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 colorful, 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.
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. George was eventually asked to leave South America following a duel of honor, and was forced to take up acting for a living.
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.
Memoirs of A Professional Cad stands today as one of the classic Hollywood memoirs, from one of its most original, enduring, and inimitable stars.
