Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee Facts
| Sign | Gemini |
| Born |
May 27, 1922 Belgravia, London |
| Died |
Jun 7, 2015 Chelsea, London |
| Age | Died at 93 |
| Total Facts | 88 |
Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were born on the same day (27th May) and Peter Cushing was born on the 26th.
A distant cousin and frequent golfing partner of Bond creator Ian Fleming, Lee was the author's personal pick for the role of Dr. No (1962) in the first 007 film. The part, of course, went to actor Joseph Wiseman, who was brilliant. However, fans of the literary Bond might want to check out Lee's portrayal of Chinese master criminal Fu Manchu, for an idea of how Ian Fleming himself envisioned Dr. No.
A stunt double performed the stunts and lightsaber fights in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). Lee's face was imposed on the double's body. Lee mentioned that in the last 40 years, he has done more swordfights than any other actor, but "not anymore".
According to his friend Norman Lloyd, he has a somewhat eccentric hobby: he is fascinated by public executioners and knows the names of every official executioner England has had since the middle of the 15th century.
According to his official website: He speaks French, Italian, Spanish and German and can "get along" in Swedish, Russian and Greek.
Along with Patrick Macnee, he is one of only two surviving cast members of Sir Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948).
Although he and Peter Cushing were often mortal enemies on-screen, off screen they were inseparable friends.
Although he has been in well over 200 films, he has very rarely played a hero, having been a villain in perhaps about 85% of his films (even his bit parts lean towards the unsympathetic).
Appears on the album cover "Band on the Run", performed by Paul McCartney's band 'Wings'.
As a veritable J.R.R. Tolkien expert and the only member of the cast who had met Tolkien himself, he often visited the Production department on the sets of the various "Lord of the Rings" movies to give advice and tips on the various attributes of the films.
As Darth Tyranus, he plays the first Sith apprentice to act in both body and voice.
At 6 feet 5 inches, he is entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as "The Tallest Leading Actor".
At age 77, he confirmed that he has lost an inch of height and is now 6' 4".
Both he and his fellow Star Wars Sith Lord, David Prowse, have played Frankenstein's Monster opposite Peter Cushing.
Classically trained singer.
Dubbed "King Haggard" in the German version of The Last Unicorn (1982) for no fee, out of love for the film.
During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force and in British Intelligence.
Early in his career, Lee dubbed foreign films into English and other languages including Jacques Tat's "Mr. Hulot's Holiday." Sometimes he dubbed all the voices including women's parts. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., recalled that Lee could do any kind of accent: "foreign, domestic, North, South, Middle, young, old, everything. He's a great character actor".
From an acting dynasty, his great-grandparents founded the first Australian opera company.
Has played a staggering amount of Victorian characters. He played Count Dracula ten times, Dr. Fu Manchu five times, Sherlock Holmes three times, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother) once and Sir Henry Baskerville (a friend of Holmes) once. He also appeared in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) and I, Monster (1971), adaptations of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", among others.
Has said that his favorite director is Tim Burton.
Has starred in three different films/television series in which he had either known or met the (late) author of the original work: "Gormenghast" (2000) (Mervyn Peake), The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (Ian Fleming, his cousin).
Has starred in three movies with Johnny Depp: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sleepy Hollow (1999).
Has three roles in common with Boris Karloff. They have both played Fu Manchu, The Mummy and Frankenstein's Monster.
Has worked with three different Gollums. The first Gollum, Brother Theodore, provided a voice in The Last Unicorn (1982). The second, Peter Woodthorpe, appeared with him in "The Odyssey" (1997). The last, Andy Serkis, appeared with him in the Lord of the Rings films.
Has worked with three James Bonds: Roger Moore in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Pierce Brosnan in "Around the World in 80 Days" (1989/I), and Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass (2007).
He appears in a scene from The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) on screen during the drive-in sequence in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962).
He has also done a few small roles that only require his voice, such as the priest in Corpse Bride (2005), and the Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland (2010).
He has one child, Christina Erika Lee (b. November 23rd, 1963) with his wife Birgit Kroencke Lee (Gitte Lee).
He is fluent in German.
He is of noble Italian ancestry on his mother's side (Carandini).
He is possibly the only actor in cinematic history to have achieved a unique trifecta. He has played a Star Wars villain (Count Dooku), a James Bond villain (Francisco Scaramanga), and a classic movie horror monster (Dracula, the Mummy, and Frankenstein's Monster).
He is the tallest of the many actors who have played Count Dracula.
He learned how to speak German by listening to Richard Wagner records.
He made his stage debut in school as the demonic lead in "Rumpelstiltskin", a sign of things to come.
He struggled to get work early in his career as a supporting actor because almost all the male stars were shorter than he.
He studied at Summerfield Preparatory School and attended Wellington College.
He was awarded a Knight Bachelor in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and to charity. The ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace on 30 October 2009, and was carried out by HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales.
He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
He was cast as a ballad soloist called The Gentleman Ghost in the film adaption of the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but his role was cut when the ballad numbers were omitted. He never filmed the scenes, however, he was present for the recording session.
He was one of the few people to volunteer to fight on the Finnish side in the Russo-Finnish winter war in 1939-1940, though he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only for about two weeks and were kept well away from direct combat.
His daughter, Christina Erika Lee, was born with her legs severely deformed. They were bent at such a severe angle that they were almost backwards. She spent her first two years in splints. She eventually learned how to walk after the age of three and no longer needed splints.
His favorite director is Tim Burton.
His films have made more money than any other actor's in history. As of May 2006, five of his films ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the two "Star Wars" films in which he played Count Dooku) had total grosses in excess of $4.4 billion. Even without considering Lee's other appearances dating back to 1948, his totals considerably surpass the figures of #3 billion and #3.8 billion claimed by Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively.
His stepfather (his mother's second husband) was the maternal uncle of writer Ian Fleming (of James Bond fame). Lee and Fleming are therefore step-cousins.
In Horror of Dracula (1958), Lee in the title role had to drop a woman into a grave, but when he carried her, she was unexpectedly heavy and in trying to drop her into the grave, Lee also fell in with her.
In 1972, he founded Charlemagne Productions Ltd.
In 2008, he received a lifetime achievement award at Pula Film Festival (Croatia).
In a bonding of two generations of Frankenstein's monsters, Lee and his wife were good friends with Boris Karloff and his wife. This friendship wasn't as a result of them working together (they made two films together, Corridors of Blood (1958) and Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)) but by the coincidence that they lived next door to each other in England.
In a radio interview in South Africa, Lee claimed that he held the record for number of film roles by an actor. [2001]