Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee shortly known as Christopher Lee was one of England’s most famous and prolific actors. His recent passing left a vast number of people sad as the world and movie industry lost one of its greatest talents. Here are several interesting and little known facts about actor with which we commemorate his amazing career.
Christopher Lee’s career began in 1948 when he got a role in the British drama film Corridor of Mirrors. However it was a decade later that the actor gained world prominence when he starred in Terence Fisher’s, 1958 British honor film Dracula in the role of Count Dracula. This wasn’t the first movie in which the actor worked with the renowned director as a year before the release of Dracula, Lee played the role of Frankenstein’s monster in The Curse of Frankenstein.
Peter Cushing was one of the actors’ closest friends despite the fact that the two of them were onscreen mortal enemies (in a total of three Dracula related movies) as Cushing played the role of the famed vampire hunter Doctor Van Helsing. In the aforementioned, The Curse of Frankenstein, Cushing appeared along his friend in the role of Victor Frankenstein. Throughout their careers both actors have played alongside in a large number of movies which explains there close friendship which lasted until Cushing’s death in 1994.
After the completion and release of Dracula in 1958, Christopher Lee expressed that he had no desire to continue playing the role of the vampire. Despite his feelings on the matter he did play the role of the count a total of ten times. He explained that he decided to reprise the role because of his fans who sent him an innumerable account of mail which he described as “emotional blackmail”.
In 2014, Lee celebrated his 92nd birthday by releasing this third EP of covers called “Metal Knight”. The EP contains heavy metal rendering of Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way”, “The Toreador March” from the opera Carmen, “The Impossible Dream” and “I Don Quixote” both from the musical Man of La Mancha. He released the album as he wanted to share his version of these musical pieces with his fans.
Christopher Lee was a step-cousin of renowned English author Ian Fleming. Fleming the creator of the legendary fiction spy James Bond based his character on his cousin due to the fact that the actor was part of a Special Operation Units during World War II. The actions in which Lee was involved are still classified by the British government and the actor never elaborated any details. In 1974, Sir Christopher Lee starred in the ninth installment of the James Bond series in the role of Francisco Scaramanga, one of Bond’s most emblematic foes.
During his career Christopher Lee appeared in a total of 206 films, most of which you can see today. But before you do so, make sure that you complete your removal project. You can drastically facilitate your move by using professional removal services.
Other notable films that starred Sir Christopher Lee: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy and the Star Wars prequel trilogy.