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RIP Christopher Lee (1 Viewer)

Apparently a death certificate was issued on 6/8 so it wasn't today. Can't find yet what the cause was. Hope it was peaceful in his sleep from age.

 
Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
His Christmas singles were pretty awesome.
Thanks! Gonna have to check this out.

 
Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
Just this past Christmas, as the clock struck midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, my family, friends, and I were sitting at the pool bar at my house sipping hot buttered rum and enjoying his heavy metal Christmas songs.

A taste : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVzOve8T39w

 
Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
Just this past Christmas, as the clock struck midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, my family, friends, and I were sitting at the pool bar at my house sipping hot buttered rum and enjoying his heavy metal Christmas songs.

A taste : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVzOve8T39w
Awesome! Never heard of heavy metal and Christmas used together before. Very cool.

 
Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
Just this past Christmas, as the clock struck midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, my family, friends, and I were sitting at the pool bar at my house sipping hot buttered rum and enjoying his heavy metal Christmas songs.

A taste : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVzOve8T39w
Awesome! Never heard of heavy metal and Christmas used together before. Very cool.
There's plenty of it. You can even go a step further here and hear "Jingle Bells" as performed by Austrian Death Machine, which isn't just a heavy metal band, but a heavy metal band in which the vocalist alternates duties with an (admittedly not great) Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator.

 
Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
Just this past Christmas, as the clock struck midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, my family, friends, and I were sitting at the pool bar at my house sipping hot buttered rum and enjoying his heavy metal Christmas songs.

A taste :

His Ghost Riders In The Sky is not to be missed.
 
What a guy... that's a hell of a life run.

He's one of those guys that's going to be dead... yet feel really alive to me (almost like Mr. Myagi) because when I flip to Lord of the Rings, Clone Wars, Hobbit, Man with the Golden Gun or Karate Kid in the case of Myagi... there they are... like they never left.

I do wonder if that is gratifying on some level... knowing that your work will continue be seen for generations to come... or if that really isn't that important.. just the paycheck and doing something you love like acting.

 
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RIP to one of the all time greats.

I don't know about you dudes, but I'm not going anywhere near that coffin or graveyard at midnight (unless I have a wooden stake and a mallet).

The Man With The Golden Gun was great, and one of the roles I associate him with most after The Hammer Dracula roles, and LOTR. A lesser known work is The Wicker Man. He is all the more sinister and diabolical because of his urbane charm and sophisticated manner (kind of like Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter, the prequel to Silence of the Lambs) in his interactions with the British actor that later played the Equalizer on TV in the 80s. Just make sure you don't get the heinous abomination of a remake that was the Nicholas Cage version.

 
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Did not know this. Wow, cool!

"Lee was also a singer known for his operatic bass voice, releasing four albums starting in 2010 with his first full-length album, the heavy metal release, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010. Most recently, he released Charlemagne: The Omens of Death in 2013."

http://radio.com/2015/06/11/christopher-lee-dies-93/
Just this past Christmas, as the clock struck midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, my family, friends, and I were sitting at the pool bar at my house sipping hot buttered rum and enjoying his heavy metal Christmas songs.

A taste : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVzOve8T39w
Needs to be on this year's Keerock Christmas album.

 
Peter Jackson's Farewell

http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2015/06/12/peter-jackson-christopher-lee-tribute/

It is with tremendous sadness that I learnt of the passing of Sir Christopher Lee. He was 93 years old, had not been in his usual good health for some time, but his spirit remained, as always, indomitable.


Christopher spoke seven languages; he was in every sense, a man of the world; well versed in art, politics, literature, history and science. He was scholar, a singer, an extraordinary raconteur and of course, a marvelous actor. One of my favourite things to do whenever I came to London would be to visit with Christopher and Gitte where he would regale me for hours with stories about his extraordinary life. I loved to listen to them and he loved to tell them – they were made all the more compelling because they were true – stories from his time with the SAS, through the Second World War, to the Hammer Horror years and later, his work with Tim Burton – of which he was enormously proud.

I was lucky enough to work with Chris on five films all told and it never ceased to be a thrill to see him on set. I remember him saying on my 40th Birthday (he was 80 at the time), “You’re half the man I am”. Being half the man Christopher Lee is, is more than I could ever hope for. He was a true gentleman, in an era that no longer values gentleman.

I grew up loving Christopher Lee movies. For most of my life I was enthralled by the great iconic roles he not only created – but continued to own decades later. But somewhere along the way Christopher Lee suddenly, and magically, dissolved away and he became my friend, Chris. And I loved Chris even more.

