British actor Christopher Lee, best known for playing Dracula, has died at age 93, The Telegraph reports.
The actor died Thursday morning at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after being treated there for respiratory problems and heart failure, the Telegraph said, citing sources close to the family.
Lee's filmography reads like a romp through film history. He first became famous playing Dracula in the Hammer House of Horror movies, from the 1950s onward. At least nine "Dracula" films were made starring Lee.
He was also Lord Summerisle in the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man. And he played Bond villain Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun.
More recently, his sonorous tones and creepy demeanour were introduced to a new, younger audience when he played Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) and Saruman in 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and its sequel.
He was also a favourite of director Tim Burton, who cast him in Alice in Wonderland and Sleepy Hollow.
Part of Lee's appeal was his height — he was 6 feet 5 inches. Initially, film executives turned him down for roles because he was too tall.
The Guardian has a wonderful description of how Lee single-handedly recreated the entire image of Dracula:
Christopher Lee’s initial appearance in Dracula, in 1958, was a shock. Before that moment, the fabled vampire was more associated with Max Schreck’s demonic Nosferatu from the classic German silent picture — a pale creature closer to Gollum from today’s Tolkien movies. The vampire was something stunted, bestial, insidious.
But when Lee’s Count Dracula first walked down to the stairs to greet his visitors in the first Hammer movie version it was a revelation. He was tall (six foot five), handsome and well-built, with an easy athleticism and a frank, direct manner. His deep, melodious voice completed the effect: commanding. There was nothing unwholesome-looking about this vampire, not at first: he looked more like a British or at any rate Central European version of Gary Cooper. So it was even more powerful and shocking when this patrician figure disclosed his Satanic qualities: and that face became pale and contorted, when the lips peeled back to reveal the fangs, the eyes turned red and the lips dripped with blood — and his whole being oozed with forbidden sexuality. Christopher Lee was Dracula; he had taken over the character as clearly as Sean Connery took over James Bond.
Here is a look at his life in photos.
An early promo headshot:
His best known role (for some, Lee was Dracula):
At Hammer, there was no such thing as too much Dracula:
From The Man With the Golden Gun:
A later portrait from the mid 1970s:
He appeared as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man, the leader of a pagan cult on a lonely Scottish island. It was one of his best films:
He added a bit of class to Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, as Count Dooku:
More recently, he was Saruman in The Hobbit:
