# Christopher Lee dies aged 93



## Louis Cypher (Jun 11, 2015)

Christopher Lee dead: Legendary actor passes away at the age of 93 - People - News - The Independent

Really Really sad at this news, I have loved all the Hammer films since I was a kid and Man with the Golden Gun, Wicker Man, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and one my total favourites The Devil Rides Out, plus his later roles and cameos in Lord of the Rings/Hobbit, Sleepy Hollow/Tim Burton work etc etc... so many great films and characters form an amazing actor and man. His biograpghy is fantastic. Genuinely gutted at this news 

RIP Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee


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## Chiba666 (Jun 11, 2015)

Sucks big time, time for a hammer horror weekend


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## SjPedro (Jun 11, 2015)

and also a big metal head. that voice was hypnotizing


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## Volteau (Jun 11, 2015)

Just read this. RIP my good man.


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## habicore_5150 (Jun 11, 2015)

Sucks that we lost yet another good actor

Here's to you Scaramanga


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## HeHasTheJazzHands (Jun 11, 2015)

Terrible news to wake up to.


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## asher (Jun 11, 2015)

What.

No.

Unpossible.

He's clearly immortal! An immortal wizard!

He obviously must have ascended.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jun 11, 2015)

RIP


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## SpaceDock (Jun 11, 2015)

This sucks....for those that haven't seen it, the original Wicker Man is an amazing Christopher Lee movie.


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## Emperor Guillotine (Jun 11, 2015)

Woke up to this news. Already it took a sh*t on my day. It sucks to lose such a great actor. But remember, chaps: we all come and go. It's a natural part of life.

I just going to copy and paste my post from Facebook:


> Such heartbreaking news. The world has lost one of its most amazing actors and metal vocalists. A true, gracious gentleman and revered badass in the acting business who was loved many times over.
> 
> May you be at peace, Sir Christopher Lee. Thank you for sharing your amazing talents with the world for so many years. And thank you for all the art in both film and music that you've left for us or inspired in us. Your legacy in your art will live on. I truly wish that I could've met you. R.I.P.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jun 11, 2015)

Obligatory...


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## IbanezDaemon (Jun 11, 2015)

Sad news. I've been a Christopher Lee and a Hammer
Horror fan for over 35 years.

Time to watch my fave...'The Devil Rides Out'.

RIP.


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## wankerness (Jun 11, 2015)

This is mainly unfortunate cause the guy was still working. But, compared to many iconic classic actors, this guy had one of the best lives imaginable. He first hit it big back in 58 with Horror of Dracula, stayed big for almost 20 years, and then started to drift off into crappy stuff like Howling II (the usual path for actors of his type, ex Donald Pleasance). However, he then had a total career renaissance when he got the part of Saruman. Not only was it a great role, but it had been his lifelong dream to be in the movies of the LOTR since he read the trilogy every couple of years. He did that for six movies, and at the same time started getting cast in all kinds of major hollywood movies (several Tim Burton ones, Hugo, two of the Star Wars prequels) and getting more attention than he'd possibly ever gotten. He was still lithe enough to do many of the swordfighting shots in the last Hobbit movie. I can't really think of a better way to go out.

Here are my favorite Christopher Lee roles, if anyone wanted to do a classic marathon. I've seen every Hammer movie with him in it and a smattering of the other 60s/70s horror flicks he's been in. Some of the key ones I need to see still are Horror Express and Raw Meat, both of which have a very good rep. I've also been meaning to watch the two movies where he plays Sherlock Holmes, Scream and Scream Again, the 1970 version of Dracula, and Hannie Caulder (not sure what the heck he does in it, since it's a Western starring Raquel Welch).

*Horror of Dracula *- This is the only one of the Dracula cycle worth watching for Christopher Lee - he actually has something to do here! He's great in the role and brings a real ferocity to the role which was never there before, as well as the sexuality-vampirism thing which was completely new with this movie. The climax is an absolute classic and one of the most exciting scenes in horror history.

