Facts
The actor died on Sunday at Chelsea and Westminster hospital in London, after being hospitalised for respiratory problems and heart failure.
A Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Register Office issued a death certificate for Mr Christopher Lee on Monday 8 June, Mr Lee died on Sunday 7 June."
-----------
Legendary actor CHRISTOPHER LEE
most recently starred in
The Lord of the Rings trilogy from
New Line Cinema, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
and Star Wars: Episode III –
Revenge of the Sith from Lucas Films.
Prior to his roles in these
blockbusters, Lee starred in
the critically acclaimed
independent picture Jinnah,
which he considers the most
important movie of his career,
and the epic BBC miniseries Gormenghast.
He was also recently seen in
Crimson Rivers II with Jean Reno,
as well as Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.
Up next, he will appear in yet another
Tim Burton production, Corpse Bride.
Lee was educated at
Summer Fields preparatory school and
took a scholarship at Eton College and
Wellington College, where he was a
classical scholar in Greek and Latin.
After leaving school he worked as an
office boy and messenger in London at
the salary of one pound a week, and
during five years of World War II he
served in the Royal Air Force and
Special Forces. He was decorated for
distinguished service and held the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
After demobilization in 1946, he entered the
film industry in 1947 and was,
for a time, under contract to the Rank Organization.
He has appeared in the theatre and in
operatic performances and has recorded for radio worldwide.
He also sang in The Return of Captain Invincible
and recorded The King of Elfland’s Daughter
for Chrysalis; Stravinsky’s
The Soldier’s Tale for Nimbus; Peter and the Wolf,
also for Nimbus, conducted by Yehudi Menuhin;
The King and I, Christopher Lee sings
Devils, Rogues and Other Villains, from Broadway to Bayreuth
and many others. Most recently, he recorded an
album with the world famous metal band Rhapsody,
and recorded the single The
Magic of the Wizards Dream, which entered
the music charts, making him a top recording singer.
The directors for whom Lee has worked include John Huston, Raoul Walsh,
Joseph Losey, George Marshall,
Orson Welles,
Nicholas Ray, Michael Powell,
Edward Molinaro, Jerome Savary, Billy Wilder,
Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, Peter Jackson,
Tim Burton, John Landis, Alejandro Jodorowsky and
Andrei Konchalovsky. He has filmed in
Russian, French, Italian, German and Spanish, and
has worked in numerous countries all over the world.
Lee has appeared in more than
250 film and television productions,
amongst which the best known
are A Tale of Two Cities,
Dracula, The Mummy,
The Wicker Man,
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,
The Three and the Four Musketeers,
The Man with the Golden Gun (of which the author
was his cousin Ian Fleming),
1941, Airport ‘77 and Gremlins II.
He considers the most important point in
his career to have been as
host of Saturday Night Live in 1978
with John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd,
Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman and
Jane Curtin. It is still the third highest rated show of the series.
Lee has three claims to fame as an
actor: he is the only actor who has
portrayed Sherlock Holmes
and his brother Mycroft; he
executed King Charles the First of
England and King Louis the Sixteenth of France;
and he holds the world record for more sword
fights on camera than any other actor
in history. He also did all of his own
stunts and is an honorary member of three Stuntmen’s Unions.
At college he was in the top ranking at
squash, racquets and fencing, and
was equally at home at cricket,
rugby, football and hockey. He speaks
French, Italian, Spanish and German and
can “get along” in Swedish, Russian and Greek. His
hobbies are travel, opera and golf. His
handicap, once scratch, is now eight and
he is now the only actor who has been
made a member of the Honorable Company of
Edinburgh Golfers, the oldest golf club
in the world founded in 1744. He has had the
great fortune to have played most of the
world’s famous courses and is profoundly
grateful to have played with virtually all
the great golfers of modern times, from
James Braid to Jack Nicklaus.
Lee has received awards for his
contribution to the cinema from the
United States, France, Germany, Spain,
Italy and Great Britain. He is a Commander Brother
of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the world’s oldest order.
He has been married for 44 years to Danish
model and painter Gitte Kroencke, who before
their marriage modeled for Balenciaga,
Balmain, Chanel and Christian Dior. They
have one daughter, Christina, born
in Switzerland. After living some years
in Switzerland and California, they are now residents in the United Kingdom.
Amongst his publications are an
autobiography Tall, Dark and Gruesome,
first published by W.H. Allen in 1977
(and since re-published in 1997 and also
re-published in 2003
by Orion Books Ltd as
Lord of Misrule, introduced by
Peter Jackson) as
well as The Great Villains, Archives of Evil
and The Films of Christopher Lee (Scarecrow Press).
Lee is listed in the
Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats
as being the international star
with the most screen credits. He
was awarded the London Film
Critics Dilys Powell ‘94 award for his work
as an actor and services to the film
industry. He has recently been
awarded Commander of the British
Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday’s Honors list.
In 2002, at the height of his career, he
was awarded the prestigious Lifetime
World Actor Award in Vienna
from the hands of Mikhail Gorbachev.
He was named by the French
Government Officer of Arts and Letters.
