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Actor Christopher Lee Has Died at 93

Posted by timothy on from the good-guy-bad-guy dept.

Christopher Lee (or Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee) has played his last on-screen villain. The actor and singer died Sunday at the age of 93, reports The Guardian, after a career in which he played very few positive role models, but an astounding number of antagonists in fantasy, Sci-Fi, and horror films; as a young man, Lee played a career-launching Dracula, as well as a James Bond villain, the perfectly unsettling Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, and dozens of other characters (not all of them evil). Into his 80s, still in demand for the creepiness he was so good at projecting, Lee portrayed the fallen-from-grace wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations, and the evil Count Dooku in George Lucas's Star Wars follow-ons. He was also perhaps the only Knight Bachelor to have released an album of symphonic metal. Even at the time of his death, Lee was involved in film projects, so his legacy will always be immense but incomplete.

34 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. He was much more than that by dargaud · · Score: 5, Informative

    Good summary here. RIP.

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    1. Re:He was much more than that by Daetrin · · Score: 5, Informative
      For those who don't want to follow the link:

      Sir Christopher Lee:

      He was Dracula
      He was a Bond Villain.
      He was Sherlock _and_ Mycroft Holmes.
      He was Death.
      He was Lucifer.
      He was Count Dooku.
      He was Saruman.
      He was Lord Summerisle.
      He recorded a heavy metal concept album about Charlemagne.
      He hunted Nazis during WWII.
      He was part of a secret agent unit called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
      When told be Peter Jackson to imagine how a man being stabbed in the back sounds, he told him he didn't have to imagine it.
      He's fluent in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish; "moderately proficient" in Swedish, Russian, and Greek; and "conversational" in Mandarin.Chinese.

      Now, let's see Check Norris top that.

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    2. Re:He was much more than that by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering what a bad ass he was during world war 2, I'll let him decide what is a proper job for a man.

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    3. Re:He was much more than that by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He was part of the SOE, behind enemy lines. Their exact activities are classified to this day. Because they were hunting down certain Nazis and killing them. So you must have very manly accomplishments yourself to make that pale in comparison, do tell

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

    4. Re:He was much more than that by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Informative

      He also studied at Tolkien at Oxford and corrected Jackson multiple times.

      To top it off during return of the king Jackson asked him to imagine being stabbed to which his reply was I don't need to. Damn

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    5. Re:He was much more than that by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 3, Informative

      More to the point, as much of a badass as we know he was during WW2, we don't even know how much of a badass he really was because so much of what he did in the war is still classified.

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    6. Re:He was much more than that by kamapuaa · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorry for the long quote, but this isn't the wikipedia of a guy who was a "badass," although he did serve honorably and with initiative, as did many other soldiers:

      When World War II broke out, Lee volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War in 1939.[33] He and other British volunteers were kept away from actual fighting, but they were issued winter gear and were posted on guard duty a safe distance from the front lines. After a fortnight, they returned home.[34] Lee returned to work at United States Lines and found his work more satisfying, feeling that he was contributing. In early 1940, he joined Beecham's, at first as an office clerk, then as a switchboard operator.[35] When Beecham's moved out of London, he joined the Home Guard.[36] In the winter, his father fell ill with double pneumonia and died on 12 March 1941. Realising that he had no inclination to follow his father into the Army, Lee decided to join up while he still had some choice of service, and volunteered for the Royal Air Force.[37]

      Lee reported to RAF Uxbridge for training and was then posted to the Initial Training Wing at Paignton.[38] After passing his exams in Liverpool, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan meant that he travelled on the Reina del Pacifico to South Africa, then to his posting at Hillside, at Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia.[39] Training with de Havilland Tiger Moths, Lee was having his penultimate training session before his first solo flight when he suffered from headaches and blurred vision. The medical officer hesitantly diagnosed a failure of his optic nerve and he was told he would never be allowed to fly again.[40] Lee was devastated and the death of a fellow trainee from Summer Fields only made him more despondent. His appeals were fruitless and he was left with nothing to do.[41] He was moved around to different flying stations, before going to Salisbury in December 1941.[42] He then visited the Mazowe Dam, Marandellas, the Wankie Game Reserve and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe. Thinking he should "do something constructive for my keep", he applied to join RAF Intelligence. His superiors praised his initiative and he was seconded into the Rhodesian Police Force and was posted as a warder at Salisbury Prison.[43] He was then promoted to leading aircraftman and moved to Durban in South Africa, before travelling to Suez on the Nieuw Amsterdam.[44]