In most of the sequels he is onscreen for ~5 minutes and sometimes has literally no dialogue (Dracula Prince of Darkness). "Taste the Blood of Dracula" is one of the few good sequels, but all he does in it is show up now and then and say a number like some kind of Sesame Street Count. The only really good sequel doesn't have Christopher Lee in it at all! 

*Hound of the Baskervilles *- This isn't the most quickly-paced movie, but it's a fun adaptation with the horror and sex elements amped up as far as they could be in 1959, and Christopher Lee has a rare appearance as a fairly sympathetic lead (he's Sir Henry Baskerville, the guy who Sherlock Holmes is trying to keep alive).

*The Mummy* - he's the mummy, but he's really damn good in the role and somehow manages to make the character sympathetic even in the scenes where he's covered with bandages and lurching towards people wordlessly. Great, great physical acting and what he does with his eyes is great.

*The Whip and the Body *- This is a really fantastic movie, but unfortunately the US releases look like muddy blue crap. Christopher Lee is a sadistic cretin who's banging his brother's wife in an incredibly sadomasochistic relationship, and he gets killed early in the picture but seems to be haunting the castle for the rest and killing off everyone. He's really good in the movie even though he's dubbed into Italian, and the movie is atmospheric as heck.

*Devil Ship Pirates* - he's a jerky Spanish ship captain here, and is a lot of fun. The Spaniards lose a naval battle in England and Lee's ship escapes and decides to desert the army and become pirates, so they take over a town and shut down outside news channels and convince the locals that the Spaniards won the war and make them repair and resupply the ship so they can become pirates. Lots of swordfighting scenes, and he makes the most of the role.

*The Gorgon* - This is one of the best of the entire Hammer cycle, and Christopher Lee doesn't really show up until partway through, but when he does...oh man. He just walks around the movie kicking everyone's ass and being awesome. He's again a heroic character and he seemed to come alive in the rare times he got such jobs, he generally disliked playing villains.

*Rasputin the Mad Monk* - This is not a very good movie, but it's a ton of fun as a Christopher Lee showcase. He plays the titular character and he just tromps around in a huge fur coat and boots and super long wig/beard bullying everyone and hypnotizing people and womanizing and getting hammered and doing russian dances in the bar. Later sections of the movie dip into the horror realm, ex in one scene where he's stalking someone through a dark house. He's really, really fun in this movie.

*Devil Rides Out* - Really glad the OP mentioned this, it's a fairly unknown movie, but it's a great horror movie about a satanic cult and Christopher Lee is the hero of the piece.

*The Wicker Man *- This was Lee's personal favorite of all his roles (well, up until the late 90s at least, I'm not sure how he rated it against the LOTR movies). It's a horror classic and he's the weird, charismatic cult leader of a bunch of crazy hippies.

Some of the more minor roles he had that were still memorable:

*Two Faces of Dr Jekyll* - he's a womanizing lout and it's really funny to see him play this kind of a role, I don't know if it ever happened again. He's not in the movie that much, but it's a great role.

*Hercules in the Haunted World* - he's the bad guy here, and unfortunately isn't on screen all that much (he mainly just cackles evilly and sends Hercules and his buddy to hell), but the movie is GREAT, it's one of my favorite movies from the period. It's just pure visual insanity, tons of colored lights and incredible effects and style, all done on a micro budget.

*Pirates of Blood River* - he's a one-eyed Pirate captain who initially seems cool-headed but becomes more and more evil as the plot goes on and he wants to recover a hidden treasure from a village, and it's again quite a bit of fun in the vein of Devil Ship Pirates. 

*The Skull* - this is a very good horror movie and Peter Cushing is the lead, but Christopher Lee is sorta the voice of reason. Basically, they are both rich guys that like to collect weird historical artifacts, especially ones related to the occult. Christopher Lee acquires the skull of the Marquis de Sade and immediately gets rid of it cause it's too evil, while Peter Cushing is entranced by it and starts getting possessed by it and attacked by it!

*The House that Dripped Blood* - really fun horror anthology movie, Christopher Lee is in one segment as a very severe father who keeps his daughter isolated and is hiding something!


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## metaldoggie (Jun 11, 2015)

Seriously bummed about this.

