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Memoirs of a Professional Cad
What might we dare to expect from an actor’s autobiography, even one from a star as personable as George Sanders? In the case of Memoirs of A Professional Cad, we possibly get more than we deserve. George Sanders undoubtedly led a colourful, glamorous and even action-packed life, spanning the peak years of Hollywood’s golden age. But the greatest joy of his memoirs is how funny they are, and how penetrating their author’s wit. Endlessly quotable, every chapter shows that the sardonic charm and intelligence he lent to the silver screen were not merely implied.
George’s early childhood was spent in Tsarist Russia, before he was obliged to flee with his family to England on the eve of the Russian Revolution. He survived two English boarding schools before seeking adventure in Chile and Argentina where he sold cigarettes and kept a pet ostrich in his apartment. We can only be grateful that George was eventually asked to leave South America following a duel of honour (very nearly to the death), and was forced to take up acting for a living instead.
Memoirs of A Professional Cad has much to say about Hollywood and the stars George Sanders worked with and befriended, not to mention the irrepressible Tsa Tsa Gabor who became his wife. But at heart it is less a conventional autobiography, and more a Machiavellian guide to life, and the art of living, from a man who knew a thing or two on the subject. So we are invited to share George’s thought-provoking views on women, friendship, the pros and cons of therapy, ageing, possessions, and the necessity of contrasts (Sanders’ ‘the more extreme the contrast, the fuller the life’).
Previously out of print for many decades, Memoirs of A Professional Cad stands today as one of the classic Hollywood memoirs, from one of its most original, enduring and inimitable stars. This edition also features a new afterword by George Sanders’ niece, Ulla Watson.
George’s early childhood was spent in Tsarist Russia, before he was obliged to flee with his family to England on the eve of the Russian Revolution. He survived two English boarding schools before seeking adventure in Chile and Argentina where he sold cigarettes and kept a pet ostrich in his apartment. We can only be grateful that George was eventually asked to leave South America following a duel of honour (very nearly to the death), and was forced to take up acting for a living instead.
Memoirs of A Professional Cad has much to say about Hollywood and the stars George Sanders worked with and befriended, not to mention the irrepressible Tsa Tsa Gabor who became his wife. But at heart it is less a conventional autobiography, and more a Machiavellian guide to life, and the art of living, from a man who knew a thing or two on the subject. So we are invited to share George’s thought-provoking views on women, friendship, the pros and cons of therapy, ageing, possessions, and the necessity of contrasts (Sanders’ ‘the more extreme the contrast, the fuller the life’).
Previously out of print for many decades, Memoirs of A Professional Cad stands today as one of the classic Hollywood memoirs, from one of its most original, enduring and inimitable stars. This edition also features a new afterword by George Sanders’ niece, Ulla Watson.
199 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1960
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462 people want to read
About the author
George Sanders
42 books21 followersSanders was a Russian-born English film and television actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and author. His prominent English accent and bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous characters. His career spanned more than 40 years.
NOTE: There are multiple authors with this name.
NOTE: There are multiple authors with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 86 reviews
September 25, 2013
”In the middle of April the Germans took a sombre decision...they turned upon Russia the most grisly of all weapons. They transported Lenin, in a sealed truck, like a plague bacillus from Switzerland into Russia.”
Winston Churchill
Little did the Germans know they were also ruining the life of George Sanders. He was going to have to work for the rest of his life. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. His birth was not going well so his father took a carriage to find a midwife. ”He brought her back across the river in a rowboat, and in a state of exhaustion, pushed her into my mother’s room, where she accomplished a successful delivery.
In the light of the fact that I have been supporting my father for the past twenty years, his concern for my welfare at the time of my birth would appear to have been thoroughly justified.”
When the revolution hit Russia in 1917 his family had to leave Russia abandoning their properties and moved back to England. Their friends and family that stayed were of course White Russians and many of them were executed or sent to prison camps. George Sanders’s inheritance was lost. He went to school in England. He worked for several British companies abroad in South America and was fired from every job he ever attempted. There was this girl that worked in market research for one of these companies that kept his attention. However, my interest in market research and information continued unabated, and I never lacked for excuses to wander into the office of that gorgeous redhead, where I would feast my eyes on her and enjoy her brilliant conversation. Her name was Greer Garson.”
Greer Garson, the girl always shooing the young George Sanders out of her office.
This is important because he got to hang out with Greer Garson before she was Greer Garson, but she also put him on a career path. She encouraged him to be an actor.
I’ve encountered George Sanders a lot over the past year most recently in Samson and Delilah where he was barely recognizable until he spoke. He starred with Hedy Lamarr, Angela Lansbury (it was odd to see Jessica Fletcher in a cheesecake role), and Victor Mature. Hedy Lamarr as she seemed to with everyone she met made an impression on him.
”When I first met Hedy Lamarr, about twenty years ago, she was so beautiful that everybody would stop talking when she came into the room. Wherever she went she was the cynosure of all eyes. I don’t think anyone concerned himself very much about whether or not there was anything behind her beauty, he was too busy gaping at her. Of her conversation I can remember nothing: when she spoke one did not listen, one just watched her mouth moving and marveled at the exquisite shapes made by her lips.”
