Christopher Lee

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This article is about the English actor. For other uses, see Christopher Lee (disambiguation).
Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee as Count Dooku in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Birth name Christopher Frank Carandini Lee
Born May 27, 1922 (age 84)
United KingdomBelgravia, London, England
Official site ChristopherLeeWeb.com
Notable roles Dracula in
Hammer Film Productions
Francisco Scaramanga in
The Man with the Golden Gun
Count Dooku in
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Saruman in
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE (born May 27, 1922 in Belgravia, London) is a legendary and prolific English actor known for his versatility, his professional longevity, and his distinctive basso delivery.

Lee is best known for his portrayals of villains; he became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man and Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. Lee is now over eighty years old, and has recently appeared in films such as The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.[1]

At six feet five inches, he is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for the world's tallest leading actor, a record he shares with Vince Vaughn, and just beating Stephen Fry (Wilde) by ½ an inch.[2] Despite a critically acclaimed career that spans over seven decades, he has never been nominated for an Academy Award.

Contents

[edit] Family

The Carandini family was given the right to bear the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Cinemareview cites: "Cardinal Consalvi was Papal Secretary of State at the time of Napoleon and is buried at the Pantheon in Rome next to the painter Raphael. His painting, by Lawrence hangs in Windsor Castle."[1]

Lee's great-grandparents formed Australia's first opera company, performing before miners in towns in the outback.[3]

Lee is a step-cousin of the late Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond spy novels. Fleming offered him the role of the title character in the first official Bond film Dr. No, and Lee enthusiastically accepted, but the producers had already chosen Joseph Wiseman for the part. In 1974, Lee finally got to play a James Bond villain, when he was cast as the deadly assassin Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. Lee would reprise the latter role some thirty years later when he provided the voice of Scaramanga in the video game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.[4]

Lee has been married to the Danish model Birgit Kroencke since 1961. They have a daughter named Christina (born 23 November 1963).[3] He is also the uncle of the British actress Harriet Walter.[1]

[edit] Early life

Lee was born in London in 1922, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee of the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, and the Marchesina Estelle Marie Carandini di Sarzano, whose grandfather had been an Italian political refugee who had sought refuge in Australia. Lee's mother was a famous Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, as well as Oswald Birley, Olive Snell and sculpted by Clare Sheridan, a cousin of Winston Churchill.

His parents separated when he was very young and his mother took Christopher and his sister Xandra to Switzerland, where Christopher was enrolled in Miss Fisher's Academy in Wengen and he played his first villainous role as Rumpelstiltskin. The family returned to London where Christopher attended Wagner's private school. His mother then married Harcourt 'Ingle' Rose, a banker and uncle of the James Bond author Ian Fleming. Lee then attended Wellington College, where he won scholarships in classics. He volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War against the Soviet Union in 1939 - though, as Lee admits in his autobiography, he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland for a fortnight and kept well away from the Russian forces the whole time. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force and intelligence during World War II. He trained in South Africa as a pilot but was forced to drop out due to vision problems. He eventually ended up in North Africa as Cipher Officer for No. 260 Squadron RAF and was with them through Sicily and Italy. Additionally, he has mentioned serving in Special Operations Executive. Lee retired from the RAF after the end of the War in the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

[edit] Career as an actor

Christopher Lee in his signature role, as Dracula (1958)
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Christopher Lee in his signature role, as Dracula (1958)

In 1946, Lee gained a seven-year contract with Rank Organisation after discussing his interest in acting with his mother's second cousin Nicolò Carandini, the Italian Ambassador. Carandini related to Lee that performance was in his blood as his great grandmother Marie Carandini had been a successful opera singer in Australia, a fact of which Lee was unaware. He made his film debut in Terence Young's Gothic romance, Corridor of Mirrors, in 1948. Throughout the next decade, Lee made nearly thirty films, playing mostly stock action characters.

His first film for Hammer, made in 1956 with his close friend Peter Cushing, was The Curse of Frankenstein, in which he played "The Creature". That led to his first appearance as the infamous Transylvanian count in the 1958 film Dracula (known as Horror of Dracula in the U.S.) Lee would become indelibly associated with the role and with the horror genre, making another six films as Dracula, five of them for Hammer, as well as many other horror films.

Christopher Lee portraying the founder of Pakistan, in the movie Jinnah (1998)
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Christopher Lee portraying the founder of Pakistan, in the movie Jinnah (1998)

Lee also appeared in the infamously bad series of Fu Manchu films, starring as the eponymous villain in heavy "oriental" make-up. In 2000, Lee starred in the role of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan in the film Jinnah. Christopher Lee had recently played the role of DiZ in the Square Enix/Disney video game Kingdom Hearts II. Much publicity and excitement was given over this role, as DiZ is a major character in the game.

