Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, born in 1922, is a veteran British actor who initially made his name playing villains - most famously Count
Dracula in
Hammer Horror films (although he was a hero in
The Devil Rides Out). He became well known for his horror work, and was good friends with
Vincent Price and
Peter Cushing, and the three were known as the "Unholy Trinity of Horror" for a while. During the 1970s, he also played Lord Summerisle in the original version of
The Wicker Man and Francisco Scaramanga in the film version of one of his cousin (and war buddy, but more on that later)
Ian Fleming's books,
The Man with the Golden Gun. He's even been a
leader of a gang of gay bikers in the satire on American life
Serial. His piercing eyes and melodious bass voice made him instantly recognizable. See
Compelling Voice.
Although he never stopped acting, famous roles dried up a little during the 1980s and 1990s, until he returned with a vengeance, playing villains again, in two of the most popular and influential movie series of the new century: Count Dooku in
Star Wars and Saruman the White in
The Lord of the Rings. He was the only member of the
Lord of the Rings cast to have met
the author in person
and was an avid scholar of Tolkien's work (he apparently reads the entirety of it once every year),
often advising Jackson and Boyens on some of the finer points of the backstory. He wanted to play the role of Gandalf but he felt he was too old for the role when films got around to being made. He has also had a cameo as a member of the church hierarchy in
The Golden Compass, so that particular character would
probably have turned out to be important had the sequels not been canned. (Lord Boreal, maybe?)
During
World War II, Lee served with the Royal Air Force and intelligence service, and has mentioned in the past that he also served with
Special Operations Executive (otherwise known as The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare). The SOE was set up by Churchill to "set Europe ablaze", and it included - among others - Christopher Lee and Ian Fleming, making it the obvious inspiration for the
James Bond series. So there's a good reason that Lee was cast in one of the film versions. After the War, he also became a
Nazi Hunter, hunting down War Criminals due to being fluent in both Finnish and German.
During the filming of
The Lord of the Rings, he disagreed with Peter Jackson over certain aspects of his character's death scene, insinuating that he knows firsthand the sound a man makes when he's stabbed in the back (see
Reality Is Unrealistic). Take that as you will.
While known primarily as an actor, Lee also trained as an operatic bass-baritone
singer
.
Some things you just can't make up. He recently came out with
a metal album, called
Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross. Some things are just too awesome for words. Oh, and he
head-bangs. The veteran actor says he often throws himself around to heavy metal. ‘I do head-banging every day,’ he said. ‘Exercising my neck muscles is good for my back. I can do it with or without music.'
By the Sword and the Cross has a follow up called
Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, with a preview released on on May 27, 2012 (Sir Christopher's 90th birthday) and the full album will be released on May 27, 2013. The release of his Charlemagne musical marks Christopher Lee as the oldest musician in the history of the metal genre.
He was born on the same day as
Vincent Price, and
Peter Cushing was born the day before. Pretty... spooky. He was
knighted on October 31, 2009 (that's right folks, Halloween). While this does not make him more excellent per se, it was most assuredly long overdue. Everyone, please say, Sir Christopher Lee.
It is interesting to note that, despite his long and illustrious career, Lee has never even been
nominated for an Oscar, but
that reflects more on the Academy than him. He has, however, won the
2011 BAFTA Fellowship. He is also as of this writing the most prolific film actor
ever, having appeared in 274 different works.
Other facts:
- Count Magnus Lee, the villain of the first Vampire Hunter D novel and movie, was named after him.
- He also acts as the wizard Iras Algor, in Rhapsody of Fire's epic The Dark Secret saga.
- He was an uncredited stunt driver in The Man with the Golden Gun. In addition to playing the title role.
- He is an expert fencer, and has appeared in more swashbuckling films than any other actor - almost invariably as the villain. But then...
- The Guinness Book of World Records listed him as the world's "Tallest Leading Actor" at 6'5". He's lost a bit of that height to old age, and is now second to Vince Vaughn. Stephen Fry takes the bronze at 6'4".
- An awesome Cunning Linguist, Lee is fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, "moderately proficient" in Swedish, Russian and Greek, and "conversational" in Mandarin Chinese. He's even said to speak the dark tongue of Mordor.
- As of September 2012, Christopher Lee is one of the most prolific actors in history, having appeared in more films than any other person in the world, living or dead, except probably John Carradine. (IMDB lists about 275 acting credits.) The man's been an actor for most of his life and is 90 years old. As a result, according to the Oracle of Bacon it is he, and not Kevin Bacon, who is the true center of the Hollywood Universe. Despite this fact, the trope-related attribute is still named the Bacon Number and not the Lee Number. Having said that, Lee Number just doesn't sound as funny as Bacon Number, so this is excusable.
- He is a direct descendant of Charlemagne. Hence the metal album. He is also a distant relative of Robert E. Lee.
- When he arrived on the set of Gremlins 2, he apologized to director Joe Dante for appearing in The Howling II, a bad sequel to Dante's original Howling.
- Was asked to play Doctor Loomis in the original Halloween 1978, but turned down the offer. Has subsequently stated he deeply regrets this.
- His favorite role (note, Role, not Movie) is that of (The elder) Muhammed Ali Jinnah (The Founder of Pakistan) in the Biopic Jinnah. Watch it here. It's an awesome film, and a pretty good P.O.V. Sequel to Gandhi.
- It may not be his favourite Movie, but he did everything in his power to promote The Wicker Man, offering to pay the ticket price for critics to get them to review it, and touring the US in an effort to get people to go and see it.
His works include:
Film - Live-ActionLive-Action Television- He is the traditional voice actor for DEATH in Discworld adaptations including Sky One's The Colour of Magic, but not Hogfather (which had the late Ian Richardson, who did a great job as well).
