We will be honest: the tragedy is when someone died young or died, not having time to commit and say the most important. And when a person who has more than two hundred works in the cinema, who more than once deceived death in the war and earned a knightly title, dies in ninety -three years, surrounded by grandchildren, fans and well -deserved honor, this must be called differently.He went into history.
Sir Christopher Lee left this world, but left such a trace that it seems that he was not dying. For his long life, he managed to do everything he should. He will be remembered as the brightest cinema, as Saruman, Dracula and Count Duku, as an excellent singer and actor of voice acting. In his youth, he became the hero of the war, and in old age – a model of imitation for all pensioners. Such a life can only be envied.
Let us recall what amazing person was Sir Christopher Frank Karandini Lee.
He probably played more roles than anyone
Lee played in more than two hundred films. He made his debut in 1947 in the horror of the Labyrinth of Mirrors and starred until the last days of his life. In 2007, he was even entered in the Guinness Book of Records as an actor who played in the largest number of films. At that time there were two hundred and forty -four, and since then he starred at fifteen.
Records are a shaky thing, of course. For example, in Russia, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, who also played more than two hundred roles could argue with the championship. But the adjustment of "In Hollywood films" Lee is really invincible. Until his death, he starred on average in two paintings every year. His last works – Angels in Notting Hill And The 11th – They haven't even had time to go out.
► LICE WHILE WHAT I managed to see, is the same Saruman in the third "hobbit".
The Western Connoisseurs of the Cinema has such a game: to find a connection between two actors for the least number of steps. This is done on the principle: “The first played in such a film with the third, one with another actress, and she is in another film with the second”. Based on the game, enthusiasts made up the Hollywood map, and Christopher Lee turned out to be its center. Any actor is connected on average less than three transitions.
He was a great movie Zlodeg
They say that at first it was difficult to find a job in the cinema. The little -known actors were given only the second -plan roles, and for them he was too impressive. Height of 195 centimeters, a deep bass voice – but against the background of such a “statist”, any star will look a dwarf!
But Lee found his role and turned the minuses into pluses. He began to play villains and succeeded in this like no one else. We, a generation that grew up on " Star Wars " And " The lord of the rings ", First recognized and remembered him as an insidious sorcerer Saruman and rebellious Count Ducu. He was for us the main villain of childhood. While the boring Sauron was sitting on the tower and sparkling an eye, Saruman created the army of the orcs and defeated the wizards of Gandalf in the duel of the wizards.
► Yes, and I sat on the tower no worse.
By irony of fate, Lee had a whole life to play Gandalf. He adored the “Lord of the Rings”, re -read it every year to refresh in his memory, and personally met with Tolkien, who blessed him for the role. Alas, by the time the trilogy got to the screen, he was already too old for Gandalf – but he was perfectly for the role of Saruman.
And his other character, warlike Sith Count Duku from " Star Wars ", Fought on light swords with an equally cult character – Master Yoda. For the sake of Duku, the little green master first showed his true power on the screen, and for such a case he was first depicted using computer graphics, not a puppet.
► Whether it was already the seventeenth film with a fencing duel.
Of course, in " Star Wars »Most of the work for the eighty -year -old old man was performed by the understudy. But there were times when Lee did not need understudies and even replaced others himself. He fenced excellently. On the set of one adventure film, the then star Errol Flynn, with an awkward blow, almost chopped off whether a finger. In the next double, he took revenge – he tore off the wig with a sword, without leaving the scratches.
Lee became famous long before " The Lord of the Rings ". The older generation of Western spectators remembers him from Hammer's horror films. He played Count Dracula ten times-probably more than anyone else. True, the actor himself did not like this role. In a protracted series, he was held by contract obligations and the desire to support his friend Peter Kashning, who played Van Helsing. The scenarios of late films about Dracula were so bad that Lee demanded to make his hero a dumb – because he could not say a mediocre text with a serious face with a serious face.
► Christopher Lee was paid simply because he appeared on the screen and hissed angrily.
In addition to Dracula and Saruman, Christopher Lee played the monster of Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Chinese Mafiozo Fu Manchu and Francisco Scarammang, one of the main enemies of James Bond. With the creator of Bond, Ian Fleming, Lee was related and was personally familiar. Fleming even tried to knock out the role of a doctor for his nephew, but in the film of the same name.
Christopher Li knew (and afraid) even Soviet children who had never seen Hollywood horror films. In 1982, the actor starred in a film screening on the book Astrid Lindgren " Mio, my Mio ", Which was set by the Soviet director Vladimir Grammatikov. By the way, in the same film, Christian Bale debuted in the movie – Future Batman.
