5 Absolutely Astonishing Facts About Christopher Lee, ‘Lord of the Rings’ Star and Hammer Horror Icon
If Christopher Lee hadn’t died at age 93 in 2015, he would have turned 103 on May 27. In his 93 years on this planet, however, Lee lived many lives, including a screen career that included his roles as Count Dracula in the Hammer Horror films, Count Dooku in the Star Wars films, and Saruman in the Lord of the Rings franchise.
Beyond that, as one X user aptly pointed out, Lee was the son of an Italian countess and a cousin of Ian Fleming, he met Rasputin’s assassins and hunted Nazi war criminals, he was a heavy metal musician and a fencer, he spoke multiple languages, and he was knighted by then-Prince Charles. “Literally every aspect of this man’s life is absolutely astonishing,” that X user wrote.
Lee also has the Guinness World Records for most deaths in a movie career (61), most films with a swordfight by an actor (17) and oldest video game voice actor (at age 91), and if he were still alive, he’d have the record for most connected actor.
Read on for other astonishing facts about the man who is simply one of the most fascinating actors in Hollywood history.
1Christopher Lee witnessed France’s last public execution by guillotine
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In 1939, a then-17-year-old Lee was one of the spectators in Versailles, France, when serial killer Eugen Weidmann died in what turned out to be the country’s last public execution by guillotine. “The knife fell, and I thought I would die myself,” Lee wrote in his 2003 autobiography, Lord of Misrule.
Strangely, Lee’s acquaintanceship with public execution did not end there! Later in his life, Lee was acquaintances with the English hangman Albert Pierrepoint, received a personal tour of San Quentin’s gas chamber, and played the French royal executioner Charles Henri Sanson in the 1989 film La Révolution française, as he recounted in his book.
2He met J.R.R. Tolkien
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In a 2003 Q&A with The Independent, Lee revealed he had a “very brief” run-in with Tolkein in the 1950s, about half a century before the actor starred in adaptations of the author’s Lord of the Rings stories.
“It was in a pub that he used to go to in Oxford, called the Eagle and Child,” Lee recounted. “I was there having a beer, and I was completely overcome when he walked in. I had already started reading the books and thought, ‘This man has created a unique form of literature — one of the great works of all time.’ … I’m still an enormous fan — I read The Lord of the Rings every year.”
3Errol Flynn nearly cut off his finger
In the aforementioned autobiography, Lee remembers being “savaged” by actor Errol Flynn while filming the 1955 film The Dark Avenger. For much of the four-and-a-half-minute duel between Lee’s character and Flynn’s, Lee fought against Flynn’s sword-fighting double, but the actor himself stepped in for the last take.
“And with the maximum possible zing, [Flynn] struck me a shrewd blow on the little finger of my right hand, and nearly cut through it. ‘Oh, f***!’ exclaimed Errol, as it bled like a fountain. ‘Quite,’ I said. The finger was bound up, and we set to again, but it remained bent, for ever.”
As luck would have it, Lee and Flynn had a “rematch” shortly thereafter as they costarred in an installment of The Errol Flynn Theatre. “This time we had rapiers,” Lee wrote. “As soon as he saw me draw mine, he recalled the devastation of my finger, and a shadow crossed his face. ‘Now watch it, sport,’ he said. ‘Don’t forget, it was an accident, so none of your tricks.’”
4He accidentally starred in an X-rated film
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“I was in a soft porn film, though I had no idea that was what it was when I agreed to the role,” Lee told The Telegraph in 2011, referring to the 1970 film Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion. “I was told it was about the Marquis de Sade. I flew out to Spain for one day’s work playing the part of a narrator. I had to wear a crimson dinner jacket. There were lots of people behind me. They all had their clothes on. There didn’t seem to be anything peculiar or strange.”
Later, a friend told Lee the film was playing at an adult theater in London. “So I crept along there heavily disguised in dark glasses and scarf, and found the cinema, and there was my name,” he said. “I was furious! There was a huge row. When I had left Spain that day, everyone behind me had taken their clothes off!”
5Muhammad Ali dedicated a fight to him
Lee told Total Film in 2005 that he had met Muhammad Ali at a Cleveland hotel 30 years prior, after hearing from a PR agent that the boxing champion was a big fan of his. And Lee was watching — from Hugh Hefner’s mansion — when Ali dedicated a fight to him.
“At the end of the fight — which Ali won — this reporter shoved a mic under Ali’s face… ‘Do you have anything to say to your fans?’” Lee said. “Ali says, ‘Yes. I just want to say that I won this fight for Christopher Lee, who’s out there watching me now.’ I couldn’t believe it, because that’s a million dollars’ worth of publicity. And when the lights came up, people were looking at me, stunned.”
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