Christopher Lee’s career spanned seven decades, and he is most notable for having starring roles in three of the cinema’s most beloved franchises:
James Bond
Star Wars
and….
The Lord of the Rings.
In Star Wars Lee portrayed Count Dooku in two of George Lucas’ prequel trilogy films ‘Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Revenge of the Sith’.
For Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ saga he portrayed Saurman in four installments from 2001 – 2014.
For the James Bond franchise Lee portrayed the titular arch villain character Francisco Scaramanga aka “The Man With The Golden Gun”.
Beyond those three historic film franchises, Lee was also known for portraying Dracula for Hammer Film Productions throughout two decades and played the vampire a total of ten times throughout his career.
Beyond his career in film, Lee was a real-life James Bond having served in various intelligence positions throughout World War 2 and specifically as a Special Operations Executive with the Long-Range Desert Group a precursor to the SAS.
He was also Bond creator Ian Fleming’s cousin as well as a favorite golfing partner of Flemings.
Christopher Lee also once gave direction to Peter Jackson about how a man really sounds when he is stabbed in the back….”His breathe goes out!”
Want to know more about Christopher Lee and James Bond check out our Season One episode of The Latch Key Kids Present “Breaking Bond Part XI: The Man With The Golden Gun”