George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 â€" 25 April 1972) was a British
film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and
author. His career as an actor spanned over forty years. His
upper-class English accent and bass voice often led him to be cast as
sophisticated but villainous characters. He is perhaps best known as
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, Addison DeWitt
in All About Eve (1950, for which he won an Oscar), Sir Brian De
Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1952), King Richard the Lionheart in King
Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Mr. Freeze in a two-parter episode
of Batman (1966), the voice of the malevolent man-hating tiger Shere
Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967), suave crimefighter, The
Falcon during the 1940s (a role eventually bequeathed to his elder
brother, Tom Conway), and as Simon Templar, The Saint, in five films
made in the 1930s and 1940s.Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg,
Russian Empire, at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His parents were Henry
Peter Ernest Sanders (1868â€"1960), and Margarethe Jenny Bertha
Sanders (née Kolbe; 1883â€"1967), who was born in Saint Petersburg,
of mostly German, but also Estonian and Scottish, ancestry. A
biography published in 1990 claimed that Sanders' father was the
illegitimate son of a prince of the House of Oldenburg and a Russian
noblewoman of the Tsar’s court, married to a sister of the Tsar.[a]
The actor Tom Conway (1904â€"1967) was George Sanders' elder brother.
Their younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912.In 1917, at
the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Sanders and his family moved
to England. Like his brother, he attended Bedales School and Brighton
College, a boys' independent school in Brighton, then went on to
Manchester Technical College after which he worked in textile
research.
film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and
author. His career as an actor spanned over forty years. His
upper-class English accent and bass voice often led him to be cast as
sophisticated but villainous characters. He is perhaps best known as
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, Addison DeWitt
in All About Eve (1950, for which he won an Oscar), Sir Brian De
Bois-Guilbert in Ivanhoe (1952), King Richard the Lionheart in King
Richard and the Crusaders (1954), Mr. Freeze in a two-parter episode
of Batman (1966), the voice of the malevolent man-hating tiger Shere
Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967), suave crimefighter, The
Falcon during the 1940s (a role eventually bequeathed to his elder
brother, Tom Conway), and as Simon Templar, The Saint, in five films
made in the 1930s and 1940s.Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg,
Russian Empire, at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His parents were Henry
Peter Ernest Sanders (1868â€"1960), and Margarethe Jenny Bertha
Sanders (née Kolbe; 1883â€"1967), who was born in Saint Petersburg,
of mostly German, but also Estonian and Scottish, ancestry. A
biography published in 1990 claimed that Sanders' father was the
illegitimate son of a prince of the House of Oldenburg and a Russian
noblewoman of the Tsar’s court, married to a sister of the Tsar.[a]
The actor Tom Conway (1904â€"1967) was George Sanders' elder brother.
Their younger sister, Margaret Sanders, was born in 1912.In 1917, at
the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Sanders and his family moved
to England. Like his brother, he attended Bedales School and Brighton
College, a boys' independent school in Brighton, then went on to
Manchester Technical College after which he worked in textile
research.
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