User:Tiller54/Early life and military career of Christopher Lee
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ, (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor, singer and author. He is best known for playing villains, including Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, Kharis and Fu Manchu in a string of popular Hammer Horror films (1957–1973); Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002–2005); and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014).
Sir Christopher Lee | |
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Born | Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (1922-05-27) 27 May 1922 (age 102) |
Alma mater | Wellington College |
Occupation(s) | Actor, singer, author |
Years active | 1946–present |
Spouse | Birgit Krøncke (1961–present) |
Children | 1 |
Military career | |
Allegiance | Finland United Kingdom |
Service/ | Finnish Army (December 1939) British Home Guard (1940) Royal Air Force (1941–1946) |
Years of service | 1939–1946 |
Rank | Flight Lieutenant |
Battles/wars | Winter War World War II (North African Campaign, Allied invasion of Italy, Battle of Monte Cassino) |
Website | christopherleeweb |
Born in London in 1922, Lee was educated at Summer Fields School and Wellington College, leaving the latter in 1939 when his step-father went bankrupt. After travelling, working as a clerk and volunteering to fight for Finland during the Winter War against the Soviet Union, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1941. An optic nerve problem prevented him from completing his training so he joined RAF Intelligence and served in North Africa and Italy and then in Germany and Austria after the War ended. He was also attached to the Special Operations Executive and the Long Range Desert Group, the precursor of the SAS.
After the War, he decided to become an actor. After a long "apprenticeship", his breakthrough came in 1957 with a role as Frankenstein's monster in Hammer's The Curse of Frankenstein. Roles as Count Dracula in Dracula (1958) and Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) quickly followed as he made his name in horror and fantasy films. During the 1960s and 70s he appeared for Hammer as Dracula seven times (1958–1973), as Fu Manchu five times (1965–1969), as Grigori Rasputin in Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966) and as Duc de Richleau in The Devil Rides Out (1968). His non-Hammer roles included Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962), Artemidorus in Julius Caesar (1970), Comte de Rochefort in The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973) and Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).
In 1976, he made his final film for Hammer, To the Devil a Daughter, and moved to America the following year. He appeared in films including Airport '77 (1977), Jaguar Lives! (1979), 1941 (1979), The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) and Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985). Returning to Britain in 1985, his films included Mio in the Land of Faraway (1987), The Return of the Musketeers (1989), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994). In 1999 he had what he considers his "second breakthrough" in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, which led to five more collaborations with Burton and roles as Saruman in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film series (1999–2014) and as Count Dooku in two Star Wars films (2002–2005). His other recent films include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), The Golden Compass (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Hugo (2011), Dark Shadows (2012) and, in 2011, his first Hammer film for three decades, The Resident.
Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013.[1][2][3] Lee considers his best performance to be that of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998), and his best film to be the British horror film The Wicker Man (1973).[4] Lee is also one of the highest grossing actors of all time, his films having grossed $8,321,486,066 worldwide.
Always noted as an actor for his deep, strong voice and love of opera music, he has also worked as a singer, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998. After working with several heavy metal bands since 2005, he has also released two symphonic metal albums: Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010) and Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013).[5][6] He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.