They typecast me for a while, but they also made me known, he said. [14], When Lee was nine, he was sent to Summer Fields School, a preparatory school in Oxford, some of whose pupils later attended Eton. He became known for playing Count Dooku in Star Wars and Saruman in Lord of the Rings. Christopher Lee Watts (1985-05-16) May 16, 1985(age 37) Spring Lake, North Carolina, U.S. [138] In 2007, he voiced the transcript of The Children of Hrin by J. R. R. Tolkien for the audiobook version of the novel. [65] Lee appears as the unnamed "Old Gentleman" who acts as Lachlan's mentor in a flashback. Lee saw his stepfather for the last time on a bus in London in 1940, by then divorced from Lee's mother, though Lee did not speak to him. [60] In November 1944, Lee was promoted to flight lieutenant and left the squadron in Iesi to take up a posting at Air Force HQ. "What's all this about?!" Lee considers this film to be the reason he stopped being typecast: "I've never been typecast since. [112], In 2004, Lee lamented that Hollywood scripts were mainly spin-offs, as people were afraid of taking financial risks, commenting that he was mostly being offered spin-offs of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. I did play Ramses II once, who lived to be 91 and had 120 children, but he died 4,000 years ago. Christopher Lee obituary | Christopher Lee | The Guardian [71] Like other students at Rank's "Charm School," Lee had difficulty finding work. The veteran actor, immortalised in films from Dracula to The Wicker Man, and via James Bond villainy to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, died at 8.30am on Sunday morning at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. [68], Returning to London in 1946, Lee was offered his old job back at Beecham's, with a significant raise, but he turned them down as "I couldn't think myself back into the office frame of mind." I pleaded with Hammer to let me use some of the lines that Bram Stoker had written. [55], After the Allied invasion of Italy, the squadron was based in Foggia and Termoli during the winter of 1943, where Lee was then seconded to the Army during an officers' swap scheme. Autopsy needed to determine cause of death for Louisiana man found in BBC Films, which worked with Lee on war 2009 thriller Glorious 69, posted: "Oh goodness, another incredibly sad death today. Doing a scene with him and having him peering down at you, screaming into your face, all you can think of is 'My God, that's Dracula! [145] In 1977, he appeared on Peter Knight and Bob Johnson's (from Steeleye Span) concept album The King of Elfland's Daughter. 1 for 4 weeks, Aging beloved YA author Judy Blumes inevitable foil isnt so bad after all, Review: The entertaining Peter Pan & Wendy charts a familiar course to Neverland, Rihanna has Smurfs on the brain for her next movie: Hope this gives me cool points. Christopher Lee - Wikipedia [125], In 2012, Lee marked his fifth and final collaboration with Tim Burton, by appearing in Burton's film adaptation of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, in the small role of a New England fishing captain.[126][127]. An extraordinary man and life lead, Sir Christopher Lee. [190][191] In 2011, Lee was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship;[192] he received a BFI Fellowship in 2013. [74] He played Charles; the director got around his height by placing him at a table in a nightclub alongside Lois Maxwell, Mavis Villiers, Hugh Latimer and John Penrose. The movie actor Christopher Lee passed away at age 93, this age of death has to be considered astounding.What was the cause of death? In an AMC documentary on Halloween (1978), John Carpenter states that he offered the role of Samuel Loomis to Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, before Donald Pleasence took the role. [179], Lee was the subject of the BBC's This Is Your Life in 1974, where he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. [99] Lee made his last appearances as Sherlock Holmes in the television films Incident at Victoria Falls (1991) and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady (1992). [139] In 2005, Lee provided the voice of Pastor Galswells in The Corpse Bride, co-directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. Actor Christopher Lee with his wife, Brigitta, in 2006. [93] In 2010, he marked his fourth collaboration with Tim Burton by voicing the Jabberwock in Burton's adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic book Alice in Wonderland, alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway. 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 played The Boss / Mr. President and the film premiered in the Regent Street Cinema, London on 29 October 2016. Farewell. Lee recalled that Giudice "looked me up and down [and] concluded that I was just what the industry had been looking for." He met with screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, and they agreed to work together. His parents separated when he was 4 and divorced two years later. These were not commercially successful: Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973). A fter it emerged Thursday that British character actor Christopher Lee had died, fellow actors and other noted people took to Twitter to mourn the passing of the actor . For other people named Christopher Lee, see, J Gordon Melton (2010). Christopher Lee - Bio, Net Worth, Story, Death Cause, Wife, Family Christopher was 55 years old. [94] Shaffer read the David Pinner novel Ritual, in which a devout Christian policeman is called to investigate what appears to be the ritual murder of a young girl in a rural village, and decided that it would serve well as the source material for the project. [72] Lee finally got to play a James Bond villain in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), in which he was cast as the assassin Francisco Scaramanga. However, it wasnt until the late 50s, when Lee worked with Hammer, that he started gaining fame. In those days that was where the mackintosh brigade watched their films. [76], Lee's first film for Hammer was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), in which he played Frankenstein's monster, with Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein. The English-born actor, who made his name playing Dracula and Frankenstein's. Christopher Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminister Hospital on 7 June 2015. A year later, the towering 6-foot-4 actor with a voice that has been described as a solemn, aristocratic baritone gained international fame as the blood-sucking vampire in Hammer Films Horror of Dracula..