Over lunch sometimes I just have TMC playing in the background and the other day I heard his suave, sophisticated English voice. It took me more than a moment to recognize him as one of the pirates in The Black Swan. He played Simon Templer in a series of Saint movies. He also played, what is considered a knockoff Saint series by some, the character Gay Laurence in a series of Falcon movies before handing the project off to his brother Tom Conway. The films are not necessarily very good, but listening to him pronounce lines of dialogue with his debonair flourish is certainly worth your time. I also recently saw him in Rebecca playing the skin crawling friend Jack Favell. He was in another Hitchcock that I had the pleasure to rewatch this month, Foreign Correspondent. Due to the fact that he has been appearing regularly in the movies I’ve been watching I decided I would pick up his autobiography of which I’ve heard he was, as expected, quite witty.
The Debonair George Sanders with Joel McCrea and cute as a button Laraine Day in Foreign Correspondent.
He was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor. I can only imagine that he must have felt that he really was a cad and needed to be punished day and night and night and day. ”To begin with, it is impossible to be in love with a woman without experiencing on occasions an irresistible desire to strangle her. This can lead to a good deal of ill-feeling. Women are touchy about being strangled.” He does defend Zsa Zsa despite the fact that his relationship with her was a devastating experience.
”Zsa Zsa is perhaps the most misunderstood woman of our times. She is misunderstood because she is guileless. She allows her vitality and instincts to spring from her without distortion. She doesn’t disguise her love amorous entanglements or jewels or whatever else catches her fancy, because her character is pure. She is whole-cloth. an isotope of femininity. In a sense also radioactive and fissionable.”
Zsa Zsa Gabor, a lot of woman for just one man.
He doesn’t learn. His last marriage which only endured six weeks was to Zsa Zsa’s older sister Magda. It must have seemed like a good idea for about five minutes or about as long as it took a preacher to perform the nuptials. What no Eva? Maybe he didn’t stay in queue long enough to become one of the legion of ex-husbands that Eva left in the wake of her whirlwind lifestyle. All three sisters were actresses, but were much more famous for being socialites.
The book was written in 1960. He is witty and charming and tries his best to convince me he was a cad, but he fails miserably. He is just a guy who loves the wrong women, who is a bit lazy, and who suffers from compulsive behaviors.
He sounds like just about everybody I know.
The book does bog down at times. His description of his experience searching for a psychiatrist was verging on boring. Although he did slip in a good line. ”I want to state quite unequivocally that I am one of the sanest people I know. If I weren’t, I would never have risked going to a psychiatrist.” The moments when he talked about what is wrong with American culture and with putting contraceptives in the water supply so that women could finally be free to make love as much as they wanted also felt dated and sort of tedious.
In 1967 he had a year that would stagger the most even keeled of people. His mother died. His brother Tom Conway died from a failed liver. His beloved wife Benita Hume died of bone cancer. I guess it makes sense that he tried to reset the clock in 1970 by marrying Magda Gabor, but as we all know, or soon discover, it is impossible to go back. We can only go forward. He began drinking heavily. He had issues with balance and suffered a small stroke. In 1972 he checked himself into a hotel in Castelldefels near Barcelona and took five bottles of Nembutal and died. He left a suicide note that might have been left by any number of the characters he played on film.
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. (His signature appeared under the message.)
Winston Churchill
Little did the Germans know they were also ruining the life of George Sanders. He was going to have to work for the rest of his life. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1906. His birth was not going well so his father took a carriage to find a midwife. ”He brought her back across the river in a rowboat, and in a state of exhaustion, pushed her into my mother’s room, where she accomplished a successful delivery.
In the light of the fact that I have been supporting my father for the past twenty years, his concern for my welfare at the time of my birth would appear to have been thoroughly justified.”
When the revolution hit Russia in 1917 his family had to leave Russia abandoning their properties and moved back to England. Their friends and family that stayed were of course White Russians and many of them were executed or sent to prison camps. George Sanders’s inheritance was lost. He went to school in England. He worked for several British companies abroad in South America and was fired from every job he ever attempted. There was this girl that worked in market research for one of these companies that kept his attention. However, my interest in market research and information continued unabated, and I never lacked for excuses to wander into the office of that gorgeous redhead, where I would feast my eyes on her and enjoy her brilliant conversation. Her name was Greer Garson.”
Greer Garson, the girl always shooing the young George Sanders out of her office.
This is important because he got to hang out with Greer Garson before she was Greer Garson, but she also put him on a career path. She encouraged him to be an actor.
I’ve encountered George Sanders a lot over the past year most recently in Samson and Delilah where he was barely recognizable until he spoke. He starred with Hedy Lamarr, Angela Lansbury (it was odd to see Jessica Fletcher in a cheesecake role), and Victor Mature. Hedy Lamarr as she seemed to with everyone she met made an impression on him.
”When I first met Hedy Lamarr, about twenty years ago, she was so beautiful that everybody would stop talking when she came into the room. Wherever she went she was the cynosure of all eyes. I don’t think anyone concerned himself very much about whether or not there was anything behind her beauty, he was too busy gaping at her. Of her conversation I can remember nothing: when she spoke one did not listen, one just watched her mouth moving and marveled at the exquisite shapes made by her lips.”
