RIP Sir Christopher Lee

[Swatopluk]

So much about our information age. I stumbled only by chance over the sad news that

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ

has died already on June 7th without me noticing.

Looks like he was the last of the old Horror guard to go.

Of course it would be wrong to reduce him to his work in horror flicks or, worse, just the role of Dracula.

He did so much more and was one of those guys that could show real screen PRESENCE even when not doing much (and he was sadly often just a bit player in films that had his role in the title).

He was related to Ian Fleming (James Bond) and at least one Bond villain was modelled after him (but someones took the role, he got the chance only later with The Man with the Golden Gun).

He knew both Tolkien and Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast).

He met one of Raputin's assassins (as a kid)

He died so often in movies that his daughter used to greet him coming home with "How did you die today, daddy?"

He achieved with his role as Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) the same as Ben Kingsley with Gandhi, he was mistaken by inhabitants of the subcontinent for the real person come back to life (and as with Kingsley his photographs get occasionally mistaken and used for the real person too). He considered it his most important role ever.

By all accounts he was a very likable man with little in common with the bad guys he so notoriously had to play.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

The news stunned me today, he was a mighty actor and it is incredible how active he was even not long ago. He will be missed.

[Griffin NoName]

I never liked the horror films. But it is an end of an era.



We have also lost a real nice lovely good politician - Charles Kennedy. One time leader of the Liiberal Democrats.

[Swatopluk]

Seems Lee had it even worse than Price (Vincent not Dennis) as far as perception is concerned. According to one count (no pun intended) only 5-6% of Lee's roles were in horror films.
Heavily depends on what counts as horror though. Do slapstick vampire comedies (he did two of those, both outside Britain) count (again no pun intended)?

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Ask that to Sir Alec Guinness who hated the idea of being remembered by his Star Wars role.

[Griffin NoName]

Surely Alec Guinness will always be remembered for the Ealing Comedies? Or even TV series Smiley's People (John le Carre) in which he was also superb.

[Swatopluk]

Karloff on the other hand seems not to have cared.
But his approach was quite pragmatic. He too is remembered by those who knew him as extremly likable (in Targets he is said to be more or less himself).
But one things seems clear: Now the old guard is really gone.

[Griffin NoName]

Not while we still have Sir Ian McKellen

[Swatopluk]

Not while we still have Sir Ian McKellen

Old Guard? That whippersnapper?  Barely older than John Cleese

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Kirk Douglas is still alive and he is older, also Stan Lee who is seven months younger, and Betty White is 4 months older and still active.

And from the same decade: Mel Brooks, Sidney Poitier, Roger Moore, Martin Landau and Max von Sydow.

There are still a few old timers doing the rounds.

[Swatopluk]

Poitier is still around? Didn't know that.

Anybody born after September 1st 1939 can't be old guard

We will have to go to 'hasn't played in a traditional b/w movie' one day though (i.e. modern b/w for colour does not count*)

*doesn't say anything about the quality. I love me some neo-b/w-s and even neo-silents (take that Spanish bullfighting Snow White for example).

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

MVS did The 7th Seal, what more do you want, silent movies? 

[Swatopluk]

There are still a lot of actors that have acted in b/w movies still. As I said it WILL become the measure of old-guard-ity ONE DAY, not to-day yet. 

[Swatopluk]

And now Omar Sharif has gone too.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]