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 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), theater critic 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.

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".

He worked at an advertising agency, where the company secretary, aspiring actress Greer Garson, suggested that he take up a career in acting.

[14][15] In 1940, Sanders played Jack Favell in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, opposite Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.

Sanders was borrowed by United Artists to play the lead in The Moon and Sixpence (1942), based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham.

George Sanders was assigned the leading role of Gay Laurence, debonair man about town always involved in murder cases.

[17] 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.

[20] 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.

[22] In 1947, Sanders portrayed King Charles II in Fox's lavish production of the scandalous historical bodice-ripper, Forever Amber.

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.

Back in Hollywood, he made several films for MGM: Jupiter's Darling (1955), Moonfleet (1955), The Scarlet Coat (1955), and The King's Thief (1955) (again as Charles II).

Sanders had earlier inspired Sellers's character Hercules Grytpype-Thynne in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show (1951–60).

[33] He had a major supporting role in John Huston's The Kremlin Letter (1970), in which his first scene showed him dressed in drag and playing the piano in a gay bar in San Francisco.

[34] During the production of The Jungle Book, Sanders was unavailable to provide the singing voice for his character Shere Khan during the final recording of the song, "That's What Friends Are For".

[38][39][40] By the late 1960s, Sanders had become increasingly reclusive and suffered from depression due to a string of personal tragedies, including the deaths of his third wife, his mother and his brother Tom, all within the span of a year.

Sanders could not bear the prospect of losing his health or needing help to carry out everyday tasks, and became severely depressed.

[41] On 23 April 1972, Sanders checked into a hotel in Castelldefels, a coastal town near Barcelona, where he phoned his friend George Mikell.

[44][45][46][47]David Niven wrote in Bring on the Empty Horses (1975), the second volume of his memoirs, that in 1937, his friend George Sanders had predicted that he would commit suicide from a barbiturate overdose when he was 65, and that in his 50s, he had appeared to be depressed because his marriages had failed and several tragedies had befallen him.