Talk:Christopher Lee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Christopher Lee article.
Article policies
Christopher Lee was selected as the Portal of Horror Horror-related biography of the month for June 2007.

Contents

[edit] Jinnah ref

I have the source where Lee referred to Jinnah being his most important work. But I don't know how to add them to the reference list...could anyone do that for me please? http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=12656 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3733894.stm

[edit] Video game ref

This confirms that Christopher Lee voiced Scaramanga in the video game Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, but unfortunately I can't figure out how to do a reference. User:David L Rattigan 20:58 02 May 2006 GMT

WP:Footnotes - Motor (talk) 20:40, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
Cheers. I did look at that page before, but couldn't quite get the hang of it. Much easier to look at the code for what you did and just learn that way! User:David L Rattigan 21:55 2 May 2006 GMT

[edit] Trivia

Lee is a direct lineal descendent of Charlemagne through his mother's side.

Is there a source for this? christopherleeweb.com [1] states that the Carandini family is believed to have had close connections with the Emperor Charlemagne instead of claiming descendance.

Anon. 01:14, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Lee served in the military during World War II, where he acquired the knowledge of the noise a person makes when stabbed in the back. He put this to use when filming The Lord of the Rings, as can be seen on the Extended Edition DVD of The Return of the King.

Could we have a source for this? It seems like a macabre joke.

Mihoshi 14:31, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

It isn't a joke - Peter Jackson mentions it in the commentary, reminiscing about the filming of a particular scene where Lee, an ex-secret service man adds the benefit of his experiences. sheridan 17:42, 2005 May 23 (UTC)
Cool. Thanks for clearing that up---Mihoshi 20:45, 31 May 2005 (UTC)
I moved this bit of trivia to the Trivia section, but as a matter of fact I would like remove it as irrelevant. While it makes a good anecdote in the context of the LOTR extras (so I've understood, haven't seen them), it really is rather non-surprising that someone who has served in close combat operations has knowledge of what it looks and sounds like when someone is killed. I cannot come up with arguments for keeping it, and if there are no objections, I'll remove it in a while. 194.157.147.48 00:14, 23 July 2006 (UTC)
Agreed, and I've taken the liberty of removing it myself. It was one of the more entertaining parts of the DVD, but it doesn't really add much to an encyclopaedia article. --Calair 10:37, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

" He volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War against the Soviet Union in 1939,"

This is another point for which I would like to have a source. I have a list of all the volunteers and his name does not appear on the list. I also have a list of those Britons who volunteered but did not actually arrive to to Finland. Lee's name is not on that list either. Furthermore I would think that if such a famous person would have fought with the Finns agains the Soviets, everybody in Finland would known about it. This is not the case. --Chino 02:37, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

The statement is a bit of an exaggeration, but the source is his autobigraphy- he was quite young and apparently paid his own third class passage with some friends, showed up, and they weren't quite sure what to do with him so sent him somewhere away from any fighting. He went home, apparently, after a few weeks. This is from memory, I'll look it up when I find the book again. -- Yrfeloran 15 November 2005

the article didnt mention tha lee made the voice intro on the manowar song king of kings

[edit] Cinema beheadings and on screen deaths

Christopher Lee is notable for the number of times he had died on screen portraying his character. Although I do not have an accurate count of his final disposition in all of his films. I believe he has been beheaded while portraying Dracula, Fu Manchu and Count Dooku among other characters. Does anyone have any more information on this? Group29 18:12, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tribute from The Guardian

When a man is 6ft 5in tall, descended from Italian aristocracy, educated at an English public school, a brilliant fencer and golfer, loves opera, speaks French, German, Spanish and Italian, and can "get along" in Swedish, Russian and Greek, you know he is destined for evil.

— Leo Benedictus, The Guardian 24 June 2005 [[2]]

[edit] Robert E. Lee

Someone on imdb says that Christopher Lee is related to Civil War General Robert E. Lee. Despite the similar last time, I've never heard of this. I didn't think he had any relatives, or in particular any ancestors, who were American, as all of Robert E. Lee's descendants have been. In particular, two of General Lee's descendants are Harper Lee and Robert Duvall. The imdb poster also said that, in numerous interviews, Lee said that he and Duvall were cousins. Has anyone else ever read this?(Kenobifan 04:52, 22 January 2006 (UTC))

  • See Talk:Harper Lee for a refutation of the widely-circulated claim about her kinship (circulated by, among others, the Encyclopedia Britannica): "General Robert E. Lee has very few descendants, considering that he had seven children. None of his daughters married and only two of his sons had children." (family tree) --Dystopos 00:02, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Strangely enough there does seem to be some resemblance between Christopher Lee and Robert E Lee's family. Christopher Lee's family were also the same class, upper middle-gentry and served as officers in the military. Lee's grandfather was Ellis Lee, an army Colonel, and his father was a Henry Lee jun. of Finsbury Square, London who was presumably son of another Henry Lee Arniep 00:19, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Well, obviously we can't rely on original research here. Shall we look for an authoritative source? --Dystopos 00:49, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
There are a few biographies of Lee that might contain some more info on his family, I'll see if I can order them through my library. There is also a book on the Lee family of Virginia: Edmund Jennings Lee, Lee of Virginia 1642-1892, (1895; reprinted., Baltimore, 1983) which might mention an English branch. Arniep 01:07, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photo

Since Lee is most closely associated with playing Dracula in the Hammer movies, shouldn't there be a picture of him in the role?Willerror 21:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Languages and army

Apparently he speaks several languages, specifically French and German but can get by with the basics in another few European languages. Moreover, he did eventually end up in the army and has spoken more than once in general terms about being in combat. His advice, btw, is don't go into combat!

