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01
Sanders told David Niven in 1937 that he intended to commit suicide when he got older; in 1972 he fulfilled the promise, leaving a 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.
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02
He stated that he loathed giving interviews because he did not get paid for them; never gave autographs and enjoyed being perceived as a rude and disagreeable person.
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03
With a fine baritone singing voice often raised at parties, Sanders released an album titled The George Sanders Touch: Songs for the Lovely Lady ABC-Paramount, 1958, now a collector’s item.
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04
His first steady employment was in the tobacco industry, traveling through Brazil and Argentina; he was sacked twice—once after appearing drunk at his boss’s wedding, and again after fighting a pistol duel over a paramour.
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05
After a woman he took up with convinced him, Sanders sold his beloved house in Majorca, Spain; soon after he checked into a hotel in Barcelona, and two days later his body was found next to five empty tubes of Nembutal.
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06
His family fled Russia with the onset of the 1917 revolution.
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07
He is referenced in The Kinks’ 1972 song Celluloid Heroes with the line If you covered him in garbage, George Sanders would still have style.
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08
He started acting when a secretary at his advertising firm suggested it; that secretary was Greer Garson.
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09
He once suggested to James Mason that they set up business as Hollywood architects; the idea fell through when Mason insisted on designing the houses himself instead of just putting his name on them.
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10
His ex-wives Zsa Zsa Gabor and Magda Gabor were sisters.
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11
Prior to Sanders’ casting in The Jungle Book 1967, animator Milt Kahl drew haughty sketches of Shere Khan; someone immediately noted their similarity to Sanders.
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12
To avoid confusion in their careers, George and his brother Tom flipped a coin to decide who would change his name; Tom lost, dialed a random payphone number, and upon hearing Conway’s fish market became Tom Conway.
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13
He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the English Channel.
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14
His mother Margaret, third wife Benita Hume, and brother Tom Conway all died in 1967.
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15
He withdrew from the lead in the Broadway-bound musical Sherry! during its Boston tryout in 1967 when his wife Benita Hume was diagnosed with bone cancer; Clive Revill replaced him, and the show was a quick failure.
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16
He and ex-wife Zsa Zsa Gabor both played Special Guest Villains on Batman 1966.
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17
He played the brother of his real-life brother Tom Conway in both The Falcon’s Brother 1942 and Death of a Scoundrel 1956.
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18
Brother of actor Tom Conway; they appeared together in The Falcon’s Brother 1942, which was Sanders’ final appearance as the Falcon, handing the role to Conway.
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19
During college, Sanders enjoyed a reputation as a good swimmer and boxer, and began cultivating his image as a bounder.
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20
He originally pursued a business career but turned to acting, appearing on stage in Noël Coward’s Conversation Piece.
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21
He is credited as author of the mystery novel Stranger at Home, but it was ghostwritten by Leigh Brackett; the dedication reads To Leigh Brackett, whom I have never met.
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22
He appeared in two Best Picture Oscar winners: Rebecca 1940 and All About Eve 1950, and two other nominees: Foreign Correspondent 1940 and Ivanhoe 1952.
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23
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.
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24
He was one of two stars of the Pink Panther series to commit suicide; Capucine, who played Clouseau’s wife in The Pink Panther 1963, killed herself in 1990.
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25
He committed suicide on April 25, 1972, less than three months before his 66th birthday on July 3.
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26
He was born in Russia where his father was a rope manufacturer and his mother an English horticulturist; protection of the British Embassy made him a British subject.
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27
He featured in a crime novel Crime On My Hands, in which he solved a murder on a film set; it was ghostwritten by Falcon screenwriter Craig Rice, with dedication To Craig Rice, without whom it would not have been possible.
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28
He had one younger sister: Margaret Sanders born 1912.
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29
His Hollywood career began at 20th Century-Fox 1936-38, then RKO 1939-41, back to Fox 1942-43 and 1947-50, and MGM 1954-55; he worked for directors including DeMille, Hitchcock, Lang, Mankiewicz, Sirk, and Vidor.
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30
Both he and 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.
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31
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 1940, and A Date with the Falcon 1942.
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32
He appeared with John Carradine in six films: Four Men and a Prayer 1938, International Settlement 1938, Mr. Moto’s Last Warning 1938, Man Hunt 1941, Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake 1942, and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami 1947.
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33
He starred with Hedy Lamarr in two films: The Strange Woman 1946 and Samson and Delilah 1949.
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34
In 1949, he auditioned to succeed Ezio Pinza in South Pacific on Broadway; Rodgers and Hammerstein gave him the part, but nerves made him withdraw. He later sang songs from the show on recordings. In 1967, he withdrew from Sherry! due to his wife’s illness.
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35
Actor Brian Aherne titled his biography of Sanders A Dreadful Man, claiming he called Sanders that while discouraging Benita Hume from marrying him; yet Sanders’ marriage to Hume was happy, and he and Aherne remained cordial.
