Sir Christopher Lee, 27 May 1922 - 7 June 2015

"Sir Christopher Lee, who has died aged 93, achieved his international following through playing monsters and villains. In his 30s, he was Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s creature; in his 80s, Count Dooku in Star Wars and the evil wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings. Along the way he was Rasputin, Fu Manchu several times and Scaramanga – the man with the golden gun – opposite Roger Moore as a weak 007, whom Lee did something to offset. For the last of these he was paid £40,000 – his highest fee, among hundreds of screen appearances, until the blockbusters of his later years. “The Bonds get the big money, and they save on the heavies,” he said.
Lee became an actor almost by accident. Through birth and education he seemed a more likely candidate for the diplomatic ladder, but he never reached the first rung. His father, Geoffrey, a colonel much decorated in the first world war, wrecked through gambling his marriage to Estelle, the daughter of the Italian Marquis de Sarzano, and a society beauty of the 1920s. Christopher was born in Belgravia, London. His education at Wellington college, Berkshire, ended abruptly at 17, and he had to get along on the pittance of a City clerk.
But the second world war might be said to have rescued him, making him an intelligence officer with an RAF squadron through north Africa and Italy. At the end, he was seconded for a period with a unit investigating war crimes. Though demobbed with the rank of lieutenant, he had suffered a psychological trauma in training and was never a pilot..."
www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/11/christopher-lee

More on the Wiki: Christopher Lee

 

RIP Sir Christopher Lee!

He volunteered to fight for the Finns when winter war broke out in 1939. He and a group of other Brits came to Finland but were never let go even near the front line and they decided to go back home. For me because of this, he has a special place in my heart forever. Great man, great actor and actually a heavy metal singer too!

 

RIP.

Thanks for the additional info. I already thought well of him but had more reason than I knew.

 

Amazing actor. I had not known about his WW2 service before this - so interesting to read. I last saw him in "Dracula Untold" - had no idea he was 93 years old!

May he RIP.

 

I was, of course, aware of his prolific appearances in the Hammer Horror thrillers, though I was not a big fan of the genre. He had an amazing voice and presence that was well suited for playing the role of villain. It wasn't until I watched the DVD commentaries that edhunter76 mentioned that I knew anything about Christopher Lee's WWII service. There's actually a point in the commentary where he (Lee) describes the sound one makes when stabbed in the back.

 

Does anyone have any info on his WW2 service? I haven't had much luck with google, but did manage to find the following:

"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"

"He was also on personal terms with Josip Broz Tito"

 

All of the WWII footnotes in the Wiki article (link in original post) reference his autobiography "Lord of Misrule" which is, needless to say, a bit pricey right now. I have not tried to find any other source other than the Guardian obit.

 

Sir Lee!

What great career you sure will be remembered! R.I.P.

 

I'm sorry but if you refer to Master Vampire in Dracula Untold, Christopher Lee wasn't in that movie. He was Charles Dance who played Master Vampire there. Lee wasn't in that movie at all.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829150/?ref_=nv_sr_1

 

I will really miss that guy.

 

He tried to serve in the Royal Air Force, but could not become a pilot because of bad eyesight. He then became an intelligence officer in Tunisia and Italy. For a brief time he was also a Nazi hunter.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/christopher-lee-movie-villain-briefly-wwii-nazi-hunter-dies-at-93/

 

AFAIK, his service record remains classified, and as most articles state, he would only hint about his actions during World War II.


He will be missed.

 

Oh, whoops! Wrong guy. Thanks.