Christopher Lee

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

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 still appearing in films such as The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Extensive biography at Tiscali UK

Early life

Lee was born in London in 1922, the son of Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a Lieutenant-Colonel in 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 eye 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 in interviews, and claims to know the sound a man makes when you stab him in the back and puncture his lung. Lee retired from the RAF after the end of the War in the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

Career as an actor

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. Lee also appeared in the infamously bad series of Fu Manchu films, starring as the eponymous villain in heavy "oriental" make-up.

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.

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.

Honors

In 2001, Christopher Lee was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.British Honours, 16 June, 2001, BBC website.

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.In brief: Christopher Lee 'most bankable' star. The Guardian, URL accessed 26 April, 2006

Trivia

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."

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 Rogue Agent.The EA Games website, URL accessed 2 May, 2006.

Lee appeared on the cover of the Wings album Band on the Run along with other people, including chat show host Michael Parkinson, movie actor James Coburn, world boxing champion John Conteh and broadcaster Clement Freud.

He plays the treacherous Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones and the wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films. In both cases his characters are killed at the beginning of third film. Though Saruman's death only appears in the DVD special edition of The Return of the King.

Lee has narrated and sung for the Danish musical group "The Tolkien Ensemble", taking the role of Treebeard, King Theoden and others in the readings or singings of their respective poems or songs.The Green Man review website, URL accessed 3 June, 2006.

Lee narrated the Dark Secret EP by Italian power metal band, Rhapsody, appearing in the storyline as the wizard king Iras Algor. Lee's voice can be heard on the latest Rhapsody's album, The Dark Secret. He also sings a duet with Fabio Lione on Rhapsody's single, The Magic of the Wizard's Dream.

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 Ian McKellen). Lee had known Tolkien, and makes a habit of reading the novels at least once a year; his knowledge of the trilogy was so broad that he was frequently consulted on-set as a Tolkien advisor. 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.^*

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

Christopher Lee, 'Lord of Misrule'.

Lee sings on the The Wicker Man soundtrack, performing Paul Giovanni's psych folk composition, The Tinker of Rye.Stylus magazine website, URL accessed 3 June, 2006.

He is fluent in Italian and German and moderately proficient in French. 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 adaption of The Last Unicorn.IMDB entry for ValhallaIMDB entry for The Last Unicorn

Lee has been married to the Danish model Birgit Kroencke since 1961. They have a daughter named Christina (born 23 November 1963).

He is the uncle of the British actress Harriet Walter.

A major opera fan when he appeared on Desert Island Discs all of his records were opera selections.

For personal appearances Lee's rider requests a supply of Earl Grey tea and states that he will not talk about his Hammer Films.

At six feet five inches, he is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for the world's tallest leading actor, just beating Stephen Fry (Wilde) by 1/2 an inch.Guinness book of world records entry. Another record he holds is that of being the "Living actor with the most screen credits". He is also credited with having the most swordfights on-screen.

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

Selected films

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951)
The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Dracula (1958)
The Mummy (1959)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
Dr Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
Prince of Darkness (1966)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
The Oblong Box (1969)
Count Dracula (1970)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Dracula AD 1972(1972)
Horror Express (1973)
Death Line (1973)
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
To the Devil...a Daughter (1976)
End of the World (1977)
Airport '77 (1977)
Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
1941 (1979)
Once Upon a Spy (1980)
Serial (1980)
Safari 3000 (1982)
The Return Of Captain Invincible (1983)
Shaka Zulu (1987)
Around the World in Eighty Days (1988)
The New Batch (1990)
Blood Sacrifice (1991)
Mission to Moscow (1994)
A Feast at Midnight (1995)
Soul Music (1996) (Voice)
Wyrd Sisters (1996) (Voice)
The Stupids (1996)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Jinnah (2000)
The Fellowship of the Ring (film) (2001)
The Two Towers (film) (2002)
Attack of the Clones (2002)
The Return of the King (film) (extended version only) (2004)
Revenge of the Sith (2005)
''Corpse Bride (2005)
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Kingdom Hearts II (2006) (video game)

Notes and references

External links

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