Actor Christopher Lee Has Died at 93 96
Christopher Lee (or Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee) has played his last on-screen villain. The actor and singer died Sunday at the age of 93, reports The Guardian, after a career in which he played very few positive role models, but an astounding number of antagonists in fantasy, Sci-Fi, and horror films; as a young man, Lee played a career-launching Dracula, as well as a James Bond villain, the perfectly unsettling Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, and dozens of other characters (not all of them evil). Into his 80s, still in demand for the creepiness he was so good at projecting, Lee portrayed the fallen-from-grace wizard Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations, and the evil Count Dooku in George Lucas's Star Wars follow-ons. He was also perhaps the only Knight Bachelor to have released an album of symphonic metal. Even at the time of his death, Lee was involved in film projects, so his legacy will always be immense but incomplete.
He was much more than that (Score:5, Informative)
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Informative)
Sir Christopher Lee:
He was Dracula
He was a Bond Villain.
He was Sherlock _and_ Mycroft Holmes.
He was Death.
He was Lucifer.
He was Count Dooku.
He was Saruman.
He was Lord Summerisle.
He recorded a heavy metal concept album about Charlemagne.
He hunted Nazis during WWII.
He was part of a secret agent unit called The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
When told be Peter Jackson to imagine how a man being stabbed in the back sounds, he told him he didn't have to imagine it.
He's fluent in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish; "moderately proficient" in Swedish, Russian, and Greek; and "conversational" in Mandarin.Chinese.
Now, let's see Check Norris top that.
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering what a bad ass he was during world war 2, I'll let him decide what is a proper job for a man.
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More to the point, as much of a badass as we know he was during WW2, we don't even know how much of a badass he really was because so much of what he did in the war is still classified.
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Sorry for the long quote, but this isn't the wikipedia of a guy who was a "badass," although he did serve honorably and with initiative, as did many other soldiers:
When World War II broke out, Lee volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War in 1939.[33] He and other British volunteers were kept away from actual fighting, but they were issued winter gear and were posted on guard duty a safe distance from the front lines. After a fortnight, they returned home.[34] Lee returned to work at
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Interesting)
At least one site begs to differ...
http://www.badassoftheweek.com... [badassoftheweek.com]
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.
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Interesting)
Just had to add this bit from the article...
Lee also belongs to three stuntman unions, does all of his own stunts, once busted his face smashing head-first through an actual plate glass window for a scene, injured himself falling into an open grave while portraying Dracula, and once had his hand slashed open during a drunken sword fight with Errol Flynn.
Re:He was much more than that (Score:4, Funny)
Heh... if your resume includes drunken sword fights you're either doing life really, really right or really, really wrong.
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Insightful)
He was part of the SOE, behind enemy lines. Their exact activities are classified to this day. Because they were hunting down certain Nazis and killing them. So you must have very manly accomplishments yourself to make that pale in comparison, do tell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org]
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...gender essentialism already?
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...Not a proper job for a man.
Whilst pissing on people online is manly?
Pathetic.
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90% of that was, "he was an actor." Like those ponces in high school who did glee club, only he held on to it for a career. Not a proper job for a man.
It's good of you to share your latent homosexuality with us all. All you need to do now is take the next step and come out to the world. You'll feel much happier afterwards.
Re:He was much more than that (Score:5, Informative)
He also studied at Tolkien at Oxford and corrected Jackson multiple times.
To top it off during return of the king Jackson asked him to imagine being stabbed to which his reply was I don't need to. Damn
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He was the father of Willy Wonka. Everything else he did pales into insignificance.
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The nerd who had to google who the fuck Christopher Lee was calls all the other nerds "ignorant fucks".
Hypocrisy NOW; News at 11.
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...I had to Google him to figure out who the fuck he was.
...You ignorant fucks...
Irony, thy name is Anonymous Coward.
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For those who don't want to follow the link:
Sir Christopher Lee: He was ...
They forgot Fu Manchu? Not PC?
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What a long and storied career (Score:5, Insightful)
Not many actors get to span good chunks of two centuries, with great roles in each.
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Not many actors today still actively working who started in the 1940's either. But he was working right up until the end.
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Not many actors today still actively working who started in the 1940's either. But he was working right up until the end.
I guess if you have to go, leave "feet first."
The Last Unicorn (Score:5, Informative)
He played King Haggard in the Last Unicorn.
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Interesting career, good life. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Interesting career, good life. (Score:5, Informative)
A rare one where he plays a good guy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00... [imdb.com]
Despite the incredibly cheesy special effects, it still gives me the creeps.
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Screenplay by Richard (Omega Man/Last Man on Earth) Matheson.
Re:Interesting career, good life. (Score:5, Informative)
A rare one where he plays a good guy.