Over lunch sometimes I just have TMC playing in the background and the other day I heard his suave, sophisticated English voice. It took me more than a moment to recognize him as one of the pirates in The Black Swan. He played Simon Templer in a series of Saint movies. He also played, what is considered a knockoff Saint series by some, the character Gay Laurence in a series of Falcon movies before handing the project off to his brother Tom Conway. The films are not necessarily very good, but listening to him pronounce lines of dialogue with his debonair flourish is certainly worth your time. I also recently saw him in Rebecca playing the skin crawling friend Jack Favell. He was in another Hitchcock that I had the pleasure to rewatch this month, Foreign Correspondent. Due to the fact that he has been appearing regularly in the movies I’ve been watching I decided I would pick up his autobiography of which I’ve heard he was, as expected, quite witty.
The Debonair George Sanders with Joel McCrea and cute as a button Laraine Day in Foreign Correspondent.
He was married to Zsa Zsa Gabor. I can only imagine that he must have felt that he really was a cad and needed to be punished day and night and night and day. ”To begin with, it is impossible to be in love with a woman without experiencing on occasions an irresistible desire to strangle her. This can lead to a good deal of ill-feeling. Women are touchy about being strangled.” He does defend Zsa Zsa despite the fact that his relationship with her was a devastating experience.
”Zsa Zsa is perhaps the most misunderstood woman of our times. She is misunderstood because she is guileless. She allows her vitality and instincts to spring from her without distortion. She doesn’t disguise her love amorous entanglements or jewels or whatever else catches her fancy, because her character is pure. She is whole-cloth. an isotope of femininity. In a sense also radioactive and fissionable.”
Zsa Zsa Gabor, a lot of woman for just one man.
He doesn’t learn. His last marriage which only endured six weeks was to Zsa Zsa’s older sister Magda. It must have seemed like a good idea for about five minutes or about as long as it took a preacher to perform the nuptials. What no Eva? Maybe he didn’t stay in queue long enough to become one of the legion of ex-husbands that Eva left in the wake of her whirlwind lifestyle. All three sisters were actresses, but were much more famous for being socialites.
The book was written in 1960. He is witty and charming and tries his best to convince me he was a cad, but he fails miserably. He is just a guy who loves the wrong women, who is a bit lazy, and who suffers from compulsive behaviors.
He sounds like just about everybody I know.
The book does bog down at times. His description of his experience searching for a psychiatrist was verging on boring. Although he did slip in a good line. ”I want to state quite unequivocally that I am one of the sanest people I know. If I weren’t, I would never have risked going to a psychiatrist.” The moments when he talked about what is wrong with American culture and with putting contraceptives in the water supply so that women could finally be free to make love as much as they wanted also felt dated and sort of tedious.
In 1967 he had a year that would stagger the most even keeled of people. His mother died. His brother Tom Conway died from a failed liver. His beloved wife Benita Hume died of bone cancer. I guess it makes sense that he tried to reset the clock in 1970 by marrying Magda Gabor, but as we all know, or soon discover, it is impossible to go back. We can only go forward. He began drinking heavily. He had issues with balance and suffered a small stroke. In 1972 he checked himself into a hotel in Castelldefels near Barcelona and took five bottles of Nembutal and died. He left a suicide note that might have been left by any number of the characters he played on film.
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. (His signature appeared under the message.)
November 7, 2014
You watched "All About Eve" and you love the George Sanders "character" in the film, and you need more of that. Well, this book should satisfy your hunger for Sanders and his slightly jaded way he looks at the world. I 'kind' of loved it, but began to think that in person he may have been a real drag to hang out with him. But on the other hand, this book really captures what one thinks is Sanders' character. He's very funny, has strong opinions about Russian revolutionaries and the Japanese (which made me a tad sour towards him, because I'm a Nihon-o-phile), but still, one can admire his stance in life as an often bored aristocrat with not that much money. His talent is seeing the world as an absurd landscape, and how he places himself in that world. The most surprising aspect of the book for me is that it is under 200 pages long, which I suspect there must have been more in the original manuscript. I don't think it was ghost-written, because his voice comes off very strong, but again, perhaps the ghost-writer is an excellent prose stylist and he or she knows how to capture Sanders voice. Written in 1960, came out twice in print, and now sadly out of print. The book is ripe for a re-print, because I think Sanders is an important actor and figure in the film world. And there are some hysterical stories here.
July 5, 2012
If I were a lead in a romantic comedy, I'd mention this book and how badly I want a copy to the leading man in the first act and then, in the final act, it'd be the thing that makes him seek me out again after our third act misunderstanding.
February 13, 2018
A smorgasbord of cocktail party witticisms mixed with showbiz anecdote and personal history. If you're willing to overlook the 1950s-style casual sexism and xenophobia, Sanders' caricature of himself as an impossibly bored, lazy, self-centered, and misanthropic aristocrat is pretty hilarious. His marriage to Hungarian blonde bombshell Zsa Zsa Gabor is described far too briefly, and one could wish for a lot more Hollywood scandal, but one has to settle for what one can get.
April 16, 2019
I have been a big George Sanders fan ever since I was quite young - yes I found him handsome but it was more than that - his rakish charm, his knowing smile, his confident and intellectual air and, of course, that voice.
This book is not just a retelling of his life but part travelogue and his observations and philosophy of life. To be honest I was hoping for more stories of his adventures in film but he really didn’t consider himself to be a good actor nor did he have aspirations to be one. In fact he didn’t pursue romantic lead roles as he just couldn’t be bothered 😯:
“Somewhat belatedly I have come to the conclusion that my real vocation in life is to be idle; this is something at which I could really shine.”
