In Memoriam: Christopher Lee

Veteran film actor Christopher Lee has passed away at the age of 93.  “Veteran” seems to be a bit of an understatement, as Lee had started acting in the 1940’s and was still active in the 2010’s thanks to an indomitable constitution and the sudden demand for older British actors in fantasy films like The Hobbit (where would Ian McKellen be without X-Men and Lord of the Rings?).

 Lee, like many other actors relegated to the horror bin (Boris Karloff, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price), was a much better actor than his material in most cases.  His interpretation of Dracula shifted the focus from horror to sexiness, paving the way for the later Frank Langella interpretation that turned a centuries-old bloodsucker into a 19^th century Hugh Hefner.

 I always felt that Christopher Lee was a tremendous missed opportunity—he should have been cast as the original James Bond, not Sean Connery.  I know it is sacrilege to disparage Connery’s iconic performance as the world’s greatest spy, but Lee possessed the upper-class bearing that Connery lacked (author Ian Fleming preferred David Niven to Connery, and Lee is certainly closer to Niven than Connery in style).  Ian Fleming also happened to be a step-cousin to Lee, which would have made his casting all the more fitting (Fleming reportedly wanted Lee cast as the titular villain in the first Bond film, Dr. No).  Lee would have made a great James Bond; he was tall, athletic, suave, and had established his sexiness credentials with Dracula.  Oh well.

 Lee did achieve his dream of appearing in a Bond film with his role as Francisco Scaramanga in the Roger Moore film The Man With the Golden Gun.  While the movie has its dated elements (the MacGuffin is a “solex agitator” that makes solar power economical) it features a great henchman (Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack), two great Bond Women (Maud Adams and Britt Ekland) a great stunt (the car that does a 360 degree roll while jumping over a river), and one of Bond’s greatest villains.  This is one of the rare Bond movies that actually gets into the backstory of its bad guy; Scaramanga was the son of circus performers and became a trick shot artist. He shot and killed an animal trainer who had killed an elephant that Scaramanga had befriended, and he decided he liked killing humans and became an assassin for hire.  Lee brought greater depth and intelligence to his portrayal of Scaramanga than the typical actor playing a Bond villain (*cough*Kurt Jergens*cough*).

 Despite all of that, The Man With the Golden Gun was the lowest-grossing Bond film and nearly ended the series.  Again, oh well.

 Despite his roots in the Hammer studio’s production of horror films, Lee’s greatest contribution to the genre occurred in 1973 with his role as Lord Summerisle in the original version of The Wicker Man (not to be confused with the wretched remake starring Nicolas Cage many years later).  Once again, Lee took what could have been a one-dimensional role and made him intelligent, rational, and sympathetic.  The film is a step up from most modern horror films that emphasize shock and gore instead of tension and character.

 Of course Lee is best known to modern audiences as Saruman in the Lord of the Rings series, unless you prefer Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels (I don’t).  The casting of Lee as a heavy is, I suppose, inevitable, but what could he have done with the role of Gandalf if McKellen hadn’t been available?  Maybe he lacked the mirth needed for the early Gandalf scenes, but he certainly had the gravitas for the later movies.

 IMDB lists 281 acting credits for Christopher Lee.  He worked into his 90’s and had roles in pre-production when he died.  His IMDB bio just goes on and on and on with fascinating facts.  He lived quite a life.