Christopher Lee

Born on May 27, 1922 in the British capital, Christopher Frank Carandini (his real name) belonged to an upper-class family made up of an Italian aristocrat – Countess Estelle Mari Carandini di Sarzano – and a military man – Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Read-. His childhood was not as happy as he should have been, especially since his parents divorced when he was 6 years old. He was left in the care of his mother, who married banker Harcourt Rose, uncle of Ian Fleming , the writer who created James Bond.

During World War II, he fought in the British Air Force, and although he received training as a pilot, he was ultimately unable to fly due to poor eyesight. Still, he provided exemplary service, at times in top-secret intelligence operations. He began his acting career at the end of the war in the late 1940s, when a second cousin revealed to him that his maternal grandmother was a famous soprano, a fact that he had never known. Since then, he thought show business was in his blood.

He made his debut in Terence Young ‘s Hall of Mirrors , and then appeared holding a spear, as a soldier, in Laurence Olivier ‘s Hamlet (1948) . In that tape he was accompanied by an actor named Peter Cushing , who had more role, and who was destined to be a co-star with Lee in mythical horror films. They both became great friends.

In the early 1950s, Christopher Lee played numerous supporting roles, frequently as a villain, in titles such as Hidalgo of the Seas , where he was a Spanish captain. Although his contributions were small, many of his films were very successful, such as The Fearsome Mocker , Moulin Rouge (1952) or Tempest over the Nile .

He began to attract a bit of attention in the cinema world with The Battle of the Río de la Plata , by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger , where he had a small role as the owner of a cafe in Montevideo. Thanks to this work, he was noticed by the executives of the British company Hammer Productions, the company where he would debut as a protagonist with The Curse of Frankenstein . He played the famous monster invented by Mary Shelley , while his creator was played by his friend Peter Cushing . The film was directed by Terence Fisher, the filmmaker who made British terror –especially that of the Hammerammersa factory– triumph throughout the world. Shortly after, Christopher Lee would share the screen with Boris Karloff , the most popular interpreter of Frankenstein’s monster, in Corridors of Blood .

In 1958, Terence Fisher once again turned to Cushing (Van Helsing) and Lee (Dracula) in Dracula (1958) , considered by fans one of the best adaptations – if not the best – of Bram Stoker ‘s novel ever filmed . If the film starring Bela Lugosi was very theatrical, the product of the transition from silent to sound, Fisher took advantage of nightmarish visual elements, such as fangs or blood. Apparently, Lee had problems collecting his salary, which is why he gave up at the last moment to intervene in the sequel, The Brides of Dracula , which kept the title, although his character was replaced by Baron Meinster ( David Peel ), another vampire.

He soon makes peace with the production company and films three new top-notch collaborations with Peter Cushing and Terence Fisher: The Medusa , The Mummy and The Hound of Baskervilles .

And of course, he returned to embody the most famous vampire, in Dracula: Prince of Darkness , where he has no dialogue. Jimmy Sangster , screenwriter, stated that it was his idea to make the character more scary, but Lee has stated that he preferred not to speak because Sangster’s dialogue was lousy. Apparently, Lee was about to give up the role of him because he did not have much of a leading role; he had been relegated to the final stretch of the film. As, despite the controversy, it had a good impact at the box office, Lee reconciled again with the Hammer executives and put the cape back on in Dracula Returns from the Grave , The Power of Dracula’s Blood, Dracula ‘s Scars , Dracula 73and The Satanic Rites of Dracula – these last two again with Cushing and with the action set in the contemporary era of when they were filmed.

Lee has also been Dracula outside of Hammer in titles such as the unspeakable Count Dracula (1970) , by the Spanish Jesús Franco or Dracula père et fils , by Edouard Molinaro .

The actor also managed to succeed as the Machiavellian Fu-Manchu, created by the novelist Sax Rohmer , whom he gave life to for the first time in 1965, in The Return of Fu-Manchu , by Don Sharp . He would show off the long mustaches of the evil individual on four other occasions. Christopher Lee ‘s big problem is that despite being an excellent interpreter, he was forever pigeonholed in the horror genre, which is why he was never called to give life to other characters.

Lee has also been the bad-very bad Rochefort, in The Three Musketeers (1973) and its two sequels, and he played Francisco Scaramanga, one of the most remembered villains of James Bond (the character created by his cousin), in The Man from the golden gun The Spanish Eugenio Martín , paired him again with Peter Cushing in the entertaining Panic on the Trans – Siberian .

Despite the ‘bad vibes’ he gives on screen, Lee had the bearing of a British gentleman, he held the title of ‘sir’, and in real life he was as elegant as he was a good person. He was married to Danish model and occasional actress Birgit Kroenche, later known as Gitte Lee, with whom he had a daughter, Christina Erika, though it’s hard to imagine Dracula pushing a baby carriage.

From the 70s, Lee’s figure declined, especially after Ken Russell decided not to hire him for the film Tommy , for the character that Jack Nicholson finally played . Also, he made the mistake of turning down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in John Carpenter ‘s Halloween . He would later declare that he was wrong not to embody the character.

Despite everything, Christopher Lee remained very active from the late 70s, showing his comic side in 1941 , by Steven Spielberg , where he was the Nazi colonel Wolfgang Von Kleinschmidt, or in unspeakable by-products, such as The Stupid Family or Howls . 2. Stirba, the werewolf .

An avowed admirer of Christopher Lee , director Tim Burton – who grew up watching his films – cast him in small roles in Sleepy Hollow , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride . But his real breakthrough came when Peter Jackson turned him into Saruman, the evil sorcerer from The Lord of the Rings trilogy . Ideal for the character created by JRR Tolkien , of whom he confesses a passionate admirer, his interpretation introduced him to a new generation of viewers, and he managed to get George Lucas to give him a very similar role, Count Dooku, inAttack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith . He could last be seen briefly again as Saruman in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies , although on his death Angels in Notting Hill has been left pending release.