Doing a scene with him and having him peering down at you, screaming into your face, all you can think of is My God, thats Dracula! . Spike Lee's Brother Christopher Lee Dies at 55 | News | BET How Christopher Lee Died, Date of Death, Age of Death, Birthday, and Leading the tributes online were his Lord of the Rings co-stars Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood, as well as Sir Roger Moore, who played 007 opposite Lee in The Man With The Golden Gun. He had an elder sister, Xandra Carandini Lee (19172002). Male in Life, Female in Death: The Story of Christopher Lee's Death These included the Dr. Fu Manchu series of films made between 1965 and 1969 (beginning with The Face of Fu Manchu) in which he starred as the villain in yellowface make-up; I, Monster (1971), an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with the main characters' names changed to Dr. Charles Marlowe and Mr. Edward Blake; The Creeping Flesh (1972); and his personal favourite, which he considered his best film, The Wicker Man (1973), in which he played Lord Summerisle. "[84] Lee accepted a similar role in an Italian-French horror picture called Uncle Was a Vampire (1959). [168] After the Second World War, he was a server at St Stephen's church in South Kensington, London, during T.S. Hammer was an important part of my life, and generally speaking, we all had a lot of fun, he said in a 2001 interview. Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ (27 May 1922 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? [114], In 2010, Lee received the Steiger Award (Germany) and,[115] in February 2011, Lee was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. [187] In 2010, he was identified as the IMDb member with the greatest closeness centrality, implying he was the best-connected person in the business. Loomis. Death Pettiet died of an accidental drug overdose on April 12, 2000, in Los Angeles at the age of 24. [189] In 2010, Lee received the Spirit of Hammer award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards, for his contribution to the metal genre. For example, Dracula and Fu Manchu in many movies during the 1950s through the 1970s. Although financially successful, it was Hammer's last horror film. Other films in Europe he made include Castle of the Living Dead (1964) and Horror Express (1972). [1] In a long career which spanned over 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimately playing the role nine times. Lee died in London of undisclosed causes, according to an official with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with the policies of the borough. Christopher Lee Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements The last project which united them in person was a documentary, Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1994), which they jointly narrated, two months before Cushing's death. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, Concertgoer lets out a loud full body orgasm while L.A. Phil plays Tchaikovskys 5th, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! "[194] He was awarded the Bram Stoker Gold Medal by the Trinity College Philosophical Society, of which Stoker had been president, and a copy of Collected Ghost Stories of MR James by Trinity College's School of English.[195]. He will continue to inspire me and Im sure countless others for generations to come.. She understood, and they called the wedding off. [67], In addition to making films in the United Kingdom, Lee made films in mainland Europe: he appeared in two German films, Count Dracula (1970), where he again played the vampire count, and The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967). "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead" p. 247. He was sent to see Josef Somlo for a contract:[71], Initially, I was told [by Somlo] I was too tall to be an actor. [156] Her father, Count Fritz von Rosen, proved demanding, getting them to delay the wedding for a year, asking his London-based friends to interview Lee, hiring private detectives to investigate him, and asking Lee to provide him with references, which Lee obtained from Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Boulting, and Joe Jackson. Lee had previously appeared with Karloff in 1955 in the "At Night, All Cats are Grey" episode of the British television series Colonel March of Scotland Yard. Lee reprised his role as Count Dooku in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). That's a quite fatuous remark to make. [3][4] Lee's father fought in the Boer War and First World War,[5] and his mother was an Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, Oswald Birley, and Olive Snell, and sculpted by Clare Sheridan. [186], Lee was named 2005's 'most marketable star in the world' in a USA Today newspaper poll, after three of the films he appeared in grossed US$640million. I played him like the dark side of Bond. Sir Christopher Lee, the veteran actor and star of many of the world's biggest film franchises, has died aged 93. Lee's wife inherited his wealth. I can think of twenty adjectives fatuous, pointless, absurd. His step-father was not prepared to pay the higher fees that being an Oppidan Scholar meant,[17] so instead he attended Wellington College, where he won scholarships in the classics, studying Ancient Greek and Latin. Suddenly people realized this actor, weve seen him playing some mysterious characters over the years, but he can be funny too., Lees legion of fans included directors who cast him in their films, including Joe Dante (Gremlins II), Steven Spielberg (1941), and Burton (Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland as the voice of the Jabberwocky and Dark Shadows.), In a media book interview for Sleepy Hollow, Burton said that Christopher is hypnotic. Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE, CStJ (27 May 1922 - 7 June 2015) was an English actor. [8], Lee's parents separated when he was four and divorced two years later. It's like saying you're too short to play the piano. "[16] Lee applied for a scholarship to Eton, where his interview was in the presence of the ghost story author M.R. [72], He recalled that his breakthrough came in 1952, when Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. began making films at the British National Studios. A friend said: 'Do you know you are in a film in Old Compton Street?' [13] One night, he was introduced to Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of Grigori Rasputin, whom Lee was to play many years later. His parents separated when he was 4 and divorced two years later. I always ask myself, "Well, what else could I do?" "[152] He explained: "It's light-hearted, joyful and fun At my age, the most important thing for me is to keep active by doing things that I truly enjoy. [166] Lee and his wife Birgit were listed among the fifty best-dressed over 50s by The Guardian in March 2013. [38] After he had passed his exams in Liverpool, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan meant that he travelled on the Reina del Pacifico to South Africa, then to his posting at Hillside, at Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia. According to media reports, Lee died Sunday morning at Westminster Hospital in London after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure.