British actor Sir Christopher Lee, known to millions of people around the world following supporting roles in the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings franchises – as well as the most iconic screen Dracula of them all – has passed away. He had turned 93 years old at the end of May.
Lee died on Sunday morning at 8.30am in Chelsea & Westminster Hospital in London, a family spokesperson has said. He had been in hospital for three weeks receiving treatment for respiratory problems and heart failure.
As a young Briton during World War II, Lee signed up to the army after returning to England from Finland.
As a physically capable soldier he was selected to join the SAS, one of the world's first elite special forces corps. To date, none of the missions he actually carried out have been declassified, so nobody is quite sure what he got up to - though he maintained and hinted that he saw plenty of action, handled himself well, and that the horrors of what he witnessed left him desensitised to any horror characters he would go on to play.
At a towering 196 centimetres or 6’5” tall, there are few actors in Hollywood that could physically look down on Lee, who was officially awarded the accolade of the world’s tallest by the Guinness Book of Records. It’s not the only record the book’s committee gave him, as he also collected gongs for having performed the most on-screen sword fights, and for being the best connected man in Hollywood; the IMDb credits Lee with more than 250 roles across his career, with other sources saying as many as 350.
Christopher Lee as Saruman in The Hobbit trilogy [IMDb]
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was actually a cousin of Lee’s, and it has been whispered that some of the cloak-and-dagger missions that 007 gets up to in the novels are in fact based on Lee’s classified missions as a member of the SAS.
But Fleming also wanted his cousin Christopher to take on the role when the movie was casting his superspy. The writer believed firmly that an actor with Lee’s star power would do the franchise a favour, and that as a former SAS agent, Lee had the experience and skills to pull off the role. The producers differed, and went with Sean Connery instead, though Lee was ultimately cast as one of the series most enduring villains when he played Scaramanga, the eponymous Man with the Golden Gun.
Lee’s family heritage also shared links to music and opera, with his grandparents credited with forming the first ever opera company in Australia.
A young Christopher Lee revealed a natural talent for singing and frequently performed at public events from an early age. Jussi Björling, one of the world’s best known opera singers, heard Lee sing and wanted to foster the developing talent, inviting Lee to join his opera company permanently. Lee turned him down, but was known to sing opera now and again.
Lee’s love of music seemingly covered all genres, as the actor recorded numerous heavy-metal albums, and even released an annual heavy-metal Christmas single.
Last year, he covered Frank Sinatra’s My Way, in a version in which he attempted to sing “more operatically” than Old Blue Eyes could muster. In 2010, he released his first album paying homage to the life of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, completing a second one in 2013. That album,Charlemagne: Omens of Death was recorded with the help of Richie Faulkner, guitarist with Judas Priest, and one him a ‘Spirit of Metal’ award.
Christopher Lee is survived by his wife Birgit and his daughter, Christina. When asked about the secret of his successful marriage 54 years to the Danish former model, Lee replied, "Marry someone wonderful."