His life path is fascinating though as it makes you think that fate throws you curveballs that influences the choices you make that lead you to a career that you had not chosen for yourself.
He was also spot on with some his comments about society and our way of life:
“But the system we have chosen can lead only to further enslavement to an ever mounting assortment of devices, the workings of which we do not understand and must depend upon others to keep in good repair.”
My impression is of a man who was kind, thoughtful and extremely intelligent.
It is quite a short and easy read (just under 200 pages) - it is available for the kindle. I would recommend if you are a fan as it is an interesting insight into his character and for those who are interested in the period and Hollywood era in which he lived but don’t expect too much name dropping.
This book is not just a retelling of his life but part travelogue and his observations and philosophy of life. To be honest I was hoping for more stories of his adventures in film but he really didn’t consider himself to be a good actor nor did he have aspirations to be one. In fact he didn’t pursue romantic lead roles as he just couldn’t be bothered 😯:
“Somewhat belatedly I have come to the conclusion that my real vocation in life is to be idle; this is something at which I could really shine.”
His life path is fascinating though as it makes you think that fate throws you curveballs that influences the choices you make that lead you to a career that you had not chosen for yourself.
He was also spot on with some his comments about society and our way of life:
“But the system we have chosen can lead only to further enslavement to an ever mounting assortment of devices, the workings of which we do not understand and must depend upon others to keep in good repair.”
My impression is of a man who was kind, thoughtful and extremely intelligent.
It is quite a short and easy read (just under 200 pages) - it is available for the kindle. I would recommend if you are a fan as it is an interesting insight into his character and for those who are interested in the period and Hollywood era in which he lived but don’t expect too much name dropping.
May 15, 2017
Very impressed with his autobiography and I need to read more of his work☺️it is very sad to have learned later on that he took his own life, but in the end George Sanders still remains one of my favorite actors from Hollywood's Golden Age and I'm incredibly to have become one of his fans always!❤️
March 21, 2016
Between the lines this is a fairly sad book about a very nice, generous, famous and talented man who was perhaps, except for his relationship with his second wife, lonely and full of crippling self doubt. His writing style is more Wildean than Wilde, it reads beautifully and sardonically but the key to understanding him is in the post script by his nephew, suddenly the blurred image becomes focused and you realise that he wanted to be somebody else but never managed it, so he accepted what he believed was the best his talents could achieve and regretted that decision for the rest of his life. In addition his nature made him a target for thieves, like so many of the talented.
The stories recounted are moderately interesting but there is so much that he glosses over that would probably have been much more interesting, if he had written that version.
The stories recounted are moderately interesting but there is so much that he glosses over that would probably have been much more interesting, if he had written that version.
Read
February 2, 2009This book was a wonderful surprise! I had no expectations whatsoever. Having said that, however, I was knocked out by it! The book is well written and very, very funny!
This book is a wonderful read!
This book is a wonderful read!
March 22, 2013
Amusing. Sardonically amusing.
January 30, 2018
A fun and amusing read. George Sanders says that mostly in his acting career he was basically playing himself. This is not a book about Hollywood and celebrities per se, but rather his thoughts on a variety of things. His sardonic wit had me laughing out loud at times. I especially liked his description of staying at American hotels.
September 3, 2022
This was a very weird book in a very distinctive way. It was definitely funny in places, but the constant tangents got really repetitive. I'm glad I read it, but its probably not a book I'd pick up again.
Read
September 8, 2020He tries to make you think he's shallow, but he's deep. Deep as Australia.
August 22, 2017
When I chose to read this book, I expected one of those funny stories of how an actor grew up, ended up in the craft of acting, anecdotes of their famous friends, and the real story behind the person. You definitely get Sanders' backstory here which was interesting- war, boarding schools, fired from two jobs, decided to act, married Zsa Zsa, etc. After this initial background bit, it kind of seemed to turn from history lesson to random thoughts.
About a quarter of the way through, I lost interest and read a different book, but being someone who has guilt over unfinished books, I returned to it and finished it on a road trip. Toward the last quarter, I felt kind of bad for the guy. He was working closely with Tyrone Power at the time of his death, which seemed to deeply affect him. He shared a lot of philosophical thoughts about life and death, which didn't seem to surprise me since I had just recently learned of his own suicide (ironically in the Debbie Reynolds book I read while taking a break from this one). Some of those most interesting were about people and modern technology- almost prophetic. Several quotable and highlight-worthy lines for sure.
Over all, I found that the aloof, witty character he plays in a lot of films is just him playing himself. Not necessarily an upbeat autobiography about the good ol' days in Hollywood, but definitely an interesting read if you're a Sanders fan.
About a quarter of the way through, I lost interest and read a different book, but being someone who has guilt over unfinished books, I returned to it and finished it on a road trip. Toward the last quarter, I felt kind of bad for the guy. He was working closely with Tyrone Power at the time of his death, which seemed to deeply affect him. He shared a lot of philosophical thoughts about life and death, which didn't seem to surprise me since I had just recently learned of his own suicide (ironically in the Debbie Reynolds book I read while taking a break from this one). Some of those most interesting were about people and modern technology- almost prophetic. Several quotable and highlight-worthy lines for sure.
