Christopher Lee was an icon. He was a living legend that was hard to believe. He was the grandson of Charlemagne, he was a British Air Force agent, he was Scaramanga, he was Dracula, he was Frankenstein's monster, he was Count Dooku, he was Saruman.
Christopher Lee's life, which began on May 27, 1922, in London's Westminster district and ended on June 7, 2015, in Chelsea, 5 kilometers away from there, was perhaps the type that we would write off as "unrealistic" if we saw it in a book. But it was real. It happened. Sir Christopher has accumulated perhaps ten lifetimes worth of stories, memories, and legends in his ninety-three years of life.
Lee, as we said, was born on May 27, 1922, in Westminster, London. His father was Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee. Geoffrey Lee served in the 60th Royal Rifle Corps. He fought in the Boer War and World War I. Lieutenant Colonel Lee married Countess Estelle Marie Carandini di Sarzano, whose paintings were painted by leading artists of the period such as John Lavery and Oswald Birley, and whose sculpture was even cast by Clare Sheridan.
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor, singer, and military officer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horror and franchise films. Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011, and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013.
Estelle and Geoffrey divorced when Lee was six. Young Christopher and his older sister Xandra moved to Switzerland with their mother. It was there that Lee made his stage debut as Rumpelstiltskin, who deceives the spinning wheel girl. Returning to England a short time later, Estelle married George St-Croix Rose there. Rose was a banker. He also had a nephew named Ian Fleming. Fleming would later write a very popular novel series called James Bond, which would be adapted into an even more popular movie series, and actor Lee would portray Francisco Scaramanga, one of the characters written by his step-cousin. This was just one of the very strange coincidences in Lee's life.
You probably all know that Christopher Lee is the only one of the entire cast of The Lord of the Rings who met Tolkien personally. But Lee's entire life is filled with such moments where his roles imitate his life. Similar coincidences happened to Lee many times, just as he was portraying the character written by his step-cousin. Because of his noble lineage, Lee met many strange people throughout his life. Two of them were Prince Yusupov and Duke Dmitri Pavlovich. Lee would later play Grigori Rasputin, whom they assassinated. Lee would later apply to Eton school and portray his interviewer, the legendary British horror writer M R James, in a film shot for the BBC sixty years later.
Lee was not accepted to Eton and studied at Wellington instead. However, due to his stepfather's bankruptcy, he could not finish school and had to start working at an early age. Life continued to be generous in presenting Christopher Lee with unique opportunities during the summer between school and the start of his career. That summer, Lee went to France for a vacation with his sister and had the opportunity to witness the execution of Eugen Weidmann. Weidmann was the last person publicly executed in France. Lee originally planned to stay in France, but the 1940s were approaching and rumors of war were circulating. He returned to London and started working as a postman.
Lee knew the war was coming. He didn't want to be the judge, but he was aware that after a while he would have no choice. Thereupon, he applied to the Royal Air Force in 1941. After completing flight training, he reported to the doctor that he was suffering from headaches and blurred vision on his last flight. The doctor diagnosed it as an optic nerve failure and told him he would never fly again. Lee then joined the intelligence department of the Air Force in Africa. So yes, Sir Christopher Lee spent World War II as an agent in South and North Africa. Really. You thought I was exaggerating when I said ten lifetimes, right? Born as the son of a noble family, you became an agent in World War II.
Lee did not rest easy during his spying. He fought against bombings and diseases. He came close to death many times. While British soldiers in Italy waiting for news from the Eastern Front were turning to rebellion due to unrest, it was Lee who stopped them. He was assigned to Naples, and in his spare time he wanted to climb Mount Vesuvius. He did it, landed, and three days later, Vesuvius made its famous eruption. Towards the end of the war, he was given the task of finding and interrogating Nazi war criminals because he knew German and French. In other words, Lee finished the war he started as James Bond as Inglorious Basterds.
After the war, Lee actually had a hard time finding work to do. He didn't want to go back and work in an office. His cousin Nicolo Carandini, who was one of the leaders of the resistance organization in Italy and now serves as consul general in London, reminded Lee of his family's history of acting and asked Lee, "Why don't you become an actor?" asked. Lee didn't have an answer. Thereupon, Lee set out on this path, regardless of his mother's protests. Nicolo introduced Lee to a friend of his. Filippo Del Giudice, manager of Two Cities Films, signed a seven-year contract with him as soon as he met him.
