Christopher Lee

According to his friend Norman Lloyd, he has a somewhat eccentric hobby: he is fascinated by public executioners and knows the names of every official executioner England has had since the middle of the 15th century.

He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity.

Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

On July 21, 2004, he was given the honorary citizenship of the Italian city of Casina (Province of Reggio Emilia) where Sarzano, the castle of his ancestors is situated. He gave his speech of thanks in Italian.

He was upset about the deletion of his death scene in the theatrical version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). However, the scene was put back into the Extended Edition which is seen as the definitive version.

The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama.

Two of his roles have been as leaders of a separatist movement. The first was Jinnah (1998), about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan. The second was in the Star Wars series as Count Dooku, the former mentor of Qui-Gon Jinn.

In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.

He was one of the judges for the 1995 Miss World beauty pageant.

When he arrived in the recording studio to do the voice-over for King Haggard in the original animated version of The Last Unicorn (1982), he came armed with his own copy of the book with certain excerpts marked pertaining to parts of the book that he felt should not have been omitted.

He turned down Donald Pleasence's role as Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (1978) (he later remarked that this was his biggest mistake). He was offered the role of King Balor in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), but had to turn it down due to prior commitments. He was considered to play The High Priest of Kali in The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Dr. Hans Fallada in Lifeforce (1985), Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), Koura in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973) and Carl Grissom in Batman (1989).

He was originally offered the role of Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), which he turned down. The role eventually went to his good friend Peter Cushing.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).

, Lee made Nothing But The Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).

By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun (1974).

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England.

He had one child, Christina Erika Lee (b. November 23, 1963) with his wife Birgit Kroencke Lee (Gitte Lee).

A distant cousin and frequent golfing partner of Bond creator Ian Fleming, Lee was the author's personal pick for the role of Dr. No (1962) in the first 007 film. The role, of course, went to actor Joseph Wiseman, who was brilliant. However, fans of the literary Bond might want to check out Lee's portrayal of Chinese master criminal Fu Manchu, for an idea of how Ian Fleming himself envisioned Dr. No.

Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s.

During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd.

Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).

However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions. Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends.

He sustained an injury to his right hand while filming a sword-fight with a slightly drunk Errol Flynn for The Dark Avenger (1955). The permanently crooked little finger he was left with can be seen in many of his films.

Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking.

He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared.

Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948).

After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were born on the same day (27th May) and Peter Cushing was born on the 26th.

Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St. -Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.