Here's another one: Terry Pratchett's Death [imdb.com] character is not evil. Nor good. It's just Him. But because of a fondness for kittens Death probably leans closer to good than evil...
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A rare one where he plays a good guy.
Here's another one: Terry Pratchett's Death [imdb.com] character is not evil. Nor good. It's just Him. But because of a fondness for kittens Death probably leans closer to good than evil...
Death is neither good nor bad, but he is on humanities side.
Myfavorite line from The Color of Magic movie is when he sighs and says "another near Rincewind moment."
Loved him in Three Musketeers (Score:5, Informative)
1973 version. See it if you haven't!
Re:Loved him in Three Musketeers (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sorry, but Man in the Iron Mask was a great Musketeers movie.
Annette was good.
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The new BBC version is at least back in the right territory.
When I recently read some of the original three musketeers, I realized how much closer to the book and the characters those two movies were. I love those films and they are in my top 100 films of all time. I still watch them every few years.
Pale shrouded figure (Score:4, Insightful)
I heard that when he died, a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.
Re:Pale shrouded figure (Score:5, Informative)
Rest in peace, Sir Lee.
I really appreciate your sentiment here -- though note that one should never use Sir + last name when referring to someone who is knighted [wikipedia.org].
He can be addressed as "Sir Christopher" or "Sir Christopher Lee," but NOT "Sir Lee."
Not to mention in this context it makes him sound surly. Or, to paraphrase a movie [wikipedia.org] that once parodied movies like ones Christopher Lee was in [wikipedia.org]: "Don't call me 'Surly'!"
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He was a good actor (Score:1)
Rest in Peace. Looking through his IMDb page I see he was also a voice actor in Freelancer among other games.
Making metal albums in his 90's (Score:5, Funny)
That's one of the coolest old men ever! Not to mention he played Dracula in more languages that most people know how to find a bathroom in.
Re:Making metal albums in his 90's (Score:5, Informative)
Music video for "The Bloody Verdict of Verden": https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The original version of the album is more truthfully filed under "narration" than "metal", but there was a stripped down re-release that focused more on the music.
He could sing, too (Score:5, Interesting)
You See Mr Bond...... (Score:2)
Great line, usually overshadowed by Goldfinger's "I expect you to die!" Then there was Scaramanga's answer to a boardroom resignation all delivered brilliantly by the man himself. I'm afraid they really don't make them like that any more, and that isn't a rose tinted view.
But they're naked! (Score:4, Insightful)
Naturally. It's much too dangerous to jump through a fire with your clothes on.
--The Wicker Man
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Still my favorite of his roles... but that's a hard pick. Damn, but he will be missed. So very good at being bad.
Death takes Death (Score:4, Insightful)
I really liked him as Death in the animated adaptations of the Discworld novels Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters. He could actually speak in all caps.
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Youtube to the rescue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Soul Music is what go me interested in Discworld, and Sir Christopher's portrayal of Death was a big part of that.
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For me it was a youtube version of Don't Fear the Reaper, which contained scenes from Soul Music. I had to find out what it was and watch it.
Not Many People Manage to Live an Epic Life (Score:5, Insightful)
This man did, however. If there ever were a real someone you could nominate as "The Most Interesting Man in the World", he would probably be the guy.
RIP, Sir Lee, and thank you.
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The only actor who could act without acting. I always believed his roles. He had such gravitas.
awesome actor, he will be missed (Score:2)
What an actor, one of the great ones. Nobody could do the sophisticated villain like him. And what a voice! And he definitely led an interesting life - he was in the secret service, and I remember that one scene from the LotR "making of" videos in which Peter Jackson talked about how Christopher Lee explained to him what "someone getting stabbed in the back with a knife" really sounded like. And how Peter Jackson was not all that eager to find out how exactly Lee knew that.
RIP
Well, I'll wait for his next movie. (Score:1)
We know he pretty much ALWAYS comes back...
Oh wait!
RIP Sir Christopher.
He died on Sunday (Score:5, Funny)
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Tranne tante altre cose...
Rest in peace (Score:2)
Anyone that has served their nation in defense of freedom deserves to be honored and remembered well after they are gone. Sir Christopher was one of many that fought evil but he has done so in a way to stand out among the many.
Occult Book Collection (Score:1)
He apparently also had one of the most extensive collections of books on the occult.
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Tolkien Fan (Score:2)
Meeting him (Score:5, Interesting)
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Embodiment of "The Evil Overlord". Sure he's dead? (Score:3)
Who's gonna play Saruman now (Score:5, Funny)
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another famous quote by Christopher Lee (Score:1)
"One should try anything he can in his career, except folkdance and incest."
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"One should try anything he can in his career, except folkdance and incest."
No, that was Thomas Beecham - "try anything once except incest and folk dancing".
Has he? (Score:1)