There will never be another Christopher Lee. He has a unique place in the history of cinema and in the hearts of millions of fans around the world.

The world will be a lesser place without him in it.

My deepest sympathies to Gitte and to his family and friends.

Rest in peace, Chris.

An icon of cinema has passed into legend.
 
My kid was playing lightsabers with another kid yesterday and said he was Dooku. He's never done that. Weird. RIP

 
Peter Jackson's Farewell

http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2015/06/12/peter-jackson-christopher-lee-tribute/

It is with tremendous sadness that I learnt of the passing of Sir Christopher Lee. He was 93 years old, had not been in his usual good health for some time, but his spirit remained, as always, indomitable.


Christopher spoke seven languages; he was in every sense, a man of the world; well versed in art, politics, literature, history and science. He was scholar, a singer, an extraordinary raconteur and of course, a marvelous actor. One of my favourite things to do whenever I came to London would be to visit with Christopher and Gitte where he would regale me for hours with stories about his extraordinary life. I loved to listen to them and he loved to tell them – they were made all the more compelling because they were true – stories from his time with the SAS, through the Second World War, to the Hammer Horror years and later, his work with Tim Burton – of which he was enormously proud.

I was lucky enough to work with Chris on five films all told and it never ceased to be a thrill to see him on set. I remember him saying on my 40th Birthday (he was 80 at the time), “You’re half the man I am”. Being half the man Christopher Lee is, is more than I could ever hope for. He was a true gentleman, in an era that no longer values gentleman.

I grew up loving Christopher Lee movies. For most of my life I was enthralled by the great iconic roles he not only created – but continued to own decades later. But somewhere along the way Christopher Lee suddenly, and magically, dissolved away and he became my friend, Chris. And I loved Chris even more.

There will never be another Christopher Lee. He has a unique place in the history of cinema and in the hearts of millions of fans around the world.

The world will be a lesser place without him in it.

My deepest sympathies to Gitte and to his family and friends.

Rest in peace, Chris.

An icon of cinema has passed into legend.
That's awesome.. yet in many ways makes me feel bad about myself.. I'm not 1/100th of the guy with tell-able stories like that.. unless you include awesome drunken escapades as tell-able stories.. then I've got a few crowd pleasers.

That's an epic life lived.. I'm not going to live anything resembling epic. though I guess if everyone lived an epic life though, maybe he wouldn't be considered epic...

 
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22 Incredible Facts About The Life and Career Of Sir Christopher Lee

If Sir Christopher Lee had just been a movie star, he would still have been an icon. But the late actor, who passed away last week, had an amazing life even beyond his incredible body of work. Whether you’re still lamenting his passing or unsure why his death is such a loss, here’s 22 reasons why Christopher Lee will always be a legend.

1) He was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2007 for most screen credits, having appeared in 244 film and TV movies by that point in his career— at which point he made 14 more movies, with a 15th due later this year (titled Angels in Notting Hill). He also holds the record for the tallest leading actor — he stood 6’ 5” — but also for starring in the “most films with a sword fight” with 17.

2) He mother was an Italian contessa, and through her Lee descended from the Emperor Charlemagne of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as related to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general.

3) He met Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of the Russian monk Rasputin. He didn’t do this as research for his later film role as Rasputin (in the 1966 Hammer film Rasputin the Mad Monk), but just as a child in the 1920s.

4) At age 17, he saw the death of the murderer Eugen Weidmann in Paris, the last person in France to be publicly executed by guillotine.

5) During World War II, Lee joined the Royal Air Force but wasn’t allowed to fly because of a problem with his optic nerve. So he became an intelligence officer for the Long Range Desert Patrol, a forerunner of the SAS, Britain’s special forces. He fought the Nazis in North Africa, often having up to five missions a day. During this time he helped retake Sicily, prevented a mutiny among his troops, contracted malaria six times in a single year and climbed Mount Vesuvius three days before it erupted.

6) At some point during the war he moved from the LRDP to Winston Churchill’s even more elite Special Operations Executive, whose missions are literally still classified, but involved “conducting espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers.” The SOE was more informally called — and I can’t believe this somehow hasn’t been made into a movie yet — The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

7) Lee never said anything specific about his time in the SOE, but he did say this: “I’ve seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I’ve become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise we would never have won.” By the end of the war he’d received commendations for bravery from the British, Polish, Czech and Yugoslavia governments.

