Tom Conway

Tom Conway (born Thomas Charles Sanders; 15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a British film, television, and radio actor remembered for playing detectives (including The Falcon, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond, and The Saint) and psychiatrists, among other roles.

In May 1940 it was announced Tom had signed a contract with MGM.

During this time, he changed his last name from Sanders to Conway.

He had small roles in Waterloo Bridge (1940), with only his voice heard, Sky Murder (1940) with Walter Pidgeon, and The Wild Man of Borneo (1941).

He had a bigger part in The Trial of Mary Dugan (1941) with Robert Young, then was back to small parts in Free and Easy (1941), The Bad Man (1941) with Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore, The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941) with Lew Ayres and Lionel Barrymore, and Lady Be Good (1941) with Eleanor Powell and Red Skelton.

Conway was a villain in Tarzan's Secret Treasure (1941) with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan, Mr. and Mrs. North (1941) with Gracie Allen, and Rio Rita (1942) with Abbott and Costello.

Conway played "The Falcon" in 10 episodes of the series, taking over from his brother, George Sanders, in The Falcon's Brother (1942), in which they both starred.

He also appeared in several movie thrillers produced by Val Lewton, notably Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie.

Conway was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.

His younger brother was fellow actor George Sanders.

The family moved from Russia to Britain when Tom was thirteen.

He was educated at Brighton College then moved to Africa to find work.

He returned to England, worked as a glass salesman, then became interested in acting.

He started by appearing in amateur theatre, then joined a repertory company for a year and a half.

After this he appeared in touring productions of plays like Dangerous Corner, Private Lives and By Candlelight as well as acting on radio.

Then Conway's brother George suggested Tom join him in Hollywood.

He was a murder suspect in Grand Central Murder (1942) with Van Heflin and had an uncredited bit in Mrs. Miniver (1942) with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon.

At RKO, Conway's brother George Sanders had starred in three popular "B" movies as The Falcon, eligible man-about-town and amateur detective, constantly being accused of crimes and using his wits to trap the guilty parties and clear his name.

Sanders had tired of the role, so the pencil-mustached Conway took over as The Falcon's Brother (1942), co-starring with Sanders (Sanders's character was killed off, leaving his brother to assume the mantle of The Falcon).

Producer Maurice Geraghty later revealed that RKO executives recruited Conway so they could induce Sanders to make one more Falcon picture, after which the series would end.

"So it was astonishing to them when Tom Conway caught on right away and carried the series on -- even outgrossing the pictures George had made."

RKO signed Tom Conway to a long-term contract.

Conway followed this success with an excellent role in Cat People (1942), the first of producer Val Lewton's legendary horror cycle.

He had the male lead in a second film for Lewton, I Walked with a Zombie (1942), now regarded as a horror classic.

Conway was top-billed in Lewton's The Seventh Victim (1943) playing the same role he did in The Cat People though his character was apparently killed in that film.

In April 1943 he said "what I should really like to play is sophisticated comedy."

Between his Falcon and Val Lewton assignments, RKO starred Conway in B mysteries: A Night of Adventure (1944), Two O'Clock Courage (1945), and Criminal Court (1946).

Conway was borrowed by United Artists for Whistle Stop (1946), in which he supported George Raft, Ava Gardner, and Victor McLaglen.

In June 1946, Conway obtained a release from his RKO contract.

His next film was to be Strange Bedfellows at United Artists.

On radio, Conway played Sherlock Holmes during the 1946–1947 season of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, following Basil Rathbone's departure from the series.

In spite of a similarly refined England accent, Conway was not as well-received as Rathbone by audiences; he played Holmes for only one season.

He was a leading support actor in Lost Honeymoon (1947) and Repeat Performance (1947) for Eagle-Lion, Fun on a Weekend (1947) for United Artists, and One Touch of Venus (1948) for Universal.

Bernard Small, the son of independent producer Edward Small, had secured the film rights to the Bulldog Drummond character and made two Drummond mysteries for Columbia Pictures release.

In 1948, he moved the franchise to his father's Reliance Pictures, an independent company distributing through Fox, and hired Tom Conway to play Bulldog Drummond in The Challenge (1948) and 13 Lead Soldiers (1948).

Independent producer, Sam Baerwitz, cast Conway in low-budget crime stories released by Fox; The Checkered Coat (1948), Bungalow 13 (1948), I Cheated the Law (1949), and The Great Plane Robbery (1950).

When George Sanders married Zsa Zsa Gabor, Tom Conway joined the wedding party on April Fool's Day, 1949.

She recalled in her memoir, "With an unexpected generosity, George chartered a plane and flew the wedding party [to Las Vegas]. His brother, Tom Conway, as warm and outgoing as George was cool and restrained, was best man, and came on the plane with a shotgun over his shoulder. 'Just in case the old boy gets cold feet,' he said."

Conway appeared on the early television panel show Bachelor's Haven (1951), an advice-to-the-lovelorn forum patterned after the successful New York-based series Leave It to the Girls.

He recruited his sister-in-law Zsa Zsa to join him on the program.