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Sir Christopher Lee
CBE CStJ
Lee at the Berlin International Film Festival, February 2013
Born
Christopher Frank Carandini Lee

(1922-05-27) 27 May 1922 (age 102)
Belgravia, London, England, United Kingdom
Alma materWellington College
Occupation(s)Actor, singer, author
Years active1946–present
SpouseBirgit Krøncke (1961–present)
Children1
Military career
Allegiance Finland
 United Kingdom
Service / branchFinnish Army (December 1939)
British Home Guard (1940)
 Royal Air Force (1941–1946)
Years of service1939–1946
RankFlight Lieutenant
Battles / warsWinter War
World War II (North African Campaign, Allied invasion of Italy, Battle of Monte Cassino)
Websitechristopherleeweb.com

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ, (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor, singer and author. Lee initially portrayed villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a string of popular Hammer Horror films. His other notable roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014), and Count Dooku in the final two films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002 and 2005).

He was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013.[1][2][3] Lee considers his best performance to be that of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998), and his best film to be the British horror film The Wicker Man (1973).[4]

Always noted as an actor for his deep, strong voice, he has, more recently, also been known for using his singing ability, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and the symphonic metal album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010 after having worked with several metal bands since 2005. The heavy metal follow-up titled Charlemagne: The Omens of Death was released on 27 May 2013.[5][6] He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.

Christopher Lee is one of the highest grossing actors of all time, having grossed $8,321,486,066 worldwide.

1970s

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Taste the Blood of Dracula "had the best cast but after an initial burst the story drooped".[7]

Franco's Count Dracula, Lee played Dracula as a tragic, doomed figure - an old man rejuvenated by blood, rather than an immortal creature drinking it to survive. The film was "made against the grain of this decline [and] was a damn good try at doing the Count as Stoker meant him to be... It was a shadow of what it might have been, but nevertheless it had the right outlook on the protagonists."[7]

Scars of Dracula was "truly feeble. It was a story with Dracula popped in almost as an afterthought. Even the Hammer make-up for once was tepid. It's one thing to look like death warmed up, quite another to look unhealthy. I was a pantomime figure. Everything was over the top, especially the giant bat whose motored wings flapped with slow deliberation as if it were doing morning exercises. The idea that Dracula best liked his blood served in a nubile container was gaining ground with the front office and I struggled in vain against the direction that the fangs should be seen to strike home, as against the more decorous (and more chilling) methods of shielding the sight with the Count's cloak. In the context of many modern extravagances this fussing may seem like the Victorian preference for having table legs covered."[8]

After making Dracula A.D. 1972 in 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula in 1973, Lee decided that he was done with the character and wouldn't make any more unless they were faithful to the original story or, as had almost happened, told the story of Henry Irving and Dracula. He thus turned down the role in the final Hammer Dracula film, 1974's The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.[8]

He made two films for the experimental Spanish director Pere Portabella: 1970's Cuadecuc, vampir and Umbracle, which was made in the same year but not released until 1972.[9]

In 1970, Lee appeared as the on-screen narrator in Jesús Franco's Eugenie as a favour to producer Harry Alan Towers. George Sanders had been cast in the role, but he fell ill and withdrew. Wolfgang Preiss replaced him, but he pulled out after his wife died in a car crash and Lee agreed to help out at the last minute, unaware that it was Softcore pornography, as the sex scenes were shot separately.

I had no idea that was what it was when I agreed to the role. I was told it was about the Marquis de Sade. I flew out to Spain for one day's work playing the part of a narrator. I had to wear a crimson dinner jacket. There were lots of people behind me. They all had their clothes on. There didn't seem to be anything peculiar or strange. A friend said: 'Do you know you are in a film in Old Compton Street?' In those days that was where the mackintosh brigade watched their films. 'Very funny,' I said. So I crept along there heavily disguised in dark glasses and scarf, and found the cinema and there was my name. I was furious! There was a huge row. When I had left Spain that day everyone behind me had taken their clothes off![10]

Lee had a similar experience in Franco's The Bloody Judge, about George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, the notorious hanging judge.[11] When the film was completed, he found that scenes of "extraordinary depravity" had been added in. It did not, however, harm his relationship with Franco. He made two more films with the director - Dark Mission in 1987 and The Fall of Eagles in 1990.[12]

In 1971, Lee made his only Western, Hannie Caulder, though he wished he had done more.[13] He was offered the lead role in Just Jaeckin's Story of O, an adaptation of Anne Desclos's novel of the same name, but he turned it down.[11]

In 1973 and 1974, he starred in a two-film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. Originally intended to be a single film, so much footage was shot that it was released as two: The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Lee starred as the villainous Comte de Rochefort and was required to take part in four duels.[14]

Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond spy novels and Lee's step-cousin, had offered him the role of the titular antagonist in the first Eon-produced Bond film, 1962's Dr. No. Lee enthusiastically accepted, but by the time Fleming told the producers, they had already chosen Joseph Wiseman for the role.[4] Lee thought that he had missed his chance, but in 1973, he finally got to play a James Bond villain when he was asked by director Guy Hamilton to play deadly assassin Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.[15] Lee said of his performance, "In Fleming's novel he's just a West Indian thug, but in the film he's charming, elegant, amusing, lethal... I played him like the dark side of Bond."[4] As a visual joke, they cast French dwarf Hervé Villechaize, who was over two feet shorter than Lee, as his henchman Nick Nack.[16]

In 1975, he narrated the TV documentary Muhammad Ali: Truth Victorious for his friend Muhammad Ali, who dedicated his defeat of Chuck Wepner in March 1975 to Lee.[17][18] This cheered Lee up, who was feeling restless. Despite the success of The Man with the Golden Gun, he was not receiving many offers and he felt that "time was passing".[19] So, he had his production company organise with Rank and Hammer to adapt Dennis Wheatley's To the Devil a Daughter, which was released in 1976. He and his wife were thinking of moving to California, something their friends encouraged, so that Lee could "do something a little bit different in the cinema."[20]

His first American film was the disaster film Airport '77.[21] John Landis offered him the role of Dr. Klahn in his comedy anthology film The Kentucky Fried Movie, but Lee reluctantly declined, as he didn't want to play a Fu Manchu-type character again.[22] The role instead went to Han Bong-soo. In 1978, Lee appeared as a guest host on NBC's Saturday Night Live.[4] He turned it down at first, recalling his last appearance on live television, when one of his co-stars had a bout of uncontrollable flatulence, but his agent insisted.[23] He did not look forward to the experience, but later recalled that it "changed my life."[23] In one scene, he sent up Sherlock Holmes, a notorious drug user, by snorting copious amounts of cocaine with a ten-dollar bill; in another, he played Death, come to take a little girl's puppy.[24] Between thirty and thirty-five million people watched the episode.[25]

As a result of his appearance on SNL, Steven Spielberg, who was in the audience, cast him as a German observer in a Japanese submarine in the comedy 1941.[4] He turned down the role of Dr. Barry Rumack in the 1980 disaster spoof Airplane!, which was made around the same time,[26] a decision he later called "a big mistake."[4] The same year, he appeared in the thriller Bear Island, playing a Polish scientist.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Hammer Horror star Lee knighted". BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2012
  2. ^ "Christopher Lee to receive Bafta Fellowship". BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2012
  3. ^ "Depp surprises Sir Christopher Lee with film award". BBC. Retrieved 14 December 2013
  4. ^ a b c d e f "The Total Film Interview – Christopher Lee". Total Film. 1 May 2005. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  5. ^ Sir Christopher Lee releases second heavy metal album
  6. ^ Farrell, John (28 May 2012). "Christopher Lee Celebrates 90th Birthday By Recording Heavy Metal". Forbes. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  7. ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 300.
  8. ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 301.
  9. ^ Lee 2003, p. 301-302.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference telegraphinterview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 228.
  12. ^ Lee 2003, p. 229.
  13. ^ Lee 2003, p. 227.
  14. ^ Lee 2003, p. 277.
  15. ^ Lee 2003, p. 231.
  16. ^ Lee 2003, p. 232.
  17. ^ Lee 2003, p. 245-246.
  18. ^ http://www.eofftv.com/names/l/lee/lee_christopher_1970s.htm
  19. ^ Lee 2003, p. 246.
  20. ^ Lee 2003, p. 247.
  21. ^ Lee 2003, p. 249-251.
  22. ^ Lee 2003, p. 255.
  23. ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 252.
  24. ^ Lee 2003, p. 253.
  25. ^ Lee 2003, p. 254.
  26. ^ a b Lee 2003, p. 256.

Bibliography

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  • Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, edited by Russ Jones, illustrated by Mort Drucker & others, Pyramid Books, 1966
  • Christopher Lee's New Chamber of Horrors, Souvenir Press, 1974
  • Christopher Lee's Archives of Terror, Warner Books, Volume I, 1975; Volume 2, 1976
  • Tall, Dark and Gruesome (autobiography), W.H. Allen, 1977 and 1999
  • The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films, by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes, Titan Books, 1997 and 2007 – Foreword by Christopher Lee
  • Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History by Jonathan Rigby, Reynolds & Hearn, 2001 and 2003
  • The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare by Chris Smith, HarperCollins, 2003 – Foreword by Christopher Lee
  • Lee, Christopher (2003) [1977]. Lord of Misrule: The Autobiography of Christopher Lee. London: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 0-75285-770-3.
  • Dans les griffes de la Hammer by Nicolas Stanzick, Le Bord de l'eau Editions, Paris, 2010.
  • Sir Christopher Lee by Laurent Aknin, Nouveau Monde Éditions, Paris, 2011.
  • Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares, by John Landis, DK Publishing, 2011 – Interview with Christopher Lee
  • Le Seigneur du désordre (autobiography, a French version of Lord of Misrule), Christopher Lee, Camion Blanc (Coll. "Camion Noir"), 2013.
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