SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE

[Fester]

Great news and well deserved.

Now, quick,  someone work up a screenplay for Sir Christopher's new movie:  "Knight of Dracula!"

[BaronLatos35]

Great news indeed.

The first Christopher Lee movie I saw was "Dracula Has Risen From the Grave". Lee's Dracula left such an impression on my young mind that today that movie remains my favorite Hammer Dracula.

[ProfGriffin]

Christopher Lee...THE GOOD GUY
By
Professor Anton Griffin

He stands head and shoulders above the rest, and his name itself is enough to bring chills.  His eyes are piercing and his brow furrowed...he stands...like a dark god daring you to breathe...and when he starts to move toward you, a gliding pillar of black...you know that it's too late to do anything but die.

His career started on stage and in costume pieces (he was an un-credited spear carrier in Olivier's Hamlet and by coincidence, Peter Cushing his soon to be creator in The Curse of Frankenstein, played Osric- but they did not meet).  His exotic good looks and impressive height made him unsuitable for romantic leads...so he did the next logical thing. After appearing in 38 movies, he became monsters.

Pieced and patched together by his friend, Osric himself, Peter Cushing (with whom he used to do impersonations of Loony Toones characters)...his first Monster was a clumsy, murderous child.  He played the creature with the damaged brain as a believable suffering being, but his danger and his hideousness was very real...(you could almost smell the rot- thank you Make-up man Phillip Leaky).

The cold stone of a gothic castle became his new home next in Horror of Dracula, and he joined the ranks of the undead as their PRINCE.... of Darkness.  He was noble, frightening and fierce while also tormented, agonized and sad.  He was very much the warrior Prince.  His tiger-like interpretation of Bram Stoker's suave deadly villain, Count Dracula became his calling card...edged in red and dripping... So identified would he become with the Vampire King that he was almost enveloped in the massive black shadow as Lugosi was.  Wisely, he knew when to quit...and after practicing some groovy 'Satanic Rites' in 1973, he did.

He was also the Egyptian high priest Kharis in The Mummy - lurching through bogs and swamps in the dead of night on a mission of revenge.  But such was his amazing pain and discomfort, he never again brought that particular ancient Egyptian back from the dead.  More's the pity.

He later injected Robert Lewis Stevenson's potion and became a sinister Mr. Blake (I'm sorry, who?) in I, Monster. He challenged Moore's agent 007 to a duel on a not-so-fantasy island' as Francisco Scaramanga, The Man With the Golden Gun,  mesmerized the Russian Royal family as Rasputin (The MAAAAAD Monk) and threatened the entire world as Sax Rohmer's evil Asian warlord, the insidious Dr. Fu Manchu.

He is best known for madmen, monsters, and villains, but honestly, it's when this great man plays characters that are heroic and brave that I feel we see him who he really is.  Fluent in over 8 languages and drawing his decent from one of the oldest Italian Noble families, he is a commanding hero.

In The Devil Rides Out, he was the noble Duc de Richleau, battling the satanic Moccata...In The Gorgon as Prof. Karl Meister wielding a sword against a cursed Greek monster, or as Sir Matthew Phillips, trying to warn his friend (his creator again) about a cursed skull, you can really root for him on the side of heroes.

I really like Christopher Lee...the good guy.

As Professor Alexander Saxton, he joined his old friend and creator once again to battle an ancient, evil, body-jumping energy monster on the Trans-Siberian express, aka The Horror Express.  What's not to like about that?  Why, he even played Sherlock's smarter brother Mycroft.  As his friend and creator often played the GREAT detective, it was natural to play his brother.

Sadly, his friend and creator died in 1994...and Christopher Lee, THE
GOOD GUY read the Eulogy at his funeral.

Ask his wife, beautiful actress Birgit Kroencke, or his daughter
Christina Lee, and they'll tell you.  Christopher Lee is a GOOD GUY!

Recently, he sent Johnny Depp to investigate Sleepy Hollow, and played his father, (yes Willie Wonka's father) in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  His voice also gave life to a character in Tim Burton's `The Corpse Bride'.

But the villains never really wanted to let him go...he was too powerful, too commanding, and too good at being bad.  Once again, he turned his attentions to the dark side, because no one else could have done it so well.

His name is once again synonymous with villains in two different blockbuster film series.  A whole new younger generation now knows the 84 year old Commander of the British Empire as the Sith Separatist, Count Dooku aka Darth Tyranus, and the dark wizard of Middle Earth...Saruman the White.

He can play comedy, drama, horror, and fear...he is a masterful villain but also a likeable and respectable HERO.  He is a GOOD GUY in reality and like his dear departed friend and creator; he is the kindest and noblest of men.

He cannot escape it, his will always be the Prince of Terror (He differs graciously to the long dead Boris Karloff as KING) and thankfully for all of us, he is still working as hard as ever.

I really like Christopher Lee...The GOOD GUY.

And apparently, so does her Majesty.  Finally, this giant of a man, this great actor is given the Knigthhood he so richly deserves.

It's about freakin time.

But as I recall, his friend and creator Dear Saint Peter Cushing had to wait until almost the end of his life to receive his....

But a richly deserved honor to a VERY GOOD GUY.



- Prof. Griffin

[mjaycox]

Long overdue. One of the great screen actors. The fact that no one has had the courage to cast him in Shakespeare (aside from that Julius Caesar movie) has deprived the world of a possibly great King Lear.

He is the last of the great living horror legends. (with all due deference to Coffin Joe, and Paul Naschy, and Robert Englund whio are all wonderful... but Christophr Lee is a legend, plain and simple).

Matt

[moonvisage]

It is wonderful news.Congratulations to Sir Christopher on his C.B.E