Over all, I found that the aloof, witty character he plays in a lot of films is just him playing himself. Not necessarily an upbeat autobiography about the good ol' days in Hollywood, but definitely an interesting read if you're a Sanders fan.
November 3, 2014
George Sanders is a bit of a jerk, if not a cad, despite his assertion "I am a dear, dear, boy." The memoirs of the man who has distinction of marrying to Gabor sisters (Zsa Zsa and Magda) only briefly comments on Zsa Zsa throughout, but it is incisive and witty. Less about his acting career and more about his outlook on life, this books is a good, quick read. Sanders on vacations: "It seems to me that the mistake so many of us make is that of looking for fun during a holiday when the real trick is to use a vacation to make the rest of the year interesting." Long forgotten actors like Laird Cregar are mentioned and interesting to Google. The account of a brief visit to Japan smacks of period racism and xenophobia, a bracing reminder of how--not so long ago--Asians were (and really, still are) viewed by Westerners.
September 6, 2019
A delight for classic film fans
Sanders, who so often played the sophisticated bad guy you loved to hate, sounds a lot like Addison De Witt in this freewheeling autobiography. He tosses a few harmless but memorable bon mots at his celebrated ex wife Zsa Zsa Gabor -- otherwise he avoids gossip and gives us cynic's-eye view of a life that led him from Czarist Russia to Englisprivate schools and finally to Hollywood. If you like him on screen (as I do), odds are you'll enjoy this book. A few of his statements regarding women and one unexpected use of the "N" word may jarr -- but on the whole a witty look at a world that now seems incredibly far from ours today.
Sanders, who so often played the sophisticated bad guy you loved to hate, sounds a lot like Addison De Witt in this freewheeling autobiography. He tosses a few harmless but memorable bon mots at his celebrated ex wife Zsa Zsa Gabor -- otherwise he avoids gossip and gives us cynic's-eye view of a life that led him from Czarist Russia to Englisprivate schools and finally to Hollywood. If you like him on screen (as I do), odds are you'll enjoy this book. A few of his statements regarding women and one unexpected use of the "N" word may jarr -- but on the whole a witty look at a world that now seems incredibly far from ours today.
September 8, 2022
For a witty and entertaining view of the movie industry this book is outstanding. George Sanders had a debonair but cynical view of the world which is very entertaining. His descriptions of life with Zsa Zsa Gabor alone make this worth reading .... chess was the main activity on their honeymoon, and George rarely won an argument as his foe spent her life under the hair dryer. Entertaining throughout. A worthy reprint after being unavailable for many years.
October 24, 2017
Slight, frothy, laugh out loud funny. Don't exspect great depth here. I'm not sure if Sanders really had great depth. Maybe he did, but he hides it well. He is no less of an enigma after reading this entertaining autobio. The book can be hard to find. I checked the copy I read out of the University library and kept it so long that I expect they have given up on me ever giving it back.
September 5, 2018
I would give this book a 3.5. It was written in 1960. George Sanders is careful about what he writes about. Shares some of his life with readers but not too much. This would not be a tell all kind of book. Which is fine. Just wished he shared more about what is was like working with more actors etc. His niece writes and afterward years after the actor's death by suicide.
November 24, 2020
The inimitable Sanders, one of Hollywood's best-known character actors, ruminates on Hollywood, acting, women, travel, music, psychology, and the art of living, all in the dry, devilish purr by which he made his name. Pridefully lazy, Sanders has delivered a slight work, almost slapdash - still, like his countless onscreen apperances, it's memorable and quotable nonetheless.
November 11, 2019
Thank you George! I loved it!
A youthful soul.
Live life to the fullest.
Candid language/personable.
Made me laugh and smile.
I wish i would have known him.
A student of life.
A glimpse into a man I want to know more about.
Behind the scenes in the life of George Sanders.
A youthful soul.
Live life to the fullest.
Candid language/personable.
Made me laugh and smile.
I wish i would have known him.
A student of life.
A glimpse into a man I want to know more about.
Behind the scenes in the life of George Sanders.
October 19, 2016
Easy to read, lightweight, wry but also sadly marred by misogyny and racism.
May 24, 2018
Top notch as memoirs go.
Sounds as if George was right here remembering it all over again. I can still hear his wonderful voice so rich and bittingly ascerbic.
Sounds as if George was right here remembering it all over again. I can still hear his wonderful voice so rich and bittingly ascerbic.
September 9, 2020
Somewhat similar to David Niven's memoirs(which are excellent) but with an undercurrent of meanness that Niven's didn't have. Sanders is like that casual friend of yours who is fabulously bitchy and fun to listen to, as long as his focus is not on you. You know though, that he talks behind your back and so you can never let yourself get to close to him because you know you will get burnt.
Sanders has such a distinctive, wonderful voice that while I was reading this, I completely heard his voice in my head as I was reading. Too bad he died before audiobooks were a thing because listening to him reading this out loud would have been amazing.
He gives very little detail about his personal life. It's almost more like a collection of humorous essays rather than a traditional memoir. He barely talks about All About Eve. He doesn't even mention working on Hitchcock's Rebecca. He has a whole chapter about some terrible Roberto Rossellini film he made in Italy which, while funny & bitchy, is not a movie I wanted him to be dwelling upon.
