Christopher Lee was probably one of Britain’s most versatile actors. Born in Belgravia, London he began his acting career in 1947 which spanned 68 years and led him to Hollywood.
As Hammer Horror's Count Dracula (1958)
He was probably best known for playing bad guys and to some he was the definitive Count Dracula. During his career he played the Prince of Darkness nine times between 1958 and 1976. He was even a Bond villain as Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Later in life he also found a whole new audience and appeared in some recent box office smashes such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (as the wizard Lord Saruman) which he reprised in the prequel Hobbit trilogy. Some of the younger cinema goers will know him as the evil Count Dooku in three Star Wars movies.
From 1957 to 1976 Lee had a very healthy career with that very British institution ‘Hammer Horror’. His first role was Frankenstein’s Monster in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) with his old friend Peter Cushing who played Baron Victor Frankenstein.
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Other Hammer roles included The Mummy (1959), Rasputin the Mad Monk (1966) and Sir Henry Baskerville, in The Hound of the Baskerville’s (1959) opposite Cushing’s Sherlock Holmes.
For me, Lee’s most scary and disturbing role was one without make-up when he played Lord Summerisle in the British horror occult classic, The Wicker Man (1973) which also starred Edward Woodward. This was said to be Lee’s favourite film.
The Wicker Man (1973)
What many people may not realise is that Christopher Lee held a number of record breaking honours within the movie industry.
For many years Lee held the record for being the tallest leading man in movies at 6’ 5”.This was only equalled later in his career by American actor Vince Vaughn.
He still holds the record of most screen credits with 244 films under his belt.
He was also an accomplished swordsman and could hold his own against some of the best. He held the record for most films with swordfights by an actor. He even crossed swords with Hollywood action man and legend Burt Lancaster in The Crimson Pirate (1952).
The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Lee had a very distinctive bass-baritone voice which he put to use as narrator for numerous movies as well as on radio in such dramas as Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of his own Neverwhere. In keeping with the times he also carved out a nice little job of voicing characters in Video games such as Kingdom of Hearts, Lord of the Rings, Lego-The Hobbit and Star Wars animated movie.
He also was fluent in German, French, Italian and Spanish. Plus he admitted that he had conversational skills in Swedish, Greek, Russian and Mandarin Chinese. Is there nothing this guy couldn’t do?
Christopher Leed died on June 7 and had a good innings at 93. But it wasn’t until fairly recently that he was Knighted in 2009 and was awarded a Bafta Fellowship in 2011.
Farewell to nice man and great actor.
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