Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93 | Hacker News Reader

Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93

telegraph.co.uk

274 pointsblackskad40 comments

I have a small Christopher Lee story. I did some extra work on Lord of the Rings when it was being filmed in New Zealand. One very brief scene in the movie is Saruman speaking to the wild-men, telling them how the Rohan came and took their lands from them and that's why they should fight for him.

It was this scene here (towards the end of the clip): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU_zsyulWDg - it looks like it was only in the extended edition.

I was somewhere in the back of that mob listening to him do the speech. That's when I really understood what good acting was because I was actually getting stirred up listening to it. I wanted to go after the Rohan's for taking my land! I was ready to fight!

Anyway, it's not much. I didn't even speak to him but it made me realize how great actors project almost an aura of belief around them when they're acting.

He also has a Zappa feel. Another pretty charismatic man.

The only cast member of LOTR to meet Tolkien. Tolkien also gave him permission to play a role if they ever turned his books into a movie.

He gave him permission to play Gandalf, funnily enough.

There was actually a fair bit of grumbling among some hardcore LOTR fans when it was announced that Ian McKellen would play Gandalf, mostly because of his political and cultural leanings.

Of course, Lee made a career of playing villains and monsters, so I find it completely unsurprising that he was cast as Saruman instead.

> grumbling among some hardcore LOTR fans when it was announced that Ian McKellen would play Gandalf, mostly because of his political and cultural leanings.

Is there a way I can read some of this? Sounds fascinating.

Wasn't a big bit of it that Lee didn't feel he was up to that much screentime/travel?

He volunteered to fight for the Finnish forces in the Winter War against the Soviets and was then in the proto-SAS:

"I was attached to the SAS from time to time but we are forbidden – former, present, or future – to discuss any specific operations. Let's just say I was in Special Forces and leave it at that. People can read in to that what they like."

That's quite impressive!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

I remember, from the commentaries for The Lord Of The Rings, Peter Jackson saying that Cristopher Lee used his experience in the war to suggest how to make some death scenes more realistic. For sure he had a varied life.

There's the story of filming the scene in Lord of the Rings where Saruman is stabbed in the back by Wormtongue.

From Peter Jackson's DVD commentary:

When I was shooting the stabbing shot with Christopher, as a director would I was explaining to him what he should do"... "And he says, 'Peter, have you ever heard the sound a man makes when he’s stabbed in the back?' And I said, 'Um, no.' And he says 'Well, I have, and I know what to do.'"

And then the scene was removed :(

Not in the extended edition!

More importantly the pun about it being a purely bywater joke to refer to New Row as "Sharky's end" never made it to the big screen.

You know nothing Peter Jackson.

If I recall correctly, Peter Jackson asked Christopher Lee to utter Saruman's loud death-scream after Saruman had been stabbed in the back.

Christopher Lee responded that a person in that position, (due to punctured lung I suppose) wouldn't be able to scream, so it would be more of a strangled noise. Apparently this drew on his experiences in special forces in WW2.

edit: the scene is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bG8CVUujhs Saruman is stabbed, it is Grima Wormtounge who gets the arrow.

The man was making heavy metal albums in his 90s for Christ's sake - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_The_Omens_of_Death]

An ultimate badass. RIP

He also performed with Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody) as noted in the original article, including a song off of the Power of the Dragonflame album and throughout the Symphony of Enchanted Lands II album (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_of_Enchanted_Lands_II_...) - this band was his first involvement in metal, and he seemed to have passion for power metal after his first involvement.

Besides all of the amazing things mentioned here, Lee was also a Nazi hunter in Argentina after WW2:

For the final few months of his service, Lee, who spoke fluent French and German, among other languages, was seconded to the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects.[62] Here, he was tasked with helping to track down Nazi war criminals.[63] Of his time with the organisation, Lee said: "We were given dossiers of what they'd done and told to find them, interrogate them as much as we could and hand them over to the appropriate authority ... We saw these concentration camps. Some had been cleaned up. Some had not."[63]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

The man has accomplished so much that dying was the only thing left he hadn't done.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Lee. You are an inspiration to all.

Amazing tribute!!

If you can find it, I highly recommend watching Jinnah, a film about the founder of Pakistan, in which he played the title role. He often said it was his favorite performance. Sadly it's difficult to find - there's no edition currently on sale, and even on the pirating scene there only seems to exist a horribly low quality version. I look forward to a re-edition of the film.

I don't have any ties to the subject, but I loved the movie for its purely cinematic quality. It would be sad if it stayed forgotten as it is now. Maybe it will only re-emerge when the conflict surrounding this part of history becomes less heated and gives way to peace.

As a Pakistani I thoroughly loved how he transformed himself into M.A.Jinnah and did his role. Truly amazing.

Check this if it helps:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x11f96g_quaid-e-azam-muhamm...

Lee also has nice things to say about his performance as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, which I recommend you watch back to back, later movie first, with the Nicholas Cage remake they're in my eyes oh god the bees. Both are very easy to stream online.

The original Wicker Man actually holds up surprisingly well; I'm surprised it got made when it did.

Edward Woodward's performance in it is so bad that it elevates Lee, so it's a pretty good showcase for non-Saruman non-Dracula Lee.

My dad died last year at the age of 74. The first time I heard stories of Dracula and my earliest memory of him mentioning anything related to cinema - was him telling me (when I was 7 or 8) that the great actor Christopher Lee played Dracula. So it always amazed me that a name and actor from my ancient memory (Im in my mid-40s now), and I would've thought any actor my dad admired when he was young would have passed away a long time ago, was not only well and alive, but marvellously ingraining another character (Saruman) into my and my 10 year old son's memories! RIP Christopher Lee.

Even though he had quite a varied career, the first and most profound impression he had on me was his voice-acting in "The Last Unicorn".

I always felt that most of his later roles, what the telegraph calls "among the most fruitful" years, were too much of a type-cast.

requiescat in pace

that's one mighty movie. brought me to tears at the end in a very consistent way, quite a few times... The Audio part of audio-visual experience doesn't get neglected, but story itself is beautiful too.

too bad not many studios have balls to release similar dark stories, most one can expect is darkly-themed, sugar-sweet ones.

My wife and I were hoping he would make it to star in the coming live action version in the same role. I broke the news to her a few minutes ago, and she wants to watch the movie tonight in remembrance of him.

A lesser-known but highly amusing performance, “Never, Never Say Die.” The Avengers, Season 5 Episode 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azw87CL74Kw

His voice is so different!

I remember reading somewhere that Peter Jackson was directing Lee on how to sound when stabbed in the back...Lee promptly told him No. That is in fact not how he sounds when he is stabbed in the back. He knows...(given his military background)

Being a Pakistani I loved his performance in the movie Jinnah

He was a cousin of Ian Fleming and one of the inspirations for James Bond. What a remarkable man!

RIP.

IMDB lists 281 acting credits, from 1946 to 2016.

IIRC he claimed to have had the most on-screen swordfights of any actor.

A sad loss, he was a seemingly constant presence in my childhood, as he would frequently pop up in children's TV shows. I'm very glad that, within his lifetime, he eventualy recieved some of the recognition he so greatly deserved.

Brilliant innings, he achieved more than many could even imagine.

Between him and Brian Blessed, I reckon they've done enough for 50 normal people lives.

A life well lived.

RIP Sir Christopher Lee

Same day as Ornette Coleman. Amazing.

RIP :(

Farewell, Lord Summerisle!

A true legend. RIP Sir.

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