Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93
Now this is extraordinarily sad news. Sir Christopher Lee, one of the greatest – and longest working – screen actors has died at the age of 93, sources close to the family announced (as reported by The Telegraph).
He died on Sunday at 8:30am at the Chelsea and Westminsters Hospital in London, after being treated for respiratory problems and heart failure for three weeks.
Lee first rose to fame in many of Hammer Horror’s output, starring as Dracula among others throughout the ’50s, before cementing his face as one of horror’s most memorable faces as the main antagonist Lord Summerisle in 1973’s The Wicker Man, as well as a Bond villain the following year in The Man With the Golden Gun. But his most memorable roles were to await him in the 21st century: he played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then as Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He was knighted in 2009, received a BAFTA fellowship in 2011, before reprising his role as Saruman in The Hobbit trilogy; he was due to begin shooting The 11th, an ensemble drama with Uma Thurman, come November.
He was also part of the SAS – but was always forbidden to talk about it. Sir Christopher Lee will go on to be remembered as an enduring part of cinema history in both the 20th and 21st century.