It is with sadness that we learnt this afternoon that screen great Sir Christopher Lee has passed away at the age of 93 from a respiratory illness.
Lee will be remembered by modern film fans as Saruman from the screen adaptation of Lord of The Rings, but his career started in 1948 with a role in Corridor of Mirrors. Over the span of his career, Lee starred in 207 films.
According to the UK’s Telegraph, Lee died early on Sunday morning at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Apart from a hugely varied film career that included roles in Dracula, The Man With The Golden Gun, The Wicker Man and Star Wars Episode III, he also had a vibrant music career – something that not a lot of people knew about.
Lee released four full-length prog-rock albums as well as three EPs, and guest starred on a number of musical production which included The Soldier’s Tale by Stravinsky, Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev, The Rocky Horror Show and on Manowar’s album Battle Hymns MMXI.
He also served as narrator and character on five albums for Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody of Fire.
Not content with just doing films, television work and music, Lee had a rather interesting history with video games as well.
Starting his video game voice-over career in 1994 with Ghosts, he served as the narrator for The Rocky Horror Show, was involved in Freelancer, played Saruman in 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and four subsequent LotR games, played the role of Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts II and voiced Lucan D’Lere in EverQuest II.
Farewell, Sir Christopher Lee. You shall be missed.
https://youtu.be/z16_mx1edG0
[Image – CC by 2.0/Avda]