8) Speaking both French and Italian, Lee spent his time after World War II he hunting Nazis with the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects until he decided to give acting a try at age 25. Yes, all of this happened before Lee was 25 years old.

9) While filming a swordfight with a drunken Errol Flynn during the filming of The Dark Avengers in 1955, Flynn accidentally cut Lee’s hand so badly his finger nearly came off, and permanently injured. Later, Lee cut off Flynn’s wig while Flynn was still wearing it. Flynn stormed off set and refused to come out of his trailer until Lee claimed it was an accident.

10) While best known for his portrayal of Dracula in countless films, he’s also starred as the Mummy and Frankenstein’s monster. Of course he’s known as Saruman in Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, but his other villainous roles include Fu Manchu, Rasputin, Rochefort of The Three Musketeers (whose portrayal was so popular the character now inevitably appears with an eye patch, although it wasn’t in the book — Lee introduced it), Lord Summerisle of The Wicker Man, the James Bond villain Scaramanga, Mephistopheles, and Death himself.

11) Lee was not only related to James Bond creator and author Ian Fleming — they were step-cousins — but Lee was actually one of Fleming’s first choices for the role of Bond, not least because of Lee’s World War II and SOC experiences.

12) He has played Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft Holmes, and also Sir Henry Baskerville of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

13) Tired of playing Dracula and feeling that the movies had gotten sub-par, Lee tried to quit Hammer films, but studio executives guilted him into returning by stressing how many people could be out of work if Lee stopped churning out hits. Lee agreed to star in 1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness, he felt the script was so awful he adamantly refused to say any of the dialogue. (Hammer decided that it was far more important to have a mute Lee as star as opposed to anyone else, and thus had Dracula hiss and yell through the film.

14) In the ‘50s, Lee was engaged to Henriette von Rosen, daughter of Count Fritz von Rosen. The Count apparently didn’t like Lee, because after hiring private detectives to investigate the actor and demanding references, he also refused to allow his daughter to marry him unless Lee got the blessing of the King of Sweden. Lee got it.

15) Lee was a major Tolkien fan, reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy once a year for the majority of his life. He was the only member of the movie cast to have met Tolkien personally — apparently he ran into him randomly in a pub — and fanboyed out. Tolkien actually gave him his blessing to play Gandalf in any future Lord of the Rings movie.

16) When Lee heard that Hollywood was going to finally make the LotR trilogy into movies, he took a role in the terrible 1997 TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood as a wizard, specifically so he’d have clear evidence of his ability to be a wizard. When he heard Peter Jackson would direct the films, he sent Jackson a personal letter asking to be in the movies along with a picture of him dressed up as a wizard. Unfortunately, Lee’s advanced age and his natural ability to play villains made him an even better choice for Saruman.

17) The story has gone around a lot, but it bears repeating because it is incredible: During his death scene in Return of the King (only included in the Extended Edition to Lee’s disapproval), director Peter Jackson was describing to him what sound people getting stabbed in the back should make. Lee gravely responded that he had seen people being stabbed in the back, and knew exactly what sound they made.

18) Lee was quite interested in the history of public executions, and reportedly knew “the names of every official public executioner employed by England, dating all the way back to the mid-15th century.”

19) He’s always been a big metal fan, but he released his first full heavy metal album in 2010 at the age of 88. Titled Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross, which won the “Spirit of Metal” award from the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden Gods ceremony. He made a metal Christmas album in 2012. He was the oldest metal performer, and the oldest musician to ever hit the Billboard music charts.

20) In addition to his impossibly prolific film career, Lee was a world champion fencer, an opera singer, spoke six languages, and was a hell of a golfer.

21) He was made a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2009, a Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John in 1997, made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2011, earned he British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship in 2011, received the The Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1994, and so many more.

22) Last but not least: Despite everything you’ve heard about the “six degrees of Kevin Bacon,” Christopher Lee was recognized as being the most connected actor in the world in 2008, again by Guinness. He connects to virtually any actor in 2.59 steps, beating Bacon.
Man, the dude saw some serious stuff in the war... wow.

That resume is truly unbelievable. I'd be thrilled with 2-3 of those things... let alone all 22

 
"Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday in hospital. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee#Death
I guess everyone has already been reading up on him, I see now why this thread has been moving.

Here's the full wiki on his life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Lee

The guy already had 4 paragraphs by the time he was 17. Amazing.

 
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picked this up at the library today:

Lord of Misrule : the autobiography of Christopher Lee / Christopher Lee ; [introduction by Peter Jackson]

 

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