http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/11/christopher-lee-dies-at-the-age-of-93-dracula
QuoteChristopher Lee dies at the age of 93
The veteran actor was best known for playing villains including Dracula and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings franchise
Sir Christopher Lee has died at the age of 93 after being hospitalised for respiratory problems and heart failure.
The veteran actor, best known for a variety of films from Dracula to The Wicker Man through to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, passed away on Sunday morning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, according to sources.
The decision to release the news days after was based on his wife’s desire to inform family members first. The couple had been married for over 50 years.
As well as his career in film, Lee also released a series of heavy metal albums, including Charlemagne: The Omens of Death. He was knighted in 2009 for services to drama and charity and was awarded the Bafta fellowship in 2011.
His film career started in 1947 with a role in gothic romance Corridor of Mirrors but it wasn’t until the late 50s, when Lee worked with Hammer, that he started gaining fame. His first role with the studio was The Curse of Frankenstein and it was the first of 20 films that he made with Peter Cushing, who also became a close friend. “Hammer was an important part of my life, and generally speaking, we all had a lot of fun,†he said in a 2001 interview.
Lee’s most famous role for Hammer was playing Dracula, a role which became one of his most widely recognised although the actor wasn’t pleased with how the character was treated. “They gave me nothing to do!†he told Total Film in 2005. “I pleaded with Hammer to let me use some of the lines that Bram Stoker had written. Occasionally, I sneaked one in. Eventually I told them that I wasn’t going to play Dracula any more. All hell broke loose.â€
In the 70s, Lee continued to gain fame in the horror genre with a role in The Wicker Man, a film which he considered to be his best. “Wonderful film... had a hell of a time getting it made,†he said. “Its power lies in the fact that you never expect what eventually happens, because everyone is so nice.†He went on to play a Bond villain in 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun and turned down a role in Halloween, which he later said was one of biggest career regrets. In his career, he also turned down a role in Airplane!, something he also regretted.
His concern over being typecast in horror films led him to Hollywood and roles in Airport ‘77 and Steven Spielberg’s 1941. His career saw a resurgence in 2001 with a role as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then as Count Dooku in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
He also became a regular collaborator with Tim Burton, who cast him in Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows. Burton went on to award him with a Bafta fellowship.
In 2011, he returned to Hammer with a role in the Hilary Swank thriller The Resident although he generally tried to avoid the horror genre in later years. “There have been some absolutely ghastly films recently, physically repellent,†he said. “What we did was fantasy, fairy tales - no real person can copy what we did. But they can do what Hannibal Lecter does, if they’re so inclined, people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen, and for that reason, I think such films are dangerous.â€
After dabbling with music throughout much of his career, including a song on The Wicker Man soundtrack, Lee released his first full-length album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. It was well-received by the heavy metal community and won him the spirit of metal award at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods ceremony.
His 2013 single Jingle Hell entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 22, which made him the oldest living artist to ever enter the charts.
Lee still has one film yet to be released, the fantasy film Angels in Notting Hill, where he plays a godly figure who looks after the universe. He was also set to star in 9/11 drama The 11th opposite Uma Thurman but it’s believed that the film hadn’t yet started production.
In an interview in 2013, Lee spoke about his love of acting. “Making films has never just been a job to me, it is my life,†he said. “I have some interests outside of acting â€" I sing and I’ve written books, for instance â€" but acting is what keeps me going, it’s what I do, it gives life purpose.â€
Sad day, another one of the greats has passed on :(
Some more on Lee:
http://www.badassoftheweek.com/christopherlee.html
Quote"I've seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I've become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise we would never have won."
-Christopher Lee, discussing his service in World War II
QuoteHe's also a 6'5" tall world champion fencer, speaks six languages, does all of his own stunts, has participated in more on-screen sword fights than any actor in history, served for five years defending democracy from global fascism as a British Commando blowing the shit out of Nazi asses in World War II, and became the oldest person to ever record lead vocals on a heavy metal track when, at the age of 88, he wrote, performed on, and released a progressive symphonic power metal EP about the life of Charlemagne (because why the fuck not?).
QuoteChristopher Lee enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he worked as an intelligence officer specializing in cracking German ciphers and skulls and any other Nazi bullshit he came in contact with. In North Africa he was attached to the Long Range Desert Patrol, the forerunner of the SAS, where he would jump in a badass fucking four-wheel-drive jeep with a gigantic machine gun mounted in the back, drive hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, survive the scorching heat of the Sahara Desert, then sneak-attack Luftwaffe airfields by rolling up on them at sixty miles an hour with his .50-caliber machine guns blazing out curtains of white-hot Nazi-smiting justice, planting dynamite on their airplanes, then peeling ass out of there leaving nothing but bullet-riddled corpses and gigantic explosions in his wake. After working with the LRDP, Lee was assigned to the Special Operations Executive â€" better known as Winston Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare â€" a group that did shit like lead a twelve-man assault that destroyed the German top secret nuclear weapons development facility in Norway and assist brave Eastern European partisans and rebels sabotage Nazi supply lines to prevent them from bringing reinforcements up to fight the Soviets. 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.