- Appeared in a miniseries adaptation of Ivanhoe as Lucas de Beaumanoir.
- Played the wandering wizard Olwyn in The New Adventures of Robin Hood.
- He played Flay in the BBC miniseries adaptation of Gormenghast.
Video GamesWestern AnimationMusic- Awesome, Dear Boy: According to his autobiography, the reason he took the role of Mister Midnight in The Return of Captain Invincible was so that he'd get a chance to sing onscreen. It's considered by many people to be the best part of the film.
- He has also said he only took his part in Airport '77 because he wanted a chance to work with Jack Lemmon.
- Badass: Oh, yeah. Not just onscreen, but in real life. He jumped at the opportunity to serve with the Finns when the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939 (Britain was not yet technically allied to the USSR, so this was OK), and was sorely disappointed when they assigned him to guard duty far from the front line; he then joined the RAF, which sent him to their intelligence corps, which sent him to the Long-Range Desert Group, which sent him to the Special Operations Executive, which "from time to time" attached him to the SAS. And that's just his World War II record. So...definitely badass.
- Badass Baritone: So much!
- It was mainly due to this fact that his casting in the role of Death in a whole bunch of Discworld movie and audio adaptations came across as an almost ridiculously obvious choice, as only Sir Christopher Lee is ABLE TO SPEAK IN CAPITALS.
- Badass Beard
- Badass Family: A direct descendant of Charlemagne.
- His father was a war-hero, his mother an Italian contessa, and his great-grandmother a famous opera singer (Marie Carandini).
- He is distantly related to Robert E. Lee, a Southern general in The American Civil War
- As mentioned above, his cousin is Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.
- Badass Grandpa: He's 90 and still makes films, does his own swordwork, and records heavy metal albums.
- Blue Blood: On his mother's side. The Carandinis are an ancient family—having been ennobled for services to Frederick Barbarossa—and the line from which he claims descent from Charlemagne (they were gentry long before they were nobles; also, Charlemagne's daughters had a lot of bastards, who became nobles across Europe).
- Chronically Killed Actor: A side effect of being cast as so many villains. His autobiography talks about his kids watching TV and playing a guessing game called "How will Daddy die this time?"
- Cool Old Guy: One of the coolest.
- Evil Brit: Sometimes.
- Evil Is Bigger: It's easier to get villainous roles when you're 6'5" (1.96 m).
- Evil Is Hammy: When he plays villains.
- Evil Sounds Deep: YEP! (though it's worth noting he's lovely offscreen)
- Heroic Lineage: He is a descendant of Charlemagne.
- Hollywood Accounting: How he was hoodwinked into doing most of the Hammer Dracula pictures. The studio would say that they've already arranged filming and hired all the crew, and if Lee didn't agree to play Dracula they'd all be out of a job. Oh, and since they'd already made all the arrangements for paying the crew and finding locations, Lee would have to agree to not be paid full salary for the picture. Knowing this explains immensely why he doesn't like to talk about that part of his career anymore.
- Large Ham: Occasionally, when the role calls for it.
- Manly Tears: Upon receiving his BAFTA fellowship.
- Mean Character Nice Actor
- Money, Dear Boy: It doesn't matter just what your film is about, if you can afford his fee, odds are you'll be able to get him to make an appearance.
- Mysterious Past: His work as a British Commando is something he only ever alludes to due to it being classified. However, he's been able to advise at least two of his directors on what it really looks and sounds like when a man is shot or stabbed in the back.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Vampire Sith Lord dark wizard Pagan Cult Leader Super Assassin metalhead Nazi stabber!
- Old Shame: He doesn't like to talk about most of his Hammer pictures, particularly the Dracula series.
- Possibly less Old Shame and more "I did the last of those almost 40 years ago! I have nothing else to say about them!"
- He was also so ashamed of The Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf that he actually apologized to the director of the original.
- One of Us: He was a Tolkien fan before you were alive. He's also a metal fan.
- Plays Great Ethnics: Early in his career he had trouble finding roles as Englishmen because casting directors thought his Italian heritage made him look too "foreign". As a result, he's played Germans, Italians, French, Arabs, Chinese... it's probably easier to mention ethnicities he hasn't played.
- Precision F-Strike: He normally comes across as reserved and erudite, so the occasions for profanity are rare and unique. In the Lord of the Rings outtakes, a wardrobe malfunction finally frustrated him to the point where he shouted, "I can not get up these God-Damned stairs, Peter!"
- Saw Star Wars Twenty Seven Times: He has stated that he has read the Lord of the Rings trilogy all the way through once a year, every year going back decades. It was for this reason that he was one of the main consultants for the Peter Jackson films. He is also the only one involved in the films to actually meet J. R. R. Tolkien in person.
- Silver Fox
- Slasher Smile
- Sturgeon's Law: Yeah, about that being the most prolific film actor ever? An awful lot of it is awful crap even he would advise you not to watch.
- Those Two Actors: He worked with Peter Cushing in an astonishing twenty-two movies together. Their first 2 films were Hamlet (1948) and Moulin Rouge! (1952) 2 major Class A productions where they both had minor roles where their characters never met. Then they co-starred in The Curse of Frankenstein (Cushing was Frankenstein, Lee was the Monster) and a beautiful partnership, and friendship, was made.
- He also had a very healthy working relationship with director Terence Young. Young gave him his first acting role (in the 1948 film Corridor of Mirrors) and directed him in several other small-to-medium sized roles before Lee recieved his big break in The Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula.
- What Could Have Been: He was supposed to play Dr No in the film of the same name but the filmmakers chose Joseph Wiseman instead.
- He was also offered Leslie Nielsen's role in Airplane!, but turned it down because he had trouble understanding the script.
- Wicked Cultured: Many of his characters, not least the man himself... sans the wicked.
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