PROFILE: Christopher Lee

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Birth name
Christopher Frank Carandini Lee
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Height
6' 5" (1.96 m)
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Mini biography
The British actor Christopher Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by Estelle Marie and Geoffrey Trollope, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. After attending Wellington College in London from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the RAF during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their “Charm School” and playing a number of bit parts in such films as _Corridor of Mirrors (1947)_ (his film debut), _One Night With You (1947)_ , and _Song of Tomorrow (1948)_ (qv). He made a brief appearance in 'Laurence Olivier' (qv)'s (qv) Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s but didn't achieve stardom until his association with Hammer Film Productions, which started with Curse of Frankenstein, The (1957), Dracula (1958), Mummy, The (1959), and Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1959), all co-starring Peter Cushing. Lee continued his role as Dracula in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series Face of Fu Manchu, The (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1972) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976). By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The (1970), Three Musketeers, The (1973), Four Musketeers, The (1974), and the James Bond film Man with the Golden Gun, The (1974).

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. Lee's career was revitalized in the early 2000s by his appearances in two blockbuster film franchises: The Lord of the Rings (as Saruman the White) and Star Wars (as Count Dooku). In 2001, he was a made a Commander of the Empire in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries.



Spouse
Birgit Kroencke (1961 - present)

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Trivia
Turned down Donald Pleasence's role in Halloween (1978).

Classically trained singer.

Possibly the only actor who has portrayed three different Sherlock Holmes characters: Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes and Henry Baskerville. Has one daughter Christina. During the second world war he served in the Royal Air Force and in British Intelligence. In 1972 he founded Charlemagne Productions Limited. He studied at Summerfield Preparatory School and attended Wellington College.

A distant cousin and frequent golfing partner of Bond creator 'Ian Fleming' , Lee was the author's personal pick for the role of Dr. No (1962) in the first 007 film. The part, of course, went to actor Joseph Wiseman, who was brilliant. However, fans of the literary Bond might want to check out Lee's portrayal of Chinese master criminal Fu Manchu, for an idea of how Fleming himself envisioned Dr. No.

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Although Lee did not land the role of Dr. No as his cousin Ian Fleming envisioned, he DID get the title role in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were born on the same day (27th May) and Peter Cushing was born on the 26th.

Was one of the judges for the 1995 Miss World beauty pageant.

The blood dripping fangs, worn by Lee in many of his vampire films were created by Irish dental technician Sean Mulhall.

Is listed as the Center of the Hollywood Universe by the Oracle of Kevin Bacon web site at the University of Virginia, because he can be linked to any one in Hollywood on average in 2.59 steps. That is less than either 'Charleton Heston' or Kevin Bacon himself.

In a radio interview in South Africa, Lee claimed that he held the record for number of film roles by an actor. [2001]



Was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in her birthday honours list. [15 June 2001]

Appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 album 'Band on the Run'.

Father of a daughter by his wife, Birgit Kroencke Lee.

Served in British Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1941 to 1946.

He is fluent in German.

Is the only member of the cast and crew of Lord of the Rings to have met Tolkien.

Christopher Lee appears in a scene from "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957) on screen during the drive-in sequence in Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita" (1962).

As a member of volunteer troops from Britain, Lee fought in the Winter War in 1939-40 in Finland.

The white coffin used in one of his Dracula films was later used in Bananarama's pop video "Venus".

He is of royal Italian ancestry on his mother's side (Carandini).

From an acting dynasty, his great-grandparents founded the first Australian opera company.

He made his stage debut in school as the demonic lead in "Rumpelstiltskin," a sign of things to come.



Has played a staggering amount of Victorian characters. He played Count Dracula 10 times, Dr. Fu Manchu 5 times, Sherlock Holmes 3 times, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother) once, and Sir Henry Baskerville (a friend of Holmes) once. He also appeared in a film adaption of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among others.

A stunt double performed the stunts and lightsaber fights in Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones. Lee's face was imposed on the double's body. Lee mentioned that in the last 40 years he has done more sword fights than any other actor, but "not any more."

Speaks very good French, good enough to understand questions and give long replies in a press conference

Is an honorary member of three stuntmen's unions

Is a Commander of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem

Christopher Lee's stepfather (his mother's second husband) was the maternal uncle of writer Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame). Lee and Fleming are therefore step-cousins.

Was voted no. 31 on the recent British televised poll "The Greatest Movie Stars Of All Time" above the likes of John Wayne, Michael Caine and Humphrey Bogart.



Personal quotes
"I stopped appearing as Dracula in 1972 because in my opinion the presentation of the character had deteriorated to such an extent, particularly bringing him into the contemporary day and age, that it really no longer had any meaning."

"Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff didn't like the word 'horror'. They, like I, went for the French description: 'the theatre of the fantastique'."

"There are many vampires in the world today - you only have to think of the film business."

"In Britain, any degree of success is met with envy and resentment."

(On his friendship with Peter Cushing) "I don't want to sound gloomy, but at some point of your lives every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again."

QU: (On doing Military Intelligence in WW2) When people say to me, you know, were you in this? Were you in that? Did you work in this? Did you work in that? I always used to say 'Can you keep a secret?' And they would say 'Yes, yes' and I would say "So can I."


Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
"Peter Cushing and I have made so many horror films," Lee once said, "that people think we live in a cave together." He was kidding, of course, but there's no doubt that this towering, sharpfeatured actor has enjoyed his most memorable screen roles opposite the suave, aristocratic Cushing in such stylish Hammer Films chillers as Curse of Frankenstein (1957, as the monster), Horror of Dracula (1958, as the vampiric Count, the first of many appearances in that role), The Mummy (1959, in the title role), The Gorgon (1964), Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974), not to mention such other spine-tinglers as The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959, as Sir Henry Baskerville), Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), The Skull (1965), The House That Dripped Blood, Scream and Scream Again (both 1970), The Creeping Flesh (1972), and House of the Long Shadows (1982, teamed with fellow horror veterans Vincent Price and John Carradine).

Lee has, however, done some films on his own-dozens of them, to be exact. His early movies include Hamlet (1948), Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951), The Crimson Pirate, Moulin Rouge (both 1952), and Storm Over the Nile (1956). He played Dracula sans Cushing in many films, among them Dracula-Prince of Darkness (1965), Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969), The Scars of Dracula the German-made Count Dracula (both 1970), and the 1976 spoof Dracula and Son He's essayed the classic "yellow peril," Fu Manchu, in five films-EB> (1965), EB> (1966), EB> (1967), EB> (1968), and EB> (1969). And he's the only man to play both Sherlock Holmes (in the 1964 German-made Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace and a British-made miniseries that yielded the 1991 feature films Incident at Victoria Falls and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady and brother Mycroft (in 1970's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes).

Among the other titles that stand out on Lee's lengthy roster are Taste of Fear (1961), Rasputin-The Mad Monk (1965, the title role), The Devil's Bride (1967), Julius Caesar (1970), Hannie Caulder (1972), The Wicker Man (1973), The Three Musketeers (1974 and sequels in 1975 and 1989, as Rochefort), The Man With the Golden Gun (also 1974), Airport '77 (1977), Return From Witch Mountain and The Silent Flute (both 1978). He has also demonstrated a flair for comedy, playing a Nazi officer in 1941 (1979), a cycle-riding guru in Serial (1980), and a genetic scientist in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Like John Carradine, to whose career Lee's own bears a striking similarity, he is an actor of the bravura school who's not averse to self-parody. (In 1983's spoofy The Return of Captain Invincible he even sang. And he turned up as a host one week on TV's "Saturday Night Live.") Since the 1980s Lee has also been active in made-for-TV productions.

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Christopher Lee
The veteran actor Christopher Lee, more used to dealing out horrific punishments in a host of horror movies, has himself been given the chop, from the final part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. Despite this setback, the 81 year-old Lee remains very much in demand.

With more than 200 credits to his name Christopher Lee's track record is one for which any aspiring star would kill.

Lee's first experience of acting came as a child, playing Rumpelstiltskin. Since then, Lee has become the face of many other grotesques and villains: Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, Fu Manchu, Scaramanga - the Man with the Golden Gun - and, most recently, Saruman, Tolkien's good wizard gone bad.

Beside these roles, he has also enjoyed notable roles in Star Wars, Richard Lester's Three Musketeers and the pagan-tinged thriller, The Wicker Man.

Once described as "tall, dark and gruesome" - he stands six-foot-five - Christopher Lee was born in London 1922. His background is aristocratic, if not regal: his mother was an Italian contessa and he can claim direct lineage from Charlemagne.

His great grandparents formed Australia's first opera company, performing before miners in towns in the outback: Lee has inherited a powerful operatic voice.

Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was a cousin. Indeed. Fleming wanted Lee, and not Joseph Wiseman, to play the first Bond film villain, Dr No.

Educated at Wellington College, Christopher Lee served in the Royal Air Force and intelligence during World War II before becoming a professional actor with the Rank organisation.

Lee hated his time at Rank: "They said I was too tall to be an actor and too foreign looking. It's like saying that you've got red hair so you can't play the piano," he recently told one interviewer.

But, despite bit parts in films like Cockleshell Heroes and Ill Met By Moonlight, it was his role as the Creature in Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein which brought Lee stardom.


Christopher Lee thrilled as Count Dracula

Looking, as he has said, like the victim of a car accident, his portrayal of the monster was more than the mere cipher which audiences had come to expect. It was rounded and subtle: as much touching as frightening.

Lee takes a singular view of all his evil or monstrous roles. "With all these characters, I always look for one particular element that runs through them all, and that is a kind of sadness."

Through the years, Christopher Lee has found himself typecast. "I was always playing the baddie, I realized that this was not a good idea, because I possess a degree of versatility that an actor must have, and I wanted to get an opportunity to show that."

To this end he starred in Jinnah, a lavishly-produced biopic of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

A counter to the unsympathetic portrayal Jinnah is said to have received in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, Lee says that it is his finest performance.

But Jinnah has received little publicity outside Muslim countries, much to Lee's regret. Today, it is his portrayal of Saruman which is being kept off the screen. A seven minute scene, almost word-for-word Tolkien, has been cut from The Return of the King.

Lee says he is shocked. Many Tolkien fans are outraged. But, with four films currently in production, Christopher Lee shows no sign of slowing down.