We’ve had to say goodbye to an alarmingly large number of
celebrities lately. Today we give a farewell I’ve been dreading for a few years
now; film legend Christopher Lee has passed away at the impressive age of 93.
But what an amazing 93 years he had! Lee was not only a titan of an actor with a career spanning nearly 70 years and hundreds of films, but also an
avid golfer, a musician (his heavy metal Christmas carols have become an annual
holiday tradition in my household), and a veteran of World War II, where he
served in the Royal Air Force’s intelligence division. This is a man whose life
was as interesting, if not more so, than many of the films he was in.
His reputation as a horror icon began with his years at
Hammer Studios, where his considerable height and imperious presence helped him
re-interpret classic monster characters such as Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy,
and particularly Dracula, making them his own and scaring new generations of
kids. His Frankenstein monster evokes such sympathy, shambling about like a sad, homicidal zombie, His mummy was a juggernaut storming through windows in pursuit of lost princesses. His Dracula was commanding and elegant, selling the hypnotic powers of the count in a way we had never seen before. Those movies would also pair him with Peter Cushing, who would
serve as his on-screen foil and his off-screen best friend throughout their
lives and careers. Any movie they were in together, even the cheap ones, was energized by their rapport.
Perhaps Lee’s greatest horror role is in The Wicker
Man, a film he considered to be one of the best he ever appeared in. This mystery thriller saw Lee cast as the leader of an insular pagan
community investigated by Edward Woodward’s police detective following a
suspicious disappearance. The film’s story (and especially its ending) upended
audience expectations and Lee followed suit with his portrayal of Lord
Summerisle; where one might expect Lee to give a spooky and intimidating
performance as a cult leader, he instead chose to instill his character with wit,
charm, and good humor, all of which serve to keep Woodward’s character and the
audience off-balance.
But Lee wasn’t content to remain a ‘horror actor,’ showing
off different aspects of his acting abilities throughout his career. Even his many
villains have diverse qualities, from the dashing and suave demeanor of his debonair
assassin from the James Bond thriller The
Man With the Golden Gun to the athleticism of his swordfights as the evil
Rochefort in Richard Lester’s Musketeer
films. Lee once claimed to have performed more cinematic swordfights than any
other actor.
In his later career he got the chance to display his comedic
talents as well, playing a buffoonish Nazi commander in Steven Spielberg’s 1941 or having fun as the daffy
geneticist in the zany Gremlins 2. His
sonorous voice also got him work doing vocal performances for animated projects
such as The Last Unicorn, the Soul Music television series, and the Kingdom Hearts video games.
As viewers who grew up with Lee’s work became filmmakers
themselves, they brought him back to mainstream prominence. Director Tim Burton
found quirky roles for Lee in films such as Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory, and Dark Shadows. Lee was cast in some of the
biggest films of the past two decades, earning new legions of fans with his
performances as the evil wizard Saruman in The
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies (and serving as a general
consultant for the productions due to his love and vast knowledge of J.R.R.
Tolkein’s literary universe) and as Sith lord Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels.
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