The Christopher Lee Fan Page

Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was born in Belgravia, London, on 27 May 1922. (Lee's mother's family, the Carandinis, are one of the oldest in Italy.) Following the divorce of his parents in 1928, life became difficult his mother remarried, only to face further difficulties when her second husband became bankrupt. "He was drunk. every night and lost every penny," Lee recalls. His mother divorced his stepfather, with far-reaching consequences: "The money went totally. My mother was left at the age of fifty with two teenage children and nothing."
Lee was forced to abandon a promising academic career, leaving Wellington College in 1939, a year before he was due to complete his studies. He took several mundane jobs to help support his struggling family, before joining the RAF in 1941. The remainder of his war was dominated by intelligence work, for which he was mentioned in dispatches. He returned to civilian life in 1946 and, ignoring his mother's advice to avoid the acting profession ("Think of all the appalling people you will meet!"), secured a seven-year contract with Rank. Notable among his earliest films was a gatecrashed role as an extra in Olivier's Hamlet and a brief scene in John Huston's Moulin Rouge. Although Peter Cushing also appeared in both films, he didn't share a scene with Lee in either.
The early fifties proved difficult for Lee after the Rank charm school 'let him go': "They would send me, and others, to see some of their contract directors and producers. They would say, 'Well, nobody's ever heard of you, you've got no experience- you're too tall, you're too foreign-looking…’ Lee said. Lee found acting work wherever he could, at one point subsidizing his income with a stint as an interpreter in the export department of Simpson's in Piccadilly
The years of experience eventually paid off: "Between 1947 and 1957, I had learned. And when the time came for me to play a role of consequence, I was ready." Hammer's "The Curse of Frankenstein" and " Horror of Dracula" brought him leading parts and global recognition. They also established his personal and professional relationship With Peter Cushing - the two men became close friends and frequent co-stars in subsequent films by Hammer and their contemporaries.
Dracula threatened to sideline Lee's career as soon as it took off. Mindful of the typecasting that had overshadowed Bela Lugosi, he took on diverse roles in films across Europe. One of them, The Devil's Daffodil, taxed even his mastery of language: "You tell me, how do you play a Chinese detective in German?"
The man Hammer press releases described as "London's most eligible film bachelor" married Dutch model Birgit Kroencke on 17 March 1961 and the couple spent part of their honeymoon as guests of James Carreras and his wife, Vera. Mr. and Mrs. Lee emigrated to Vaud in Switzerland in 1962, Christopher taking the opportunity to expand his career and escape Britain's punishing taxation. Their only child, Christina, was born 23 November 1963.
In recent years, Lee has starred in "The Lord of the Rings" and "Star Wars" films, as well as a part in the remake of "Willy Wonka" in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".
** Christopher Lee's bio above was taken from the fabulous book "The Hammer Story" **
FUN FACTS:
Lee has played roles in over 220 films since 1948
In 2001, Christopher Lee was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II.[2]
Lee was named 2005's 'most marketable star in the world' in a USA Today newspaper poll, after three of the films he appeared in grossed $640 million dollars.