George Sanders

He committed suicide on April 25, 1972, less than three months from what would have been his 66th birthday on July 3.

Withdrew from the lead in the Broadway-bound musical version of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" called "Sherry!" (with Dolores Gray) during its Boston tryout in March 1967 when his wife Benita Hume was diagnosed with bone cancer. He was replaced by Clive Revill. The show was a quick failure on Broadway, and Hume passed away that November.

He and his ex-wife Zsa Zsa Gabor both played "Special Guest Villains" in Batman (1966).

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.

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.

In 1957 he hosted a TV series, The George Sanders Mystery Theater (1957).

Both he and his elder brother Tom Conway worked with Thomas Heathcote: Conway in Three Stops to Murder (1953) and The Last Man to Hang (1956) and Sanders in Village of the Damned (1960).

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).

DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949)).

Brother of 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.

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.

Had appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: Rebecca (1940) and All About Eve (1950), and two other nominees: Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Ivanhoe (1952).

He appeared with Wendy Barrie in five films: The Saint Strikes Back (1939), The Saint Takes Over (1940), The Gay Falcon (1941), The Saint in Palm Springs (1941) and A Date with the Falcon (1942).

He appeared with John Carradine in six films: Four Men and a Prayer (1938), International Settlement (1938), Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1939), Man Hunt (1941), Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami (1947).

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".

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 Lloyds 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.

His family fled Russia with the onset of the 1917 revolution.

Had one younger sister: Margaret Sanders (born 1912).

He was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 1636 Vine Street; and for Television at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard.