Tom Conway (15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
film and radio actor, and the brother of actor
George SandersGeorge Henry Sanders was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.- Early life :Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His English parents were Henry Sanders and Margaret Sanders . His older brother was actor Tom Conway...
.
Conway was born to English parents as
Thomas Charles Sanders in St. Petersburg, Russia; his brother was the actor
George SandersGeorge Henry Sanders was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.- Early life :Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His English parents were Henry Sanders and Margaret Sanders . His older brother was actor Tom Conway...
, whom Conway strongly resembled, especially in his speaking voice. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution (1917), the family moved back to England, where both brothers were educated at
Brighton CollegeBrighton College is an organisation which splits down into the Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are independent co-educational public schools in Brighton, England sited immediately next to one another. The Senior School...
.
Tom Conway (15 September 1904 – 22 April 1967) was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
film and radio actor, and the brother of actor
George SandersGeorge Henry Sanders was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.- Early life :Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His English parents were Henry Sanders and Margaret Sanders . His older brother was actor Tom Conway...
.
Early life
Conway was born to English parents as
Thomas Charles Sanders in St. Petersburg, Russia; his brother was the actor
George SandersGeorge Henry Sanders was an Academy Award-winning English film and television actor.- Early life :Sanders was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia at number 6 Petrovski Ostrov. His English parents were Henry Sanders and Margaret Sanders . His older brother was actor Tom Conway...
, whom Conway strongly resembled, especially in his speaking voice. At the outbreak of the Russian Revolution (1917), the family moved back to England, where both brothers were educated at
Brighton CollegeBrighton College is an organisation which splits down into the Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are independent co-educational public schools in Brighton, England sited immediately next to one another. The Senior School...
. Tom lost a coin toss with George to decide which of the two of them would change his last name to avoid any confusion with each other.
Career
Conway is remembered today for playing "
The FalconThe character of Gay Stanhope Falcon, also known simply as The Falcon, was created in 1940 by Michael Arlen in his short story, "Gay Falcon", which was first published in 1940 in Town & Country magazine...
" in ten of that series' entries, taking over from his brother in
The Falcon's BrotherThe Falcon's Brother is a 1942 film in which George Sanders, who had been portraying "The Falcon" in a series of movies, appears with his lookalike brother Tom Conway; the brothers play brothers and Sanders hands off the series to Conway, who plays the new Falcon in nine subsequent films...
, in which they both star. Conway also played Sherlock Holmes following
Basil RathboneBasil Rathbone, MC , was a South African–born British actor most famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and of suave villains in such swashbuckler films as The Mark of Zorro, Captain Blood, and The Adventures of Robin Hood.- Early life :He was born Philip St...
's departure from the
1946The year 1946 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.-Events:*1 September – Kringkastingsorkestret is founded.*29 September – BBC Third Programme is launched.-Debuts:...
–
1947The year 1947 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:* February 10 - The Netherlands Radio Union is established.* February 19 CBS radio premiere of Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras No. 3"...
radio series. Despite an uncanny similarity to the sound of Rathbone's voice, he was not accepted as Holmes by the listening audience and was replaced in the same year by John Stanley. Conway also starred in three of film producer
Val LewtonVal Lewton was an American film producer and screenwriter, who is best known for a sequence of nine brooding horror films he produced for RKO Pictures in the 1940s....
's horror films while a contract actor for
RKO PicturesRKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As Radio Pictures Inc. and then RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the so-called Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
, twice playing Dr. Louis Judd in two otherwise unrelated films—
Cat People and
The Seventh VictimThe Seventh Victim is a horror film noir starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter , and Hugh Beaumont, directed by Mark Robson, and produced by noted film producer Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures.-Plot:...
a year later—-even though the character was killed in the first film. The third Val Lewton film in which he starred was
I Walked with a ZombieI Walked with a Zombie is a horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures; the first was the very successful Cat People, also directed by Tourneur...
.
His screen career diminished in the 1950s, but he appeared in a number of English films, on radio, and on television. In
1951The year 1951 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*March 4 - Sir John Gielgud appears as Hamlet on The United States Steel Hour.-Births:...
, Conway replaced
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price II was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:...
as the star of the radio mystery series
The SaintSimon Templar is a British fictional character known as the Saint, featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books, until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris'...
, taking on a role that his brother, Sanders, had played on film a decade earlier. In October, , Conway performed as Max Collodi in
Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an anthology television series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers and mysteries...
episode "The Glass Eye" to critical praise. In an unusual twist, the ventriloquist was a midget, and Conway was actually the dummy.
Later life and death
Despite making over $1 million in his twenty-four year film career, Conway later struggled to make ends meet. Failing eyesight and prolonged bouts with alcohol took their toll on Conway in his last years. His second wife,
Queenie LeonardQueenie Leonard was a British character actress and singer.- Early life and career :...
divorced him in 1963, due to his drinking problem, and George Sanders also broke off all contact with him because of it.
Conway underwent cataract surgery during the winter of 1964-65. In September 1965 Tom briefly returned to the headlines when he was discovered living in a $2-a-day room in a Venice, California flophouse. Gifts, contributions and offers of aid poured in - for a time. Conway, still standing tall and trim, his hair now white, peered owl-like through thick-lensed glasses at the newspaper cameras.
His last years were marked with further visits to the hospital. It was there that former sister-in-law
Zsa Zsa GaborZsa Zsa Gabor , also known as Sári Prinzessin von Anhalt, is a Hungarian actress, socialite and former beauty queen.-Early life:...
visited him one day and gave him $200. "Tip the nurses a little bit so they'll be good to you," she told him. The following day, the hospital called her to say that Conway had left with the $200, gone to his girlfriend's and died in her bed. It was April 22, , and Conway died from cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 62.
Filmography
- The Great Meddler
- Waterloo Bridge
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815...
(1940) - voice only
- Sky Murder (1940)
- The Wild Man of Borneo
- The Trial of Mary Dugan
The Trial of Mary Dugan is a play written by Bayard Veiller.The melodrama concerns a sensational courtroom trial of a showgirl accused of killing of her millionaire lover. Her defense attorney is her brother, Jimmy Dugan. It was first presented on Broadway in 1927, with Ann Harding in the title...
(1941)
- Free and Easy (1941)
- The Bad Man
The Bad Man is a 1941 Western film starring Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Laraine Day, and Ronald Reagan. The movie was written by Wells Root from the Porter Emerson Browne play, and directed by Richard Thorpe...
(1941)
- The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941)
- Lady Be Good
Lady Be Good is the title of an MGM musical film which was released in 1941.The film starred dancer Eleanor Powell along with Ann Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, and Red Skelton. It was directed by Norman Z. McLeod and produced by Arthur Freed...
(1941)
- Tarzan's Secret Treasure
Tarzan's Secret Treasure is a Tarzan film based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is the fifth in the MGM Tarzan series to star Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan.-Plot:...
(1941)
- Mr. and Mrs. North
Mr. and Mrs. North is a 1942 American mystery film directed by Robert B. Sinclair, starring Gracie Allen and William Post Jr. as detectives Pam and Jerry North. A dizzy socialite and her husband Jerry, returning home from a vacation, find a dead body in their home...
- Rio Rita
Rio Rita is a 1942 comedy film starring Abbott and Costello. It was based upon the 1927 Flo Ziegfeld Broadway musical, which was previously made into a 1929 film that starred the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey....
(1942)
- Grand Central Murder
Grand Central Murder is a comedy/mystery film released in 1942. It was based on Sue MacVeigh's 1939 novel of the same name, and stars Van Heflin as a private investigator who is one of the suspects in a murder on a private train car in Grand Central Terminal. The film was directed by S...
(1942)
- Mrs. Miniver
Mrs. Miniver is a fictional character created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns for The Times, later adapted into a movie of the same name.-Origin:...
(1942)
- The Falcon's Brother
The Falcon's Brother is a 1942 film in which George Sanders, who had been portraying "The Falcon" in a series of movies, appears with his lookalike brother Tom Conway; the brothers play brothers and Sanders hands off the series to Conway, who plays the new Falcon in nine subsequent films...
(1942)
- Cat People
Cat People is a horror film produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. The writing is credited to DeWitt Bodeen, but Tourneur, composer Roy Webb, Lewton and his secretary all contributed to the script. The cinematographer was Tourneur's sometime collaborator Nicholas Musuraca...
(1942)
- The Falcon Strikes Back
- I Walked with a Zombie
I Walked with a Zombie is a horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. It was the second horror film from producer Val Lewton for RKO Pictures; the first was the very successful Cat People, also directed by Tourneur...