Completely forgot he played the voice of DEATH in the Terry Pratchett animations....

Also Omega's list above doesn't mention that he was actually (allegedly) a descendant of Charlemagne hence the inspiration for the albums.


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## OmegaSlayer (Jun 11, 2015)

He was also the step-cousin of Ian Flemming.


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## stevexc (Jun 11, 2015)

This sucks, but it's good to remember just how damn much he did with his life. Death was the only thing he had left to conquer.


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## Louis Cypher (Jun 11, 2015)

Wankerness, thats an awesome post mate nice work 

Pretty much agree with you totally on the film choices and your views on them. To the Devil a Daughter is another average film that I would add that's worth watching for Lee acting and just pure screen presence, he is really evil and very unnerving. The Mummy is def underrated. The Curse of Frankenstein is a must watch too even tho again Lee has barely any dialog if any just the power and the physical acting skills on display as the Monster is as on a par with Boris Karloff's Monster in the first Universal Frankenstein. I also have a soft spot for I, Monster, Amicus Films rather than Hammer and their spin on Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

Honestly can't recommend Devil Rides Out enough tho to anyone reading this thread. Fantastic film and fantastic performances not just from Lee but the whole cast and still a story that is very very creepy..... The book its based on is brilliant too, obviously

He was such an incredible man who really LIVED life if I can achieve even 1/100th of what he did in his life I will be happy


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## technomancer (Jun 11, 2015)

RIP, one of my favorite actors


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## Xaios (Jun 11, 2015)

In all his heavy metal glory:


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## celticelk (Jun 11, 2015)

Sir Christopher and Ornette on the same day?

I need a drink.


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## wankerness (Jun 12, 2015)

Louis Cypher said:


> Pretty much agree with you totally on the film choices and your views on them. To the Devil a Daughter is another average film that I would add that's worth watching for Lee acting and just pure screen presence, he is really evil and very unnerving. The Mummy is def underrated. The Curse of Frankenstein is a must watch too even tho again Lee has barely any dialog if any just the power and the physical acting skills on display as the Monster is as on a par with Boris Karloff's Monster in the first Universal Frankenstein. I also have a soft spot for I, Monster, Amicus Films rather than Hammer and their spin on Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.



To the Devil a Daughter is better than its rep. The ending method of killing Lee is rightly infamous, though. The weird demon infant rape scene prevents me from recommending it to much of anyone too 

He's really good in Curse of Frankenstein (especially the spazzy body language in some of the basement scenes), it's just not a very good role. I like the movie, but the monster seems like sort of an afterthought since Frankenstein himself is the baddie. His physicality in the role is equal to Karloff's, but Karloff's character is approximately 50 times more memorable since he is actually given a lot of screen-time and thus managed to make the character so sympathetic.

I haven't seen "I, Monster." I should probably fix that sometime.


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## Louis Cypher (Jun 12, 2015)

wankerness said:


> He's really good in Curse of Frankenstein (especially the spazzy body language in some of the basement scenes), it's just not a very good role. I like the movie, but the monster seems like sort of an afterthought since Frankenstein himself is the baddie. His physicality in the role is equal to Karloff's, but Karloff's character is approximately 50 times more memorable since he is actually given a lot of screen-time and thus managed to make the character so sympathetic..




Problem Hammer had is that Universal served a writ on them that anything in the film that even hinted at their Karloff film that was not in the book then they would sue and Hammer back then was a tiny film studio with very little money comapred to the monster Universal was finacially. So it was really difficult for them I guess to come up with a memorable looking monster when they wer eso hamstrung by Universal, so brillaintly imo they shifted the focus to Peter Cushing's Dr Frankenstein as being the real villain. Agree with you that you don;t have that much sympathy for Lee's monster as you do for Karloff's and poss that is due to the amt of screen time Karloff got. But Lee's physical prescence and menace is excellent. Hard to follow Karloff when its such a universally recognised image and role, but then he really trumped Universal in Dracula as I think most people (who aren't old horror buffs) first image in their head of Dracula would be Lee and not Lugosi (as icon as Lugosi was)

Watched Dracula last night


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