Sir Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE is an English actor.

Early Life

Sir Christopher was born in Belgravia, Westminster, England, the son of the Contessa Estelle Marie and Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee of the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps. Lee's mother was a famous Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery, as well as Oswald Birley and Olive Snell, and was sculpted by Clare F. Sheridan. Lee's maternal great-grandfather had been an Italian political refugee who sought refuge in Australia; his great-grandmother was Australian opera singer Marie Carandini.

His parents separated when he was very young and his mother took Lee and his sister to Switzerland. After enrolling in Miss Fisher's Academy in Wengen, he played his first villainous role as Rumpelstiltskin. The family returned to London where Christopher attended Wagner's private school. His mother then married Harcourt "Ingle" Rose, a banker and uncle of the James Bond author Ian Fleming. Lee applied unsuccessfully for a scholarship to Eton although the interview was to prove portentous because of the presence of the noted ghost story author M. R. James. Lee later claimed in his autobiography that James had cut a very impressive figure; sixty years later Lee played the part of M.R. James for the BBC.Instead, Lee attended Wellington College where he won scholarships in classics. Lee witnessed the execution of Eugen Weidmann, the last person to be publicly executed in France, in June 1939. He volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War against the Soviet Union in 1939; however, as Lee admits in his autobiography, he and his fellow British volunteers were in Finland only a fortnight and kept well away from the Russian forces the whole time. He went on to serve in the Royal Air Force and intelligence services during World War II

including serving as an Intelligence officer with the Long Range Desert Group. He trained in South Africa as a pilot but eyesight problems forced him to drop out. He eventually ended up in North Africa as Cipher Officer for No. 260 Squadron RAF and was with it through Sicily and Italy. Additionally, he has mentioned (including in his audio commentary on the Lord of the Rings DVD) serving in Special Operations Executive, though all details of actions undertaken by members of the SOE are still classified. Lee retired from the RAF after the end of the War with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

Trivia

 * Lee was the only actor of The Lord of the Rings who had ever met Tolkien.
 * Lee auditioned for the part of Gandalf, but (it is assumed) his age lost him the role.
 * He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as one of the worlds tallest actors (Six feet five inches).
 * Lee is said to have had more recorded sword fights then any other actor in history.
 * After his first role as Dracula, Lee appeared as the vampire in six other Dracula films. He also played 'The Creature' in The Curse of Frankenstein.
 * Lee is fluent in Italian (his grandfather was Italian) and German. He speaks moderate French.