|
AND
When he arrived in the recording studio to do the voice over for King Haggard in the original animated version of The Last Unicorn (1982) he came armed with his own copy of the book with certain excerpts marked pertaining to parts of the book that he felt should not have been omitted.
Like his Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, he has appeared in films with three generations of Astins.
Wanted to attend the Heavy Metal Festival Earthshaker Fest in 2005 to support his favorite bands, the Italian band "Rhapsody" and the American band Manowar, but had to cancel at the last moment because of an important filming appointment. He recorded a message to the fans in advance, which was shown right before "Rhapsody" appeared on-stage.
According to his friend Norman Lloyd, he has a somewhat eccentric hobby: he is fascinated by public executioners and knows the names of every official executioner England has had since the middle of the 15th century.
In his role as the title character, The Mummy (1959), in which he co-starred with Peter Cushing, Lee got severely injured in the course of the filming. All that smashing through real glass windows and doors had dislocated his shoulder and pulled his neck muscles, especially when he had to carry an actress with arms fully extended across a swamp, walking as much as 87 yards, which damaged his shoulders considerably.
In Horror of Dracula (1958), Lee in the title role had to drop a woman into a grave, but when he carried her, she was unexpectedly heavy and in trying to drop her into the grave, Lee also fell in with her.
Has starred in three different movies/TV shows in which he had either known or met the (late) author of the original work: "Gormenghast" (2000) (Mervyn Peake), Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (Ian Fleming, his cousin).
Shot all his scenes for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) in one day.
He is the tallest of the many actors who have played Count Dracula.
He was one of the few people to volunteer to fight on the Finnish side in the Russo-Finnish winter war in 1939-1940, though he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only for about two weeks and were kept well away from direct combat.
Has starred in three movies with Johnny Depp: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Sleepy Hollow (1999).
Although he and Peter Cushing were often mortal enemies on-screen, off screen they were inseparable friends.
His films have made more money than any other actor's in history. As of May 2006, five of his films ('The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy and the two "Star Wars" films in which he played Count Dooku) had total grosses in excess of $4.4 billion. Even without considering Lee's other appearances dating back to 1948, his totals considerably surpass the figures of #3 billion and #3.8 billion claimed by Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively.
As a veritable J.R.R. Tolkien expert and the only member of the cast who had met Tolkien himself, he often visited the Production department on the sets of the various "Lord of the Rings" movies to give advice and tips on the various attributes of the films.
Released the music album "Christopher Lee: Revelation" in the UK in October 2006. It includes songs like The Toreador March, O Sole Mio, Oh What a Beautiful Mornin' & My Way.
His favorite director is Tim Burton.
Has worked with three different Gollums. The first Gollum, Brother Theodore, provided a voice in The Last Unicorn (1982). The second, Peter Woodthorpe, appeared with him in The Odyssey (1997) (TV). The last, Andy Serkis, appeared with him in the Lord of the Rings films.
Has played a staggering amount of Victorian characters. He played Count Dracula ten times, Dr. Fu Manchu five times, Sherlock Holmes three times, Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock's brother) once and Sir Henry Baskerville (a friend of Holmes) once. He also appeared in The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) and I, Monster (1971), adaptations of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", among others.
He is possibly the only actor in cinematic history to have achieved a unique trifecta. He has played a Star Wars villain (Count Dooku), a James Bond villain (Francisco Scaramanga), and a classic movie horror monster (Dracula, the Mummy, and Frankenstein's Monster).
Has worked with three James Bonds: Roger Moore in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Pierce Brosnan in "Around the World in 80 Days" (1989/I), and Daniel Craig in The Golden Compass (2007).
He was cast as a ballad soloist called The Gentleman Ghost in the film adaption of the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, but his role was cut when the ballad numbers were omitted. He never filmed the scenes, however, he was present for the recording session.
In 2008. he received a lifetime achievement award at Pula Film Festival (Croatia).
In various interviews over the years has referred to all three actors to play "James Bond" that he has worked with - Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig - as the best and most close to Ian Fleming's intentions. However, he has also criticized Fleming's weak characters when discussing his own Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and described the screen adaptation as considerably better written.
Along with Patrick Macnee, he is one of only two surviving cast members of Sir Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948).
He was awarded a Knight Bachelor in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and to charity. The ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace on 30 October 2009, and was carried out by HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales.
Is a Commander of the Most Venerable Order of St John.
At the age of 77, confirmed that he has lost an inch of height and is now 6' 4".
Was offered the role of King Balor in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), but had to turn it down due to other commitments.
Once declared himself an unconditional fan of Gene Hackman.
He learned how to speak German by listening to Richard Wagner records.
Dubbed "King Haggard" in the German version of The Last Unicorn (1982) for no fee, out of love for the film.
|