      After "killing time" at RAF Kasfareet near the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal Zone, he resumed intelligence work in the city of Ismaïlia.[45] He was then attached to No. 205 Group RAF before being promoted to pilot officer and attached to No. 260 Squadron RAF as an intelligence officer.[46] As the North African Campaign progressed, the squadron "leapfrogged" between Egyptian airstrips, from RAF El Daba to Maaten Bagush and on to Mersa Matruh. They lent air support to the ground forces and bombed strategic targets. Lee, "broadly speaking, was expected to know everything."[47] The Allied advance continued into Libya, through Tobruk and Benghazi to the Marble Arch and then through El Agheila, Khoms and Tripoli, with the squadron averaging five missions a day.[48] As the advance continued into Tunisia, with the Axis forces digging themselves in at the Mareth Line, Lee was almost killed when the squadron's airfield was bombed.[49] After breaking through the Mareth Line, the squadron made their final base in Kairouan.[50] After the Axis surrender in North Africa in May 1943, the squadron moved to Zuwarah in Libya in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily.[51] They then moved to Malta, and, after its capture by the British Eighth Army, the Sicilian town of Pachino, before making a permanent base in Agnone Bagni.[52] After the Sicilian campaign was over, Lee came down with malaria for the sixth time in under a year. He was flown to a hospital in Carthage for treatment and when he returned, the squadron was restless. Frustrated with a lack of news about the Eastern Front and the Soviet Union in general, and with no

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    7. Re:He was much more than that by ImprovOmega · · Score: 2

      There's a wonderful bio here that kind of expands on a lot of those points.

    8. Re:He was much more than that by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At least one site begs to differ...

      http://www.badassoftheweek.com...

      His service records are sealed and Lee doesn't talk much about his service (when pressed on the subject, he reportedly asks his interviewer, "Can you keep a secret?". When they excitedly say yes, he leans in close and says, "So can I."), but we do know that by the time he retired as a Flight Lieutenant in 1945 he'd been personally decorated for battlefield bravery by the Czech, Yugoslavian, English, and Polish governments and was good friends with Josip Broz Tito, so draw your own conclusions.

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    9. Re:He was much more than that by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Just had to add this bit from the article...

      Lee also belongs to three stuntman unions, does all of his own stunts, once busted his face smashing head-first through an actual plate glass window for a scene, injured himself falling into an open grave while portraying Dracula, and once had his hand slashed open during a drunken sword fight with Errol Flynn.

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    10. Re:He was much more than that by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 4, Funny

      Heh... if your resume includes drunken sword fights you're either doing life really, really right or really, really wrong.

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  2. What a long and storied career by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not many actors get to span good chunks of two centuries, with great roles in each.

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  3. Interesting career, good life. by Stripe7 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Loved his Hammer films growing up, I think he was great as Saruman in LOTR. He had a great career, and a good life, he will be missed.

    1. Re:Interesting career, good life. by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Informative

      A rare one where he plays a good guy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00...

      Despite the incredibly cheesy special effects, it still gives me the creeps.

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    2. Re:Interesting career, good life. by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Informative

      A rare one where he plays a good guy.

      Here's another one: Terry Pratchett's Death character is not evil. Nor good. It's just Him. But because of a fondness for kittens Death probably leans closer to good than evil...

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  4. Loved him in Three Musketeers by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Informative

    1973 version. See it if you haven't!

