Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Lee CBE CStJ
Lee in 2013
Born	(1922-05-27)27 May 1922 Belgravia, London, England
Died	7 June 2015(2015-06-07) (aged 93) Chelsea, London, England
Occupations	Actor singer military officer
Years active	1948–2015
Spouse	Birgit Krøncke ​ (m. 1961)​
Children	1
Relatives	Marie Carandini (great-grandmother) Ian Fleming (step-cousin) Harriet Walter (niece)
Awards	Knight Bachelor (2009)
Musical career
Genres	Opera symphonic metal power metal
Musical artist
Military career
Allegiance	Finland (1939) United Kingdom (1940–1946)
Service / branch	Finnish Army (1939) Home Guard (1940) Royal Air Force (1941–1946)
Years of service	1939–1946
Rank	Flight lieutenant
Battles / wars	World War II Winter War North African campaign Allied invasion of Italy Battle of Monte Cassino
Signature

This article is part of a series about Christopher Lee
Filmography House of Carandini Gallery Count Dracula Fu Manchu Count Dooku Saruman DiZ / Ansem the Wise Tim Burton collaborations Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross Charlemagne: The Omens of Death
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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE CStJ (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer.^[1] In a career spanning more than sixty years, Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horror and franchise films. Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013.

Lee gained fame for portraying Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in three Star Wars films (2002–2008) and Saruman in both The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014). He frequently appeared opposite his friend Peter Cushing in horror films, and late in his career had roles in five Tim Burton films, including Sleepy Hollow (1999), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012). Lee's other notable roles include The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), A Tale of Two Cities (1958), The Wicker Man (1973), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Jinnah (1998), Glorious 39 (2009) and Hugo (2011).

Before his acting career, Lee served in the Royal Air Force as an intelligence officer, attached to the No. 260 Squadron RAF during World War II as a liaison officer for the Special Operations Executive. He retired from the RAF in 1946 with the rank of flight lieutenant. Lee also sang, recorded opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and worked with several heavy metal bands; he appeared on the albums Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010) and Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013).