Badass of badasses, special operative in WW2- also fought with the Finns against the Russians prior to the war- made more movies than any other actor.
We should all live lives this full and complete. And never made a fuss about it. What a fucking great guy. These are the kind of people we should emulate and point out to our children as role models.
Truly, he was deserving of his mantle of Sir.
It feels like when a veteran actor of his caliber dies, we lose an example of some of the best kinds of people we should work towards emulating. Its also just how regal he was in his voice alone, one from another time that you don't see now.
His movie career alone is huge, he almost never stopped acting though decades of movies, tv shows and voice acting, even since the 1940s. Thats pretty dam amazing. It also means in a time that cinema and movies were growing and becoming part of peoples lives, he's always been there as part of it.
Lets hope his legacy isn't ever forgotten.
Quote from: Munch on June 11, 2015, 10:39:20 AM
Truly, he was deserving of his mantle of Sir.
It feels like when a veteran actor of his caliber dies, we lose an example of some of the best kinds of people we should work towards emulating. Its also just how regal he was in his voice alone, one from another time that you don't see now.
His movie career alone is huge, he almost never stopped acting though decades of movies, tv shows and voice acting, even since the 1940s. Thats pretty dam amazing. It also means in a time that cinema and movies were growing and becoming part of peoples lives, he's always been there as part of it.
Lets hope his legacy isn't ever forgotten.
I think back and realize he has been a part of my life as long as I have been alive. And never once can I recall anything negative spoken of him. He was- and still is to me- the epitome of class and elegance. I read the live story of David Niven not long ago, another great British actor who served in WW2, even though he was living in America when the war began. These are men who wear greatness on their shoulders, and make no issue of it.
Lets not forget to that even with his huge time span as an actor, he was humble, never had a bloated sense of himself, like a-holes like ben affleck or christian bale.
Quote from: Munch on June 11, 2015, 11:02:34 AM
Lets not forget to that even with his huge time span as an actor, he was humble, never had a bloated sense of himself, like a-holes like ben affleck or christian bale.
What do you chalk that up to? Breeding? I don't know what makes people great, but both him and Niven were trained at military schools, and came from difficult family situations. He is also a step cousin to Ian Fleming, so you could call him star crossed. His father was a military commander and his mother, apparently, a woman of great beauty. They certainly produced a great son.
another great man taken this year...*sighs* well..he lived to a venerable old age and impacted many lives..RIP Mr. Lee
93, wow. And he worked at very old age. RIP.
Man, I've been listening to a lot of Charlemagne lately too (his band)... RIP Christopher Lee.
Quote...like a-holes like ben affleck or christian bale.
Without derailing this thread anymore, Christian Bale... asshole... lol, okay. I see you know so much about him...
Quote from: Shiranu on June 11, 2015, 11:39:12 AM
Without derailing this thread anymore, Christian Bale... asshole... lol, okay. I see you know so much about him...
Agreed, we shouldn't derail it in honor to a great man.. Bale is an asshole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_x0jAFMfUQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_x0jAFMfUQ)
Falls one of the best actors and metal man ever.
Stephen Fry on QI, talking about Sir Christopher (starting at about 0:45, and ending with the best punchline possible delivered by Dara O Briain -- though the whole clip is great as it also involves Peter Cushing and Vincent Price):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7weij7F11VY
Bale is a very intense actor. The rant thing may have been blown out of proportion-or not- but I'm not going to judge him on one occurrence. We are all capable of having a bad day. He has done some good things, like visiting the victims of the shooting at the Colorado theater. Intense people do intense things. I will never fault his skill as an actor, regardless how he might be as a person.
Watch the movie "Empire Of The Sun". Young Bale holds his own against a very strong adult cast. As we say out west, the man has sand.
All this has to be balanced against the fact that he was a Sith.
^ And a dark wizard. And a vampire.
And he shed the blood of 4000 Saxon men.
Quote from: stromboli on June 11, 2015, 10:21:43 AM
Badass of badasses
Christopher George doing his best Christopher Lee impression 60 years ago.
(http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/1e/Troy_50_cal.jpg/450px-Troy_50_cal.jpg)
and yes I know the Brit was in the other jeep...
Quote from: PopeyesPappy on June 12, 2015, 04:05:42 PM
Christopher George doing his best Christopher Lee impression 60 years ago.
(http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/1e/Troy_50_cal.jpg/450px-Troy_50_cal.jpg)
and yes I know the Brit was in the other jeep...
And I remember, pappy. We is old.
I'd really like to see his war record opened and see what he did in the war. that by itself would make a movie. If it has been secret all these years, it must've been some heavy shit. Speaks to the integrity of the man that he never sought to capitalize on any of it, but then again until it is revealed you will never know.
Quote from: PopeyesPappy on June 12, 2015, 04:05:42 PM
Christopher George doing his best Christopher Lee impression 60 years ago.
(http://www.imfdb.org/images/thumb/1/1e/Troy_50_cal.jpg/450px-Troy_50_cal.jpg)
and yes I know the Brit was in the other jeep...
A week after that show debuted a friend's father let me fire a M2 .50 cal. I thought I had a cannon in my hands. And as it can put 83 pounds of lead in the air every minute I wasn't far wrong.