanders hands off the role to Conway, who took it up for nine subsequent films through 1946. After being convinced by a woman he had taken up with, George Sanders sold his beloved house in Majorca. Soon after, he checked into a hotel in Barcelona, and two days later, his body was discovered next to five empty tubes of Nembutal. First got involved in acting when a secretary in the same advertising firm suggested it. That secretary was Greer Garson. Featured in a crime novel, "Crime On My Hands," in which he solved a murder on a film set. The book was ghost-written by Falcon screenwriter Craig Rice. The Author's Dedication reads "To Craig Rice, without whom it would not have been possible.". Credited as the author of the mystery novel, "Stranger at Home." Book was actually ghostwritten by Leigh Brackett. Book dedication reads, "To Leigh Brackett, whom I have never met". Was one of two stars of the "Pink Panther" series to commit suicide. Capucine, who played Inspector Clouseau's wife in The Pink Panther (1963), killed herself in 1990.