Complex sentence: All of George's suggestions as to who to replace him as leading lady are rejected as being too short, too old or too dead; then he realises he has a leading lady in his presence all the time and replaces George with Bob.
Split into simpler sentences: All of George's suggestions as to who to replace him as leading lady are rejected as being too short, too old or too dead. He then realises he has had a leading lady in his presence all the time and replaces George with Bob.