CHRISTOPHER LEE DIES AT 93

For Star Wars fans , Sir Christopher Lee was best known as Count Dooku in the second and third episodes of  Star Wars, but to many others , he was best known for portraying Dracula and Franskenstein's monster (in The Curse of Frankenstein 1957). Incidentally , Baron Victor Frankenstein was portrayed by another Star Wars actor Peter Cushing (Grant Moff Tarkin - Commander of Death Star) who starred opposite to Christopher Lee in many occasions (24 films). Of course, he was the Golden Gun (Francisco Scaramanga )in James Bond , The Man with the Golden Gun. Sir Lee was a step-cousin to the late Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond.

Sir Christopher Lee died on the 7th June, 2015 (London time) at London Chelsea and Westminster Hospital shortly after celebrating his 93 rd birthday but the news wasn't announced by his wife (Swedish dancer and actress , Birgit Krøncke , Gitte Lee since 1961) until 11 th June, 2015.

It is indeed a great loss for such a gifted actor whose acting career spans  from the 1940s to 2015 (his last film , the 11th,  is to be released in 2016).

Besides the Dracula movies , my other favourite movies of Sir Lee include the Gremlins (Lee was in Gremlins II), Sleepy Hollow , Lord of the Rings , Star Wars and the Hobbit Franchise (as Saruman)

Star Wars and Lord of the Rings together grossed over 4.4 Billion US dollars.

Other interesting facts about his film career:

He played a lot of Victorian characters including Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother) , Sir Henry Baskerville (Holmes's friend) .

One of his biggest regrets was to turn down the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween franchise, the role eventually went to Donald Pleasence , another James Bond villain - Blofeld (You Only Live Twice , 1967).

He made 24 films with his close friend , another Star Wars villain actor , Peter Cushing who was also famous for Drucula movies.

He made 6 movies with Johnny Depp including my favourite Sleepy Hollow. Others are :
Charlie and the Cocolate Factory(2005) , Corpse Bride (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Hugo (2011) and Dark Shadows (2012).

He worked with other James Bond's villain actors :

Robert Shaw (best known in Jaws, as Grant in From Russia with Love, 1963)
Donald Pleasence (as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice, 1967)
Charles Gray (as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, 1971)
Telly Savalas (best known for Kojak 1973, as Blofeld  in On Her Majesty's Secret Service , 1969)
Curd Jürgens (as Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977)
Michael Lonsdale (as Hugo Drax in Moonraker, 1979)
Julian Glover (as Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only, 1981)
Christopher Walken (as Max Zorin in A View to a Kill, 1985)
Sean Bean (as Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, 1995)


I have only seen a small number of his extemely long list of films:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000489/

I didn't know he was a very linguistic person; apparently he spoke English, Italian, French , French , Spanish and German fluently, with proficiency in Russian, Swedish and Greek. He also stated that he was conversation-proficient in Mandarin Chinese (As Darth Vader says : "Impressive!" ) . This is amazing. Sir Peter Ustinov would be the other actor that I know of , who also spoke fluently in several languages.

Sir Lee used his linguistic skills and commanding voice in many video games : James Bond, Kingdom Hearts , Ever Quest II,  Lord of the Rings, etc.

In 1997, Sir Lee was appointed a Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John.
In 2001, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (for his servies in drama).
In 2009, he was knighted by Prince Charles as a Knight Bachelor (for services to  drama and charity).


I don't pretend to know everything about Sir Lee, but you can read parts of his life in here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

Sir Lee as Dracula






....as Sherlock Holmes.




Christopher Lee (left) and Peter Cushing .



as Francisco Scaramanga in the Man with the Golden Gun.






...as Dr. Fu Manchu. I have to say I hate the way they portrayed Asians (or Chinese) in the old movies, like in those old Charlie Chan movies (his children were real asian actors , but not Charlie Chan himself).







...as Doctor Catheter in Gremlins 2 : the New Batch (1990)



..as Burgomaster in Sleepy Hollow (1999)



.....more famously as Count Dooku in Star Wars.



A giant in Star Wars , standing 1.96m tall, almost as tall as Darth Vader (2 meters ). At 77, he stated that he lost an inch in height and became a 6'4" person, so he was 1.98m.






...as Saruman in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.






Sir Lee with his wife (Birgit Krøncke) of 54 years (since 1961). They have one daughter, Christina Erika Carandini Lee. Married to the same woman all these years, you have my respect , Sir Lee.









Knighted by Prince Charles in 2009.









Despite his age, he had very good hair (thick strands) , better than Prince Charles's .



I guess everyone has his/her winter .....




Rest In Peace, Sir Christopher Lee............@>>----