The man has accomplished so much that dying was the only thing left he hadn't done. Rest in Peace, Mr. Lee. You are an inspiration to all.
Amazing tribute!!
Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
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Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#32Being a Pakistani I loved his performance in the movie Jinnah
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#33The man was making heavy metal albums in his 90s for Christ's sake - [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_The_Omens_of_Death ] An ultimate badass. RIP
He also performed with Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody) as noted in the original article, including a song off of the Power of the Dragonflame album and throughout the Symphony of Enchanted Lands II album (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_of_Enchanted_Lands_II_...) - this band was his first involvement in metal, and he seemed to have passion for power metal after his first involvement.
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#34The only cast member of LOTR to meet Tolkien. Tolkien also gave him permission to play a role if they ever turned his books into a movie. He gave him permission to play Gandalf, funnily enough.
There was actually a fair bit of grumbling among some hardcore LOTR fans when it was announced that Ian McKellen would play Gandalf, mostly because of his political and cultural leanings. Of course, Lee made a career of playing villains and monsters, so I find it completely unsurprising that he was cast as Saruman instead.
> grumbling among some hardcore LOTR fans when it was announced that Ian McKellen would play Gandalf, mostly because of his political and cultural leanings.
Is there a way I can read some of this? Sounds fascinating.
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#35Farewell, Lord Summerisle!
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#36Same day as Ornette Coleman. Amazing.
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#37My dad died last year at the age of 74. The first time I heard stories of Dracula and my earliest memory of him mentioning anything related to cinema - was him telling me (when I was 7 or 8) that the great actor Christopher Lee played Dracula. So it always amazed me that a name and actor from my ancient memory (Im in my mid-40s now), and I would've thought any actor my dad admired when he was young would have passed away a long time ago, was not only well and alive, but marvellously ingraining another character (Saruman) into my and my 10 year old son's memories! RIP Christopher Lee.
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#38If you can find it, I highly recommend watching Jinnah , a film about the founder of Pakistan, in which he played the title role. He often said it was his favorite performance. Sadly it's difficult to find - there's no edition currently on sale, and even on the pirating scene there only seems to exist a horribly low quality version. I look forward to a re-edition of the film. I don't have any ties to the subject, but…
Lee also has nice things to say about his performance as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, which I recommend you watch back to back, later movie first, with the Nicholas Cage remake they're in my eyes oh god the bees. Both are very easy to stream online.
The original Wicker Man actually holds up surprisingly well; I'm surprised it got made when it did.
Edward Woodward's performance in it is so bad that it elevates Lee, so it's a pretty good showcase for non-Saruman non-Dracula Lee.
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#39Besides all of the amazing things mentioned here, Lee was also a Nazi hunter in Argentina after WW2:
For the final few months of his service, Lee, who spoke fluent French and German, among other languages, was seconded to the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects.[62] Here, he was tasked with helping to track down Nazi war criminals.[63] Of his time with the organisation, Lee said: "We were given dossiers of what they'd done and told to find them, interrogate them as much as we could and hand them over to the appropriate authority ... We saw these concentration camps. Some had been cleaned up. Some had not."[63]
Re: Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
#40The only cast member of LOTR to meet Tolkien. Tolkien also gave him permission to play a role if they ever turned his books into a movie. He gave him permission to play Gandalf, funnily enough.
There was actually a fair bit of grumbling among some hardcore LOTR fans when it was announced that Ian McKellen would play Gandalf, mostly because of his political and cultural leanings. Of course, Lee made a career of playing villains and monsters, so I find it completely unsurprising that he was cast as Saruman instead.
Wasn't a big bit of it that Lee didn't feel he was up to that much screentime/travel?