There are several very dated, wincingly awful comments he makes in the book. Made me step back and remember "Oh, right, he was born in 1906." He has a chapter about eating dinner at a restaurant in Japan in the 1950's that I imagine was a life riot if you were reading it in 1960 but reading it in 2020 made me grimace. Raw fish - ewwww! Taking your shoes off - gross!! A bowl of lima beans (I assume he meant edamame) - yucky!!! This sake tastes weird!!! The waitresses look so funny in their kimonos!!! Bowing is dumb!!! American eating habits & perceptions of other cultures have certainly changed in the last 60 years.
Throughout the book there is casual misogyny - he is not someone you would want to sleep with or date or marry. At one point he says he was joking in the famous interview he gave about women are no better than dogs etc. His protestations are negated by the numerous negative comments about women he has that are all over the book.
Finally, towards the end of the book, when describing something - I've already forgotten what, something minor - he uses the terms "like a n**ger in a woodpile". Yikes! A reminder of the off-hand casual racism that permeated life for many years. I'm sure that there are still plenty of people who say things like that, but at least now they realize they will get blowback for it and so try to hide their feelings & only say it around likeminded people. Sixty years ago it was totally ok to say that - it wouldn't cross your mind that you were being a jerk. So in a weird way it made me feel grateful that at least we have developed and matured enough for those 'common' phrases to no longer be common.
While I'm glad I read this memoir, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a big fan of old Hollywood.
Sanders has such a distinctive, wonderful voice that while I was reading this, I completely heard his voice in my head as I was reading. Too bad he died before audiobooks were a thing because listening to him reading this out loud would have been amazing.
He gives very little detail about his personal life. It's almost more like a collection of humorous essays rather than a traditional memoir. He barely talks about All About Eve. He doesn't even mention working on Hitchcock's Rebecca. He has a whole chapter about some terrible Roberto Rossellini film he made in Italy which, while funny & bitchy, is not a movie I wanted him to be dwelling upon.
There are several very dated, wincingly awful comments he makes in the book. Made me step back and remember "Oh, right, he was born in 1906." He has a chapter about eating dinner at a restaurant in Japan in the 1950's that I imagine was a life riot if you were reading it in 1960 but reading it in 2020 made me grimace. Raw fish - ewwww! Taking your shoes off - gross!! A bowl of lima beans (I assume he meant edamame) - yucky!!! This sake tastes weird!!! The waitresses look so funny in their kimonos!!! Bowing is dumb!!! American eating habits & perceptions of other cultures have certainly changed in the last 60 years.
Throughout the book there is casual misogyny - he is not someone you would want to sleep with or date or marry. At one point he says he was joking in the famous interview he gave about women are no better than dogs etc. His protestations are negated by the numerous negative comments about women he has that are all over the book.
Finally, towards the end of the book, when describing something - I've already forgotten what, something minor - he uses the terms "like a n**ger in a woodpile". Yikes! A reminder of the off-hand casual racism that permeated life for many years. I'm sure that there are still plenty of people who say things like that, but at least now they realize they will get blowback for it and so try to hide their feelings & only say it around likeminded people. Sixty years ago it was totally ok to say that - it wouldn't cross your mind that you were being a jerk. So in a weird way it made me feel grateful that at least we have developed and matured enough for those 'common' phrases to no longer be common.
While I'm glad I read this memoir, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a big fan of old Hollywood.
October 9, 2021
Part biography, part observational offering, Sanders' memoir is a collection of essays about various aspects of his life and career. Sanders is probably best known for his Oscar winning role as ascerbic critic Addison DeWitt in All About Eve. He also had a key role in another one of my all-time favorites, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.
This was a lot less caustic than I was expecting, but that probably has a lot to do it being written and published shortly after he married Benita Hume, widow of Ronald Colman. Over the years, Hume (as Mrs. Colman) was a noted hostess of Hollywood parties and constantly tried to play matchmaker for Sanders. After she was widowed, he suggested she fill the role of the next Mrs. Sanders and eventually she did. In a 2014 afterword by Sanders' niece Ulla Watson, she mentioned that the period when this book was being written as the happiest time of his life, which only lasted about another seven years until Benita's death. Knowing in retrospect how his life went downhill after she died (he committed suicide in 1972) it's sad that his joy was so short-lived. No mention is made in the book of his sad end.
Some of the book is strangely touching. Sanders is at most gently mocking of first wife Zsa Zsa Gabor. He mentions her coterie of publicists, stylist, etc that took over their home, and how much they appreciated how after arriving home from work, Sanders would play bartender, mixing and serving drinks for them. He is extremely complimentary to her, mentioning that she was a great travel companion even when conditions were less than ideal, and stated that they got along better after their divorce than when they were married.
Sanders fell into acting quite by accident. After being fired from a series of jobs he wound up in an advertising firm where a beautiful co-worker encouraged him to check out her theatre group. The co-worker was a pre-fame Greer Garson, the theatre group launched him into his new career, and he never looked back.
Some of Sanders' views on non-acting topics like bachelorhood, women and wars might be kind of out there, but he's obviously put some thought into them. For me, the best parts of the book are his behind the scenes recollections of Hollywood and his fellow globe-trotting actors, including being on the set of Solomon and Sheba when Tyrone Power died unexpectedly.
