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 entire trilogy 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 enemy faction 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, as well as a secret agent unit called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. The Ministry 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.
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 is going to have a follow up called
Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, released on May 27 (Sir Christopher's 90th birthday).
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 April 2010, Christopher Lee is the most prolific actor in history, having appeared in more films than any other person in the world, living or dead. (IMDB lists over 250 acting credits.) The man's been an actor for most of his life and is 89 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.
- 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, 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. Its 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 America 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).
Video Games Western Animation Music- 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.
- Badass: Oh, yeah. Not just onscreen, but in real life.
- Cool Old Guy: One of the coolest
- Evil Is Bigger: It's easier to get villainous roles when you're 6'5" (1.96 m).
- Evil Sounds Deep: YEP! (though it's worth noting he's lovely offscreen)
- 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 payed 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.
- 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. The movie will then have at least one redeeming feature.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Sith Lord dark wizard 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.
- Wicked Cultured: Many of his characters.
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