Christopher Lee

In 1961, he married a Danish model Birgit ‘Gitte’ Lee and has a daughter with her named, Christina Erika Carandini Lee. He and his wife were listed among the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the ‘Guardian’ in March, 2013.

He died of respiratory problems on June 11, 2015, at the age of 93.

He was born into one of the oldest families in Europe to a British Army Officer Geoffrey Trollope Lee and his wife, Contessa Estelle Marie (nee Carandidni di Sarzano).

His parents separated when he was quite young, and his mother took him and his sister to Switzerland.

He was enrolled in Miss Fisher’s Academy in Wengen where he played his first villainous role as Rumpelstiliskin. Soon, the family returned to London and he got admitted at Summer Field’s School, a preparatory school in Oxford. Afterwards, he took a scholarship at Eton College and Wellington College where he was a classical scholar in ancient Greek and Latin.

In 1939, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during Second World War from where he retired later with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He also served as an Intelligence Officer with the Long Range Desert Group in Northern Africa and in the Special Forces.

He was admitted to ‘Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects’ post-war and was assigned the task of tracking down Nazi war criminals.

In 1947, he entered the film industry and earned a seven-year contract with the Rank Organization. He got enrolled in an acting school for the rank organization where young contract players were being groomed for stardom. Soon he made his film debut in Terence Young’s ‘Corridors of Mirrors’ which was a gothic romance.

1952 proved to be a turning point in his career when Douglas Fairbanks Jr. started making films at the British National Studios. In the same year, he appeared in John Huston’s ‘Moulin Rouge’ which was later nominated for Oscars.

In 1959, he starred in Hammer’s ‘The Mummy’ and portrayed Rasputin in ‘Rasputin, the mad monk’. In the same year, he also played the role of Sir Henry Baskerville in ‘The hound of the Baskervilles’.

In 1957, he bagged the role of Frankenstein’s monster in Hammer’s ‘The curse of Frankenstein’. Thereafter, he appeared as the Transylvanian vampire in Hammer’s ‘Dracula’, which was inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel of the similar name. It was a critical and commercial success and was well received by critics and fans alike.

In 1965, he returned to the role of Dracula in Hammer’s second installment of ‘Dracula’ series, ‘Dracula: Prince of Darkness’, which was well received by the critics. Furthermore, he starred in ‘Dracula has risen from the Grave’ (1968), ‘Taste the blood of Dracula’ (1969), and ‘Scars of Dracula’ (1970), all of which were commercially successful all over.

He introduced Dennis Wheatley, an occult novelist, to Hammer, who made a movie based on his novel, starring Lee. This movie was ‘The Devil rides out’ (1967), which is considered to be Hammer’s greatest achievement.

In 1973, he appeared in Richard Lester’s, ‘Three musketeers’. In the following year, he did ‘The four musketeers: Milady’s Revenge’. In 1989, he reprised his role in ‘The return of the Musketeers’.

From 2001 to 2003, he appeared as Saruman in the fantasy adventure film, ‘The lord of the rings trilogy’, directed by Peter Jackson and based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was considered to be one of the biggest and most ambitious film projects ever taken, and proved to be a turning point in his career.