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    1. Re:Loved him in Three Musketeers by segedunum · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yer, he's the definitive Rochefort. To be honest, I would ban anyone making any musketeers films or series ever again because there simply isn't any point.

    2. Re:Loved him in Three Musketeers by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      The new BBC version is at least back in the right territory.

      When I recently read some of the original three musketeers, I realized how much closer to the book and the characters those two movies were. I love those films and they are in my top 100 films of all time. I still watch them every few years.

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  5. Pale shrouded figure by jokkebk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Rest in peace, Sir Lee.

    I heard that when he died, a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

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    1. Re:Pale shrouded figure by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Informative

      Rest in peace, Sir Lee.

      I really appreciate your sentiment here -- though note that one should never use Sir + last name when referring to someone who is knighted.

      He can be addressed as "Sir Christopher" or "Sir Christopher Lee," but NOT "Sir Lee."

      Not to mention in this context it makes him sound surly. Or, to paraphrase a movie that once parodied movies like ones Christopher Lee was in: "Don't call me 'Surly'!"

  6. Making metal albums in his 90's by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's one of the coolest old men ever! Not to mention he played Dracula in more languages that most people know how to find a bathroom in.

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    1. Re:Making metal albums in his 90's by mister_playboy · · Score: 4, Informative

      Music video for "The Bloody Verdict of Verden": https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      The original version of the album is more truthfully filed under "narration" than "metal", but there was a stripped down re-release that focused more on the music.

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  7. He could sing, too by alanxyzzy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One of his lesser known singing roles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  8. But they're naked! by Deadstick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Naturally. It's much too dangerous to jump through a fire with your clothes on.

    --The Wicker Man

  9. The Last Unicorn by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Informative

    He played King Haggard in the Last Unicorn.

  10. Death takes Death by Convector · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I really liked him as Death in the animated adaptations of the Discworld novels Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters. He could actually speak in all caps.

  11. Not Many People Manage to Live an Epic Life by LaurenCates · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This man did, however. If there ever were a real someone you could nominate as "The Most Interesting Man in the World", he would probably be the guy.

    RIP, Sir Lee, and thank you.

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  12. Re:He was a good actor by cyberchondriac · · Score: 2

    Indeed... it's the world's loss. I always thought he was one of the best (if not the best) classic Draculas I'd ever seen, and he was brilliant in all his roles.

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  13. awesome actor, he will be missed by Golden_Rider · · Score: 2

    What an actor, one of the great ones. Nobody could do the sophisticated villain like him. And what a voice! And he definitely led an interesting life - he was in the secret service, and I remember that one scene from the LotR "making of" videos in which Peter Jackson talked about how Christopher Lee explained to him what "someone getting stabbed in the back with a knife" really sounded like. And how Peter Jackson was not all that eager to find out how exactly Lee knew that.

    RIP

  14. He died on Sunday by DrXym · · Score: 5, Funny

    They just waited 3 days to be absolutely certain before announcing it.

  15. Meeting him by andrewa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I met him when I was living in Germany in the '80s. I was buying a CD at Ludwick Becks (München) and this booming voice came from behind me asking if his order (for some opera) had arrived. Turning around and realising who it was and instantly turned into a nine year-old and asked him to autograph the CD I was holding. It was a BBC audio book of LotR, and he proceeded to tell me I'd be better off reading the book... :-)

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  16. Embodiment of "The Evil Overlord". Sure he's dead? by DutchUncle · · Score: 2

    I'm probably old for the Slashdot demographic, and Christopher Lee was *already* the complete embodiment of evil scary from the first old-movie-reruns that I can remember. I would totally believe that he has merely moved on to another role . . .

  17. Who's gonna play Saruman now by krkhan · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the upcoming 18-movie adaptation of The Silmarillion?

  18. Re:Occult Book Collection by ninjagin · · Score: 2

    This isn't true. It was a silly rumor that gained traction because of his many many odd roles and the characters he played. He was so good at playing them, people assumed he had some kind of crazy dark fascination with the occult. In reality, he was just a good actor.

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