Lee’s legacy
CHRISTOPHER LEE 1922-2015 | Remembering the legendary screen icon through his own words.
When Christopher Lee died last month, aged 93, cinema lost a genuine icon. With his towering presence and booming delivery, Lee’s reinvention of Dracula in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s would be the role that defined his career, although the talented multihypenate (actor, conceptual musician) also made an impact on legions of fans in Bond ( The Man With The Golden Gun), Star Wars, Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth saga, and even Tim Burton’s recent films. As eloquent as his most charismatic characters, Lee was never lost for words...
ON HIS STATURE
“Most British stars flatly refused to have me anywhere near them in a film, because I was easily the tallest man around.”
ON VAMPIRES
“There are many vampires in the world today – you only have to think of the film business.”
OH HIS IMAGE
“I’m much softer than people think. I don’t present to the world an emotional face. I’m pretty good at self-control, but I am easily moved.”
ON BRITAIN
“In Britain, any degree of success is met with envy and resentment.”
ON BAD FILMS
“Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.”
ON PETER JACKSON
“Somebody once asked me how I found Peter Jackson and I said: ‘Well, I parted his hair, and there he was.’”
ON COMEDY
“Comedy is the most difficult thing to do.
Easily the most difficult.”
ON HEAVY METAL
“I associate heavy metal with fantasy because of the tremendous power that the music delivers.”
ON ACTING
“You can never be a proper actor without good instincts.”
ON HIS LEGACY
“What’s really important for me is, as an old man, I’m known by my own generation and the next generation know me, too.”