During and after these seven years, until the 1950s, Lee developed his career little by little. At first, most of the roles he played were silent, extra characters. Little by little, villains and side characters were promoted. When American Douglas Fairbanks Jr. started shooting his films in London, he started acting in them. From there, he was given the path to the company that would make him a legend. Hammer wanted to make horror movies. They had the Frankenstein project on their hands. For Frankenstein's monster, they agreed with Christopher Lee. Victor Frankenstein would be played by legendary actor Peter Cushing, who would later star in twenty films with Lee. Cushing and Lee met there and became very close friends. Twenty years after Frankenstein, Cushing would play the villain in a small science fiction movie called Star Wars, and Lee would join the same series with his dear friend Count Dooku twenty-five years later.
After starring in another film under Lee Hammer, the legendary studio offered him one of its most legendary roles: Dracula. The first film, released in 1958, became so popular that Hammer became a well-known brand within Hollywood. Lee would later refuse to play the role any further but would be tempted by Hammer's president, Jimmy Carreras. Carreras would always trick Lee by saying, "Look, I've already sold the movie, if you don't act, you'll starve the people." Even though Lee disliked the films, the world embraced him and he starred in six more Dracula films in total.
According to Lee, the work in which he broke the perception of Hammer films was The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, released in 1970. Lee, who had previously played both Sherlock and Sir Baskerville in different projects, this time played the role of Sherlock's intelligent brother Mycroft. Lee continued to work with Hammer during this time. After films such as Rasputin, Mummy, and Devil Rides Out, he directed To the Devil a Daughter. This was Hammer's last film, and Lee moved on to other areas of his career.
Although he occasionally played the legendary villain Scaramanga in the James Bond movie The Man With a Golden Gun, Lee was tired of being constantly associated with horror movies. He found the solution by moving to America. He tried to break down his "Count Dracula" image with films such as Airport '77, 1941, and The Return of Captain Invincible. His career, which paused a bit in the 80s, started to rise again in the 90s. In 1994, he starred in Polis Akademi's Russia movie, and in 1998, he played the main character Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the movie Jinnah, which he said was "my best performance".
The 2000s gave him one of the biggest dreams of his life. Lee was a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings series. He read the books once a year and dreamed of portraying Gandalf on the big screen one day. When Peter Jackson finally took on the task of bringing Middle Earth to the big screen, Lee was no longer old enough to sit on horseback and go into battle. But of course, there was a place for him in that big project. He also played Saruman the White. This role opened new doors for him again. A year later, he played Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones. Having received saber training both in the army and at school in his youth, he conducted most of the lightsaber duels himself.
Tim Burton, who grew up a fan of his films when he was young, wanted to work with him when he grew up and became a big director. They shot six films together. He was Burgomaster in Sleepy Hollow and voiced Pastor Galswells in Corpse Bride. He was Willy Wonka's father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and had small roles in Dark Shadows, Sweeney Todd, and Alice in Wonderland.
In 2010, Christopher Lee released a metal album called "Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross". This wasn't his first musical performance. He had previously appeared in many musicals and performed as a vocalist in many albums of the Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire. He also worked with Manowar, and at the age of 90, he had the honor of becoming the oldest artist to release a metal song.
Lee knew exactly ten languages. He was a native speaker of English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German. He was fluent in Swedish, Russian, and Greek. He spoke Chinese "enough to carry on a conversation" and described the Latin he learned at school as "rusty". Lee has performed in many different fields, from video games to animations, from radio theater to the stage itself. He was married only once, to the Danish painter Birgit Kroncke. From that marriage, their only daughter, Christina, was born in 1963.
Throughout his career, Lee has appeared in 206 films, 61 TV series or TV movies, and 16 video games. You'd be surprised how many of these belong to the geek world. Would you like a Captain America movie made for TV years ago, Pratchett adaptations, guest performances in series such as Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Space: 1999… Christopher Lee was an icon. He was a living legend that was hard to believe. He was the grandson of Charlemagne, he was a British Air Force agent, he was Scaramanga, he was Dracula, he was Frankenstein's monster, he was Count Dooku, he was Saruman.
Christopher Lee, as I said, was one of the greatest actors cinema has ever seen and one of the most breathtaking people the world has ever seen.
We hope he is sleeping peacefully, wherever he is.
Summary of his life story
The artist, whose birth name is Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, was born on May 27, 1922. It started to be noticed after the movie The Curse of Frankenstein. He mostly took on dark characters and became famous for his roles as Frankenstein and Dracula. Among the unforgettable roles of Lee, whose professional acting is one of the artists worth watching; There is also Count Dook from Star Wars and Saruman from the Lord of the Rings series. The successful actor passed away on June 7, 2015.