Christopher Lee Retrospective

Sunday’s episode of Sounds of Cinema spent some time taking a look at the filmography of Christopher Lee, who passed away last week at the age of 93. Lee’s career spanned more than six decades and included literally hundreds of credits. Here are a few highlights.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Dir. Terence Fisher

Christopher Lee terrified the baby boomer generation in the role of Count Dracula, starting with 1958’s Horror of Dracula. He would play the role nine times and Lee is widely considered to be among the definitive screen Draculas. However, Lee grew weary of the part and was dissatisfied with some of the later films.


The Devil Rides Out (1968)
Dir. Terence Fisher

Based on the novel by Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out features Christopher Lee in the role of a good guy attempting to protect a young man from being drafted into the service of Satan. The Devil Rides Out was among the better films to come out of the Hammer studio.


The Wicker Man (1973)
Dir. Robin Hardy

Among the films Christopher Lee was most proud of was 1973’s The Wicker Man in which he played Lord Summerisle. The film is an unusual but highly regarded British horror film. In 1973 The Wicker Man was edited and abused by its distributor with the original elements inadvertently destroyed. A longer version of the film was discovered recently and released under the title The Wicker Man: The Final Cut.


The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Dir. Guy Hamilton

Post-Hammer, Christopher Lee continued to be cast in villainous roles and in 1974 he played Bond villain Scarmanga in The Man with the Golden Gun. Lee was related to Bond creator Ian Fleming and during World War II Lee worked as an intelligence officer and was assigned to track down Nazi war criminals.


The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985)
Dir. Philippe Mora

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Christopher Lee’s career took a downturn and he worked in some forgettable movies. Among the strangest was the part of a werewolf hunter in 1985’s Howling II, a sequel to Joe Dante’s groundbreaking horror picture. The sequel is so bad that it’s highly entertaining and can regularly be seen on late night cable. Years later, Christopher Lee had a supporting role in Joe Dante’s Gremlins 2 and he supposedly apologized to the director for being in the Howling sequel.


Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Dir. Joe Dante

Among Christopher Lee’s underappreciated qualities was his sense of humor. In 1978 he hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live and in 1990 he played a mad scientist in Gremlins 2. The sequel was a comic send up of the first movie and Lee did the same for his public image as a villain.


Jinnah (1998)
Dir. Jamil Dehlavi

One of Christopher Lee’s least known works also contains his favorite role. In Jinnah, Lee played Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Unlike many of Lee’s other roles, this character was both a lead and a hero and Lee was able to redirect the authority and charisma he had so often used in villainous roles to portray a dignified political leader dealing with a complex situation.


The Lord of the Rings (2001 – 2003)
Dir. Peter Jackson

In the late period of his life, Christopher Lee enjoyed a career renaissance due to his casting as Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Count Dooku in the second and third Star Wars prequels. Lee also formed a relationship with director Tim Burton and had roles in Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and Alice in Wonderland. Of these, his performance in Jackson’s Middle Earth films stand out—in part because they are easily the better titles—but also for the gravitas he brought to the part and to the movies.


Actors are lucky if they get one role for which they will be remembered. In very rare cases, actors sometimes get two such roles like Harrison Ford playing both Indiana Jones and Han Solo or Clint Eastwood as both The Man with No Name and Dirty Harry. Christopher Lee had Dracula, Saruman, Lord Summerisle, Scarmanga, and Count Dooku. Although many of his films were disregarded at the time, Lee’s body of work is nevertheless impressive and he created memorable characters that captured the imaginations of at least three generations of moviegoers.