This was a lot less caustic than I was expecting, but that probably has a lot to do it being written and published shortly after he married Benita Hume, widow of Ronald Colman. Over the years, Hume (as Mrs. Colman) was a noted hostess of Hollywood parties and constantly tried to play matchmaker for Sanders. After she was widowed, he suggested she fill the role of the next Mrs. Sanders and eventually she did. In a 2014 afterword by Sanders' niece Ulla Watson, she mentioned that the period when this book was being written as the happiest time of his life, which only lasted about another seven years until Benita's death. Knowing in retrospect how his life went downhill after she died (he committed suicide in 1972) it's sad that his joy was so short-lived. No mention is made in the book of his sad end.
Some of the book is strangely touching. Sanders is at most gently mocking of first wife Zsa Zsa Gabor. He mentions her coterie of publicists, stylist, etc that took over their home, and how much they appreciated how after arriving home from work, Sanders would play bartender, mixing and serving drinks for them. He is extremely complimentary to her, mentioning that she was a great travel companion even when conditions were less than ideal, and stated that they got along better after their divorce than when they were married.
Sanders fell into acting quite by accident. After being fired from a series of jobs he wound up in an advertising firm where a beautiful co-worker encouraged him to check out her theatre group. The co-worker was a pre-fame Greer Garson, the theatre group launched him into his new career, and he never looked back.
Some of Sanders' views on non-acting topics like bachelorhood, women and wars might be kind of out there, but he's obviously put some thought into them. For me, the best parts of the book are his behind the scenes recollections of Hollywood and his fellow globe-trotting actors, including being on the set of Solomon and Sheba when Tyrone Power died unexpectedly.
July 13, 2022
3.8 stars. George Sanders is one of my favourite classic stars so I was excited to get his autobiography and while it doesn't tell you a lot of things, it really lets you into his mind. I think most people expect memoirs to tell,in detail, the life story and most important memories of a person, I know I was expecting to know what George was like as a child,his experiences growing up,how he went after his dreams and how he fell in love,etc, but you won't find that here. This is, instead, almost more of a diary of his personal thoughts on a variety of topics, varying from the useless coffepots in American hotels to how to say No, to being angry he didn't stand up for himself when Hollywood persuaded him to get veneers, to some movie set experiences and recounting the techniques various therapists used on him. The chapters are quite short and on a wide and often surprising range of topics. Amidst the amusing stories and humourous observations are real gems of how his mind worked and some very vulnerable and thought provoking ponderings, it felt very intimate to read, beneath his facade was a very deep soul.
I laughed a lot while reading it, his writing is as dry, cynical, egotistical and eloquently biting as the suave villains he portrayed. He also had a massive vocabulary and I learned a handful of new words while reading it,like 'ineluctable' and 'inculcate'.
I wish he'd included his actual story,I suppose at the time he wrote it newspapers, magazines and gossip columns were spilling news on his every affair and move and he thought readers would already know everything,but readers now don't have those current updates to fill in the blanks. He mentions his wife Zsa Zsa often but never tells how they met, fell in love or why things fell apart. He doesn't really tell how he became an actor. Much of what I wanted to know just isn't covered. However his family's escape from Russia in 1917 is covered and that was exciting. I was also excited when he mentioned flirting with a cute redhead in an office he worked at early on,that was Greer Garson. He also goes into great depth on his many bizarre jobs and adventures before acting.
A great book just missing some of what I expected.
I laughed a lot while reading it, his writing is as dry, cynical, egotistical and eloquently biting as the suave villains he portrayed. He also had a massive vocabulary and I learned a handful of new words while reading it,like 'ineluctable' and 'inculcate'.
I wish he'd included his actual story,I suppose at the time he wrote it newspapers, magazines and gossip columns were spilling news on his every affair and move and he thought readers would already know everything,but readers now don't have those current updates to fill in the blanks. He mentions his wife Zsa Zsa often but never tells how they met, fell in love or why things fell apart. He doesn't really tell how he became an actor. Much of what I wanted to know just isn't covered. However his family's escape from Russia in 1917 is covered and that was exciting. I was also excited when he mentioned flirting with a cute redhead in an office he worked at early on,that was Greer Garson. He also goes into great depth on his many bizarre jobs and adventures before acting.
A great book just missing some of what I expected.
January 30, 2023
I'm aware a lot of old (and modern) Hollywood autobiographies were ghost-written, but Sanders' memoirs I fully believe to be his own, most of all because they're so inconsistent! The book reads like a project done unevenly in fits, in moments of downtime between other projects. Some chapters seem to have been written with vim and vigour, others seem more reluctant, with a subtle sense of frustration trying to meet a deadline or word count (as the book goes on the personal anecdotes make way for meandering and fantastical essays about technology, or society, or Japanese cuisine, with droll little punchlines that make me think they're the kind of ramblings you'd invent to entertain at 1950s Hollywood parties).
I'd never recommend this book to anyone even a little bit less in love with Sanders' odd character actor stardom than I, but personally I found the form of the text more intriguing than the sparse Hollywood anecdotes contained in it. From chapter to chapter you see Sanders abruptly switching between clever, humble, rude, dismissive, self-conscious, self-important and gleefully provocative. Sometimes he seems to relish playing himself as the lurid villain with a sense of "give the people what they want", other times he expresses genuine frustration at being perceived to be the same as the characters he plays.
Who was George Sanders? What was he like, what did he do? I don't know, and the waters seem so intentionally muddied I can't help but stay curious. Like it's not odd for any autobiography to tastefully outline something personal just to make it clear "this was a very influential event but I don't want to get into it", but I've never seen anyone handle those like Sanders does, bluntly referencing some major complicated unknown (his relationship with his parents; his various wives) like it's something we're both painfully familiar with -- he brings them up just to pointedly never ever mention them again.
What I'm trying to say is that this memoir feels like a study in how to fashion your life story into something entertaining (or, occasionally, quite racist or misogynistic) without revealing anything at all. It's not a masterful memoir but it's an undeniably memorable one.
I'd never recommend this book to anyone even a little bit less in love with Sanders' odd character actor stardom than I, but personally I found the form of the text more intriguing than the sparse Hollywood anecdotes contained in it. From chapter to chapter you see Sanders abruptly switching between clever, humble, rude, dismissive, self-conscious, self-important and gleefully provocative. Sometimes he seems to relish playing himself as the lurid villain with a sense of "give the people what they want", other times he expresses genuine frustration at being perceived to be the same as the characters he plays.
Who was George Sanders? What was he like, what did he do? I don't know, and the waters seem so intentionally muddied I can't help but stay curious. Like it's not odd for any autobiography to tastefully outline something personal just to make it clear "this was a very influential event but I don't want to get into it", but I've never seen anyone handle those like Sanders does, bluntly referencing some major complicated unknown (his relationship with his parents; his various wives) like it's something we're both painfully familiar with -- he brings them up just to pointedly never ever mention them again.
What I'm trying to say is that this memoir feels like a study in how to fashion your life story into something entertaining (or, occasionally, quite racist or misogynistic) without revealing anything at all. It's not a masterful memoir but it's an undeniably memorable one.
June 23, 2022
I love old books, especially the ones about celebrities from the Hollywood’s golden years. This one is quite the gem. This memoir does not sound as if it was ghost-written. I can hear George speaking the words, which are very candid. Nothing is sugar coated. His comments about the Oscars are revealing and so true. The night he won the Oscar for All About Eve, he described his wife Zsa Zsa as reacting as if she had won was hysterical! He described Marilyn Monroe with such care. This was at the beginning of her career. George said their conversations showed that she showed an interest in intellectual subjects. He also shared his thoughts about why she it was so important that she succeed.
He wrote about Hollywood parties, how he went out of his way to be in a musical, got the part and then begged to get out of it. It was great fun. He ended the book talking about the film Solomon and Sheba. Tyrone Power was in it, and this was to be Tyrone’s last film. George enjoyed making the film with Tyrone and described the very sad and sudden end before the movie completed filming. It greatly upset him, and it was obvious writing about it helped him honor his friend.
These old books and their stories are a joy for someone who loves the behind scenes of old Hollywood.
He wrote about Hollywood parties, how he went out of his way to be in a musical, got the part and then begged to get out of it. It was great fun. He ended the book talking about the film Solomon and Sheba. Tyrone Power was in it, and this was to be Tyrone’s last film. George enjoyed making the film with Tyrone and described the very sad and sudden end before the movie completed filming. It greatly upset him, and it was obvious writing about it helped him honor his friend.
These old books and their stories are a joy for someone who loves the behind scenes of old Hollywood.
January 20, 2021
The author describes himself as lazy with low motivation. His memoirs reflect his description. We get no appreciable information about his history, his development as a person, his interactions with others. One feels it was just too much trouble to present any kind of biographical information to the reader. I always found him a wonderful actor who seemed to be slightly bored with his job but so talented that we didn't mind. I very rarely regret reading a book, even a bad one, but I must make an exception this time. This was a waste of my time. And, yes, for those of you who insist on virtue signaling your own enlightened sensibilities, it was full of sexist and xenophobic commentary. It was written in 1960. You were expecting Barack Obama? The author's sad demise by suicide seems a proper culmination of a man who didn't appreciate his talent, who was bored with life, and plodded through an existence which seemed to have no meaning or progress or even a glimmer of enlightenment. Rest in peace.
July 31, 2024
I borrowed this book years ago from my public library and was delighted to find that it is now available for the kindle. I bought it and I'm reading it again. I must post a disclaimer as a reviewer because I'm a movie buff and I hold movie stars of the golden age of Hollywood in high regard or at least find them extremely amusing. But I also have to give credit where credit is due.
On page one and all the pages following, one can hear the honeyed voice of the author saying the words as if he were sitting by a fire, chomping on a cigar, drinking his favorite brandy while sharing with a close friend the trials and tribulations of his life. His language is delightful and his observations are witty and wise not only about the world of cinema but about life and love. The self-deprecating humor never gets old because it seems sincere and at the same time very funny. If you are fascinated by the movie stars of a bygone era, I think you'll enjoy this book. The writing style alone makes it a worthwhile read.
On page one and all the pages following, one can hear the honeyed voice of the author saying the words as if he were sitting by a fire, chomping on a cigar, drinking his favorite brandy while sharing with a close friend the trials and tribulations of his life. His language is delightful and his observations are witty and wise not only about the world of cinema but about life and love. The self-deprecating humor never gets old because it seems sincere and at the same time very funny. If you are fascinated by the movie stars of a bygone era, I think you'll enjoy this book. The writing style alone makes it a worthwhile read.
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