Monday, June 15, 2015

Farewell to a Legend

Christopher Lee dies June 7, at age 93
Christopher Lee-Hammer Films
dies at age 93
As a vampire fan, you can guess that this actor had a lot to do with my coming of age, and having a fixation on vampires. I didn't begin writing about vampires right away, but at some point I did because the genre interested me. And back in the day, it was under the heading of "horror". It pretty much followed the thinking that vampires were the villains, to be killed and exterminated by hammering a stake into their hearts. There was no film or book where a vampire became any one's lover and it was called "paranormal romance", and accepted. No, this came decades later.

For me, I don't think any other actor played Dracula with more vigor and more credibility, and made him more sexy when he seduced a woman, and more visceral when he went up against his enemies. Although, I must say, I thought they could have done more bedroom scenes, but this was the 50's & 60's. However, on that, he was the first actor who made Dracula seem more hot than did Bela Lugosi, but again it was the scrips, rather than the actor, and the times.

Most recently people know him for characters--always the bad guy, but he played them so very well--in "Star Wars", and "Lord of the Rings"...

Before taking on the roles of Star Wars’ evil Count Dooku or Lord of the Rings’ Saruman, Christopher Lee had a past with the British Special Forces, could apparently speak seven languages, and was known for his love of heavy metal music. He was a Lord of the Rings aficionado as well and knew author J.R.R. Tolkien. Older generations would know him as the penultimate Dracula from the Hammer Horror series of films...
For more here is the link

For me Christopher Lee will always be the ultimate Dracula.


9 comments:

  1. My favourite role for him was Saruman- his war experience factored into something he said to Peter Jackson, about the sound of a knife being plunged into the body of a person.

    My favourite of his classic roles as as Sir Henry Baskerville in The Hound Of The Baskervilles opposite Peter Cushing as Holmes.

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  2. ~ Yes, Jeremy. I agree.

    ~ William, I would love to see some of these films. I think he was a wonderful actor, and sounds like a wonderful human being.

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  3. He was the best Dracula ever. Good tribute, Lorelei.

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  4. He was such a great actor, and he will be missed by many generations.

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  5. I agree, Maria. Thanks for stopping by.

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  6. Christopher Lee was the first vampire to scare the crap out of me!

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  7. Yeah. When he snarled, that was the best part of his performance. I loved it! Although the nuzzling of ladies necks was pretty awesome too.

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