► of course, played the main villain – knight Kato.
In the later years, Lee began to play live less often and work more often on voice acting. The characters of the cartoons say his deep bass " The last unicorn "," The corpse of the bride ", Barmaglot from Bertonovskaya" Alice "and the death of the adaptations of Terry Pratchett.
He killed the Nazis and was a scout cooler than Bond
Our readers are unlikely to delight the news that the eighteen -year -old whether he enrolled in the army to … fight with the Soviet Union. It was in 1940, there was a Soviet-Finnish war in which Britain supported Finland, and volunteers were recruited almost on London's streets. Fortunately, I didn’t have time to fight the Russians – the recruits were not immediately allowed into battle, and two weeks later and the war ended.
It is not worth it, however, to think whether it had something against Russia. On the contrary, he tolerably speaks the Russian language and even played Russian a couple of times.
► For example, Rasputin and police chief in " Police Academy ".
But with the Germans he fought well. Was it formally listed as a lieutenant of the Air Force. In fact, he spent most of the war by a special forces by British intelligence, carried out sabotage missions against Germany, and after the war caught Nazi criminals throughout Europe. The Grif “Secret” has not yet been removed with his dossier, and we will not find out the details of his exploits soon. But the fact that besides British he has Polish, Czechoslovak and Yugoslav military awards, speaks for itself.
Once a curious journalist asked Christopher Lee to tell about his work in intelligence. The actor leaned toward the interlocutor's ear and whispered:
– TSS! You can keep secrets?
– Yes, sure! – the journalist answered, anticipating an amazing interview.
“So I can,” whether he whispered.
► Christopher Lee is one of the few knights of Britain who did not bow to his knee. Out of respect for his age, he was allowed to pass the ceremony standing.
In the service, Christopher Lee saw death and developed, as he admits, some cynicism, without which it is impossible to go through the war and not go crazy. Probably, this helped later in his career – any horror films, any cinema supervillains seemed harmless to him compared to the fact that people really create with each other.
Lee did not tell if he killed his own hands. But one small fact speaks eloquently about his experience. In the extended version " The Lord of the Rings »There is a scene where Saruman is a spoiler! – kills his minister of makeup. So, the sound of a stab with a knife Christopher Lee chose himself. From the entire film crew, only he knew how the real murder sounds.
At ninety years old he played metal
With his powerful, well -set voice, Lee not only voiced https://sister-site.org/casper-spins/ villains and sages in cartoons. He also sang perfectly. Perhaps this is hereditary – his ancestors along one of the lines were Italians from the Karandini family, who founded the first opera in Australia.
Lee sang in his films infrequently-nevertheless, he played mainly in horror and militants, and not in musicals. But when the case was given, he showed a real master class.
► The funny song of the supervisor of an alcoholic from the film “The Return of the Indomitable Captain”, performed by Christopher Li Lee.
But his genuine passion – heavy metal – whether he opened the world when he was in eighty. It all started with the Italian group Rhapsody, playing Power Metal. Admiring his work in " The lord of the rings ", Metalists called Sir Christopher to write down the introduction for his fantasy album Symphony of the Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret.
But they underestimated his power and love for fantasy. Whether this work liked this work so much that he also composed a script for a whole cycle of albums, recorded several songs from Rhapsody and starred in two groups.
Since then, Christopher Lee has become something like a patron saint of metallists and constantly appeared at rock festivals. And in 2010 I decided to release the album itself. The plot of a conceptual disk Charlemagne: by The Sword and the Cross Lee devoted the biography of King Charles the Great, a person who is quite comparable in scale with the heroes of fantasy epics. The continuation of the saga followed in 2013 in the album Charlemagne: The Omens of Death.
I must admit, the metal performed by Christopher Lee is quite light and resembles an opera with guitars. But for a man who all his life sang mainly classic Arians and discovered heavy music for the ninth ten, this is something amazing.
► The last thing I recorded was the single Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing, consisting of rock processing of Christmas songs.
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About famous people often say that they "do not get old". Christopher Lee, on the contrary, turned aging into real art. Over the years, he became only more solid and impressive. It was hard to believe that he would ever die,-the actor seemed immortal. He constantly studied the new, discovered new genres in music and cinema, and the grandchildren of his fans admired him no less than their grandfathers.
This is how life should be lived – then death will not be able to erase you from life.
When it knocks me ninety, I want to be like Christopher Lee.