Best Known As: Saruman in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy
Name at birth: Christopher Frank Caradini Lee
After a long and distinguished career as one of the biggest movie stars of horror and fantasy, Christopher Lee is now known to film audiences as Saruman the White in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and as Darth Tyranus in the Star Wars epics Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Lee has been making movies since 1947, and over the years he has played mostly villains and monsters, thanks in part to a long association with the United Kingdom's Hammer Films. His remarkable filmography includes more than 250 films, including: Dracula (1958); The Mummy (1959); The Hands of Orlac (1961); The Gorgon (1964); The Face of Fu Manchu (1962); The Devil Rides Out (1968); The Wicker Man (1973); The Three Musketeers (1973, co-starring Faye Dunaway); The Man With The Golden Gun (1974, with Roger Moore); Airport '77 (1977, starring Jack Lemmon); and Sleepy Hollow (1999, with Johnny Depp).
Lee made nearly two dozen movies with his friend and fellow horror star Peter Cushing... In 1977 he published his autobiography, Tall, Dark and Gruesome.
Born: May 27, 1922 in Belgravia, London, England, UK
Occupation: Actor
Active: '50s-'90s
Major Genres: Horror, Drama
Career Highlights: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Devil Rides Out, The Hound of the Baskervilles
First Major Screen Credit: Moulin Rouge (1952)
Biography
After several years in secondary film roles, the skeletal, menacing Christopher Lee achieved horror-flick stardom as the Monster in 1958's The Curse of Frankenstein, the second of his 21 Hammer Studios films. Contrary to popular belief, Lee and Peter Cushing did not first appear together in The Curse of Frankenstein. In Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which Cushing plays the minor role of Osric, Lee appears as the cadaverous candle-bearer in the "frighted with false fires" scene, one of his first film roles. In 1958, Lee made his inaugural appearance as "the Count" in The Horror of Dracula, with Cushing as Van Helsing. It would remain the favorite of Lee's Dracula films; the actor later noted that he was grateful to be allowed to convey "the sadness of the character. The terrible sentence, the doom of immortality...."
Three years after Curse, Lee added another legendary figure to his gallery of characters: Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist of Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes. With the release eight years later of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Lee became the first actor ever to portray both Holmes and Holmes' brother, Mycroft, onscreen. Other Lee roles of note include the title characters in 1959's The Mummy and the Fu Manchu series of the '60s, and the villainous Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond effort The Man With the Golden Gun. In one brilliant casting coup, the actor was co-starred with fellow movie bogeymen Cushing, Vincent Price, and John Carradine in the otherwise unmemorable House of Long Shadows (1982). Established as a legend in his own right, Lee continued working steadily throughout the '80s and '90s, appearing in films ranging from Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999).
In 2001, after appearing in nearly 300 film and television productions and being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the international star with the most screen credits to his name, the 79-year-old actor undertook the role of Saruman, chief of all wizards, in director Peter Jackson's eagerly anticipated screen adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Thought by many to be the millennial predecessor to George Lucas' Star Wars franchise, audiences thrilled to the wondrous battle between Saruman and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) atop the wizard's ominous tower, though Lee didn't play favorites between the franchises when Lucas shot back with the continuing saga of Anakin Skywalker's journey to the dark side in mid-2002. Wielding a lightsaber against one of the most powerful adversaries in the Star Wars canon, Lee proved that even at 80 he still had what it takes to be a compelling and demanding screen presence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
His parents separated when he was very young and his mother took him and his sister Xandra to Switzerland. Here Lee's family fell upon relatively hard times and there were rumours that he had to work on
a fondue stand to make extra cash for his family. After enrolling in Miss Fisher's Academy in Wengen, he played his first villainous role as Rumpelstiltskin.
The family returned to London where Christopher attended Wagner's private school. His
mother then married Harcourt 'Ingle' Rose, a banker and uncle of the James Bond author Ian Fleming. Lee then attended Wellington College where he won scholarships in classics. He volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the
Winter War against the Soviet Union in 1939; however, as Lee admits in his autobiography, he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only a
fortnight and kept well away from the Russian forces the whole time. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force and intelligence services during World War II. He
trained in South Africa as a pilot but eyesight problems forced him to drop out. He eventually ended up in North Africa as Cipher
Officer for No. 260 Squadron RAF and was with it through
Sicily and Italy. Additionally, he has mentioned serving in Special Operations
Executive. Lee retired from the RAF after the end of the War with the rank of Flight
Lieutenant.
Career as an actor
Christopher Lee in his signature role, as Dracula (1958)