[edit] External links

I just chopped out a lot of unnecessary external links and sorted out a few references while converting it to the new notes system. I added the fact template to many of the claims too. It's worth noting too, that the Tiscali biography calls his father Jeffrey, this article calls him Geoffrey. The Carandini pedigree calls him Geoffrey too... so maybe that raises some concerns about the accuracy of the Tiscali biog. Also, IMO, the Trivia section is way too long. It is a mix of stuff that should be in the article body, irrelevancies, and in places it strays into being a filmography. Addition: if anyone would like to add references to replace the fact templates, see: Wikipedia:Footnotes for instructions on the new system. - Motor (talk) 01:43, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

The Tiscali bios are generally pretty good, I don't think a small spelling mistake is an indication of general inaccuracy. Jeffrey is the spelling that is usually found on most other bios (I only found that it was Geoffrey as I traced his ancestry). Arniep 02:42, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Family?

Isn't there anything on Christopher Lee's family? Not background, I mean is he a father? Grandfather? I think there needs to be a "Personal Life" section in this article. Crazy Eddy 20:00, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Making a habit of reading the books once a year

I recall hearing something like this: he had once met Tolkien and made a habit of reading the books once a year, making him the Tolkien consultant in the interviews on one of the LoTR disks, just forgot which one. Could someone find which one and add the citation into the article? Comics

[edit] Knighthood

The man has to get one soon.

[edit] DiZ?

I know that Christopher plays Ansem, but has anyone thought that perhaps Ansem was MODELLED after Lee?

I did take that into consideration, but Mr. Christopher Lee never had blonde hair.

[edit] POV

This is written like a press release by a Christopher Lee publicist lol

[edit] Batman!

This is related moreso towards Hammer than Lee himself, but, has anyone noticed that Dracula in Batman vs. Dracula looks exactly like Christopher Lee in Scars of Dracula and+? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.222.238.42 (talk) 02:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC).

Oh my gosh! I'm not the only person! I noticed that as well!

[edit] J.B. Tito

Does anubody know something more about C. Lee`s taking part in the Second World War finishing in Yugoslavia. My unproved information is that he was the bond between UK government and Yugoslav partisans` Supreme command in 1944. Same information is that he speaks Serbo - Croat language well. Thank you. Cheers. Petronije 12:22, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

  • The Yugoslavia bit is noticably skimmed over in his autobiography. That's possibly the time he was in SOE. He has has generally said that he's not going to talk about anything that was secret. 205.201.7.191 23:04, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Christopher Lee in the movie "Pope John Paul II"

He played cardinal Wyszyński in the 2005 movie "Pope John Paul II". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II_(movie).

[edit] Gay?

Quite a few people I know have got wind of a rumour that CL is gay. Does anyone have any evidence pointing one way or t'other? Alexrushfear 13:06, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

As usual, the Gay Lobby desires to inject unfounded rumor and smearing innuendo into an article on a famous person. This is to further their intention to have homosexuality accepted as a normal practice instead of the unnatural, immature danger that it is.Lestrade 20:48, 31 October 2007 (UTC)Lestrade
Wow. The question is a rather silly one (unless there are verifiable sources- he's been married for decades), but the response was way out of line. ChrisStansfield Contribs 21:08, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lee as Marvolo Gaunt

Wizard magazine nominated Christopher Lee to play Marvolo Gaunt in the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Erudil 17:39, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Links to Film Entries in Wikipedia

I have just finished making a number of minor edits to the CL article, essentially adding links to the films (mainly from the Hammer Era) that have entries in Wikipedia. I assume this is not counter to the intentions of the author or the great man himself. --Blue Dwarf 15:57, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Christopher Lee as Dracula.jpg

Image:Christopher Lee as Dracula.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 04:58, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Lee's Height

I am not convinced that Lee is really 6ft5 tall. True, he is very tall but I have never seen any official verification of his exact height. I know that he was at lease 6ft4 when he was younger. -- Vitus Werdegast (talk) 17:20, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

He is listed as being 6ft 5 on the imdb website [3] Paul210 (talk) 20:39, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

  • Most places put him at 6'5", I think. Regardless, he is very tall for an actor and says this hampered his career. Guy (Help!) 15:31, 19 January 2008 (UTC)