(1943)
- The Falcon in Danger (1943)
- The Seventh Victim
The Seventh Victim is a horror film noir starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter , and Hugh Beaumont, directed by Mark Robson, and produced by noted film producer Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures.-Plot:...
(1943)
- The Falcon and the Co-eds (1943)
- The Falcon Out West
- A Night of Adventure (1944)
- The Falcon in Mexico (1944)
- The Falcon in Hollywood (1944)
- Two O'Clock Courage
- The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)
- Whistle Stop
Whistle Stop is a 1946 movie starring George Raft and Ava Gardner. The film was shot in black and white and in the film noir style. The movie was directed by Léonide Moguy and based on a novel by Maritta M. Wolff. The screenplay is by Philip Yordan and the musical score is by Dimitri...
- The Falcon's Alibi (1946)
- Criminal Court (1946)
- The Falcon's Adventure (1946)
- Lost Honeymoon
- Fun on a Weekend (1947)
- Repeat Performance
Repeat Performance is a film of the film noir style. It combines elements of a 1940s drama with a science fiction twist. The film was released by Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion Films and directed by Alfred L. Werker.- Plot :...
(1947)
- The Challenge
- 13 Lead Soldiers (1948)
- The Checkered Coat (1948)
- One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus is a musical with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth. The show satirizes contemporary American suburban values,...
(1948)
- Bungalow 13 (1948)
- I Cheated the Law
- The Great Plane Robbery
- Painting the Clouds with Sunshine
- Bride of the Gorilla
Bride of the Gorilla is a 1951 B-movie film directed by Curt Siodmak and starring Raymond Burr, Lon Chaney Jr. and Barbara Payton. The pre-release working title was The Face in the Water.-Plot:...
(1951)
- Confidence Girl
- Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
- voice only
- Tarzan and the She-Devil
Tarzan and the She-Devil is a 1953 film starring Lex Barker as Tarzan and Joyce MacKenzie as Jane. It also features Raymond Burr, Tom Conway and Monique van Vooren, who plays the "She-Devil," a colorful name for a female villain. The movie was directed by Kurt Neumann. Tarzan is held captive...
(1953)
- Park Plaza 605
Park Plaza 605 is a 1953 British crime film. A B movie, it starred Tom Conway, Eva Bartok and Sid James. It was based on the Norman Conquest series of novels by Berkeley Gray, the film sees a private investigator summoned to room 605 of the Park Plaza Hotel to meet a mysterious foreign blonde...
(1953)
- Blood Orange
The blood orange is a variety of orange with crimson, blood-colored flesh. The fruit is smaller than an average orange; its skin is usually pitted, but can be smooth. The distinctive dark flesh color is due to the presence of anthocyanin, a pigment common to many flowers and fruit, but uncommon...
(1953)
- Paris Model (1953)
- Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
- Breakaway
Breakaway is a 1955 British thriller film directed by Henry Cass from a script by Norman Hudis. It starred Tom Conway, Michael Balfour, Honor Blackman and Arthur Lowe. A Private eye is hot on the tail of a stolen secret formula and a kidnapped young woman....
- Barbados Quest (1955)
- The She-Creature
- Death of a Scoundrel
Death of a Scoundrel is a 1956 film starring George Sanders, Zsa Zsa Gabor, George Brent, and Yvonne De Carlo. Death of a Scoundrel is a fictionalized adaptation of the life and mysterious death of Serge Rubenstein....
(1956)
- The Last Man to Hang? (1956)
- Operation Murder
- Voodoo Woman
Voodoo Woman is a horror film directed by Edward L. Cahn and released by American International Pictures.-Synopsis:Dr. Roland Gerard , a mad scientist in the jungle, uses the natives' voodoo in an experiment in which he will create an indestructible being to serve his will...
(1957)
- The Atomic Submarine
The Atomic Submarine is a 1959 science fiction film starring Arthur Franz, Dick Foran and Brett Halsey, with John Hillard as the voice of the alien. The film was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, the script was adapted by Orville H. Hampton from a short story by Jack Rabin and Irving Block...
- 12 to the Moon
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith...
- What a Way to Go!
What A Way To Go! is a 1964 American comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly and Dick Van Dyke.-Plot:...
External links