Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ was an English actor, voice actor, singer, author, musician, and military officer. In a career spanning more than sixty years, Christopher Lee became known as an actor with a deep and commanding voice who often portrayed villains in horror and franchise films. He had over 200 film credits.
Lee played Dr. Frankenstein's monster in the 1957 Hammer Horror film The Curse of Frankenstein and ended up co-starring with Peter Cushing in many other Hammer Horror films to follow. He gained fame for portraying Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, such as Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968), and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). He also played Kharis the Mummy in the 1959 film The Mummy, as well as Francisco Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun. He was also known for his role as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies as well as Dr. Wilbur Wonka in the 2005 family film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of several roles he played for director Tim Burton.
His Disney roles included Dr. Victor Gannon in Return from Witch Mountain, but he is most famous for doing the voice for Ansem the Wise in the Kingdom Hearts games Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He also provided the voice of the Jabberwocky in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Burton also used stock footage of Lee from one of his Dracula films was utilized in the 2012 animated feature film Frankenweenie. Additionally, he played Count Dooku in the last two installments of the prequel trilogy in the Star Wars franchise, and Count Ottakar Von Zhernin in The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: (Chapter 13) Adventures in the Secret Service.
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- His step-cousin Ian Fleming is the creator of James Bond.
- He was once considered for the role of Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit along with several other actors. But he refused and turned down the role.[1]
- He was also considered for the role of Barnaby in Babes in Toyland along with several other actors, but the role was later given to Ray Bolger.
- He was considered for the role of Magneto in X-Men (2000) along with David Hemblen and Terence Stamp, before losing the role to Sir Ian McKellen, his co-star in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.
- To maintain consistency with Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Lee's lines as Ansem the Wise was redubbed by Corey Burton for the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX version of 358/2 Days. Conversely, archive audio of Lee from Days was repurposed for the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX version of Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix.
- He has stated that if he hadn't become an actor he would've pursued a singing career.