We've lost the last of the great horror icons. Christopher Lee was one of the greatest actors to have ever lived, and not only was he a titan in horror (particularly Dracula to a repeated extent, much to his displeasure), but he was also phenomenal in movies of all other genres. Known for his imposing height and strong voice, Lee appeared in films such as the horror classics Dracula, and The Wicker Man, to James Bond entry The Man with the Golden Gun, the Fu Manchu series (he was the best actor to play the character since Karloff), oddball musicals, multiple performances in various different movies as both Sherlock Holmes, and Watson, amusingly bad fare that will go unnamed here, and modern films such as Lord of the Rings. That's only the tip of the iceberg to the hundreds of movies Lee starred or appeared in. The man was not only an incredibly versatile actor, but a fascinating person, with a rich life! Even in his 80's and 90's, he was using his iconic booming voice for heavy metal albums! Have you ever stopped and thought to yourself that there needs to be a heavy metal rendition of My Way or occult versions of Christmas carols sung by Christopher Lee? Well wonder no longer, because Lee, descendant of the great Charlemagne himself, was up for the idea! The world has lost one of its greats, but at least Christopher Lee lived a full and storied life to a ripe old age. I'm sure that right now, he's up in some afterlife having drinks with Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, and most importantly, Peter Cushing...
I didn't know that he'd done some of what you listed! I knew about his role as Sherlock, but not as Watson. I'll have to look that up. We've probably discussed that movie where he played the much older Sherlock, which was so bad it was funny! I still need to see him as the younger Sherlock. I must have mistakenly ordered the wrong one from the library and ended up with "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady". Oh boy. So this is another reminder for me to look for his older Sherlock movies. You'd think I'd really enjoy those since I like him so much and also like the Sherlock stories.
ReplyDeleteNow I want to hear the heavy metal version of "My Way"!
Yeah, I think he's somewhere having drinks with those guys too. It's interesting, when I was looking for some photos of Christopher Lee online last night, I noticed the only ones where he was really laughing were with Peter Cushing. You could tell they were really good friends just from looking at the pictures. I read somewhere last night that Christopher Lee used to have Peter Cushing in stitches with his Sylvester the Cat imitation in between scenes! I've been having fun trying to imagine that. :)
I think he played Watson in the Hound of the Baskervilles movie where Peter Cushing was Holmes. As for The Leading Lady, we have indeed talked about that before. I really need to watch it for the blog at some point.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if a full video of his My Way rendition is on Youtube. All i was able to find was a brief portion on a teaser for his CD.
Sylvester the Cat as played by Christopher Lee? That certainly sounds like a sight to behold!