Christopher Lee portrays the wizard Saruman from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
Enlarge
Christopher Lee portrays the wizard Saruman from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

He auditioned for a role in The Longest Day but was turned down as he did not look like a military man (despite having served in the RAF during World War II).[5]

Lee acted in the 1970 movie Eugenie, unaware that it was softcore pornography because the sex scenes were shot separately and edited in with his own appearances afterwards.[1]


Lee has played roles in over 220 films since 1948. He has had many notable television roles, including that of Flay in the BBC television miniseries Gormenghast that was based on Mervyn Peake's novels and Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński in the 2005 CBS film, John Paul the Second.

Lee was a natural choice for the Lord of the Rings movies, where he plays the role of Saruman (although he is known to have vied for the role of Gandalf, which was given to Sir Ian McKellen). Lee had met Tolkien once, and makes a habit of reading the novels at least once a year.[6] In addition, he performed for the album The Lord of the Rings: Songs and Poems by J. R. R. Tolkien in 2003; this was unrelated to the film trilogy.[7]

[edit] Voice work

Lee sings on the The Wicker Man soundtrack, performing Paul Giovanni's psych folk composition, The Tinker of Rye.[8]

He is fluent in Italian and German and moderately proficient in French.[1] He was the original voice of Thor in the German dubs in the Danish 1986 animated movie Valhalla, and of King Haggard in the 1982 animated adaptation of The Last Unicorn.[9][10]

Lee narrated and sang for the Danish musical group The Tolkien Ensemble, taking the role of Treebeard, King Théoden and others in the readings or singing of their respective poems or songs.[11]

Lee was a voice actor for the Playstation 2 video game Kingdom Hearts II as DiZ.

Lee appeared as a narrator for Italian symphonic fantasy metal band Rhapsody of Fire, playing the Wizard King in the latest two albums, Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret and Triumph or Agony. He narrates several tracks in the two albums, along with singing a duet with lead vocalist Fabio Lione in the single The Magic of the Wizard's Dream from the Symphony of Enchanted Lands II album.

[edit] Honors

In 2001, Christopher Lee was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.[12]

Lee was named 2005's 'most marketable star in the world' in a USA Today newspaper poll, after three of the films he appeared in grossed $640m.[13]

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
  • For personal appearances Lee's rider requests a supply of Earl Grey tea and states that he will not talk about his Hammer Films. [citation needed]
  • In addition to more than a dozen feature films together for Hammer Films, Amicus Films and other companies, Lee and Peter Cushing both appeared in Hamlet (1948) and Moulin Rouge (1952) albeit in separate scenes, and appeared in separate instalments of the Star Wars films, Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original film, Lee years later as Count Dooku. The last project which united them in person was a documentary, Flesh and Blood, the Hammer Heritage of Horror, which they jointly narrated. It was the last time they saw each other; Cushing died two months later.
  • Although not officially counted, Christopher Lee is rumored to have more recorded more sword fights than any other actor.
  • Christopher has appeared in the Sony online game "Everquest 2" as the Voice of the overlord of Freeport.
  • According to the Oracle of Bacon website at the University of Virginia, Christopher Lee is ranked second (just behind Rod Steiger) as the "Center of the Hollywood Universe" due to his large number of films with a correspondingly large number of different castmates. [2]

[edit] Books by Christopher Lee

  • Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror, Pyramid Publications, 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
  • Lord of Misrule (autobiography, a revised and expanded edition of Tall Dark and Gruesome), Orion Publishing Group Ltd., 2004

[edit] Selected Roles

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d Extensive biography at Tiscali UK
  2. ^ Guinness book of world records entry.
  3. ^ a b Christopher Lee, 'Lord of Misrule'.
  4. ^ The EA Games website, URL accessed 2 May 2006.
  5. ^ IMDB trivia for The Longest Day
  6. ^ Peter Jackson. (2002). Cameras in Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Special Extended Edition documentary) [DVD]. New Line Cinema.
  7. ^ Lord of the Rings: At Dawn in Rivendell at Amazon
  8. ^ Stylus magazine website, URL accessed 3 June 2006.
  9. ^ IMDB entry for Valhalla
  10. ^ IMDB entry for The Last Unicorn
  11. ^ The Green Man review website, URL accessed 3 June 2006.
  12. ^ British Honours, 16 June 2001, BBC website.
  13. ^ In brief: Christopher Lee 'most bankable' star. The Guardian, URL accessed 26 April 2006

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Yaphet Kotto		 Official James Bond villain actor
1974		 Succeeded by
Curd Jürgens
Hammer Films actors & actresses
Ralph Bates | Peter Cushing | Veronica Carlson | John Carson | Jennifer Daniel | Edward de Souza | Clifford Evans | Suzan Farmer | Michael Gough | Andrew Keir | Duncan Lamont | Christopher Lee | Miles Malleson | Francis Matthews | André Morell | Richard Pasco | Jacqueline Pearce | Ingrid Pitt | Oliver Reed | Michael Ripper | Barbara Shelley | Thorley Walters | Barry Warren | Noel Willman
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