WEBVTT - Sir Christopher Lee 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class fun stuff 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:12.319 Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.480 Holly Fry and I'm Tracy. And it has become a 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.560 little bit of a tradition since Tracy and I have 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.360 been hosting the show that UH as we head into 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.280 the Halloween season, we usually do an episode or two 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.960 about the life of a famous horror actor. And this 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:29.720 year we lost a man of incredible stature and fame, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.120 Christopher Lee, And we don't usually cover someone that reaches 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.320 into the very recent past, but he was quite amazing 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.680 in a number of ways. Uh. He wasn't just a 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:41.360 famous star of the silver screen. He was, by any account, 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.760 a really amazing man. He spoke multiple languages, he was 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.199 an incredible singer, he was a skilled fencer, he was 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.599 great at golf. It's one of those things that when 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.440 he died, a lot of people asked us, oh, please 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.159 do an episode, and it didn't seem quite right to 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.360 jump on the dogpile of coverage of his life that 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.080 was going on. Then we didn't kind of do one 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.560 where it natchal more actually fit into our usual schedule 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:05.800 anyway of doing a horror actor. But He's so much 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:07.840 more than a horror actor. And what really makes him 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.920 interesting to me in context of this podcast is that 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:14.040 he was also at many intersections of sort of famous 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.400 historical events, and he was tied through family to numerous 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:21.720 famous historical figures. So today we're going to talk about 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.160 the life of Christopher Lee. Christopher Frank karendin E Lee 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.440 was born on May seven, nineteen twenty two, in London's 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.560 Bell Gravy neighborhood, and she would decidedly upscale household. His 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.720 mother was Italian and she was the Contessa Estelle Marie. 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.399 Through his mother's noble line in Italy, we had a 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.280 lot of connections that were basically as we just referred to, 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.240 went back to very important historical figures. Estella was a 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.760 distant relative through marriage of the Borges and Prince Alexander 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:58.160 of Battenberg. Queen Victoria's grandson was Christopher's godfather, and his father, 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.760 Jeffrey Lee, was a soldier that had served in the 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.960 Boer War and World War One, and Jeffrey and Estell 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.080 had two children together to Christopher and his older sister Xandra. 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:10.880 But Jeffrey had some gambling problems and because of those, 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.760 the marriage turned sour and the couple separated in nineteen 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:16.680 twenty six, so Christopher would have only been a small 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.440 boy of four at that point. Estelle moved to Sweden 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.760 with the children, and two years later the divorce was finalized. 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.440 The contessa and her children moved back to London and 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.160 leave mother remarried, taking Harcourt George sank Qui Rose as 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.519 her second husband. He was a banker, and when Christopher 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:37.919 was seventeen, his stepfather went bankrupt and his mother's second 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.360 marriage fell apart, kind of all presumably related, and he 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.200 ended his school at Wellington College, and he had actually 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.240 attended Wellington because the family was already having trouble before 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.600 this and couldn't afford to enroll him at Eton, even 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.240 though he had passed the entrance exams and had been 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:55.800 admitted there, And so once he stopped his schooling, he 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:57.959 got a job working as a city clerk to help 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:02.200 make ends meet. That's same year, which was nineteen thirty nine. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.560 Lee was also present at a unique historical event which 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.000 was the last public execution by guillotine, and that took 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.600 place in France on June seventeenth of that year. Eugene 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:15.840 Wideman was put to death for multiple murders and kidnappings, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.520 and Lee was there in the crowd. He apparently was 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:22.080 something of an execution buff and he allegedly memorized the 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.720 names of all public executioners employed by England going back 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:31.320 for centuries. Yeah, that's a whole interesting story in and 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.920 of itself, and I would kind of love to cover 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.200 that particular execution because it is unique and that we 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.360 have pictures of it, which is not normally the case. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.400 Because the crowd was so unruly that it took longer 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.440 than expected and the sun came up so people could 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:49.000 actually get good photographs. Uh. So it's that's a whole 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.080 fascinating event and he was there for that. Uh And 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.240 in nineteen thirty nine, Christopher also volunteered with Finnish forces 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.880 that were fighting in World War Two. Many British soldiers did. 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.600 He didn't see any actual fighting. He was stationed in 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.720 said instead with the rest of the British volunteers at 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:09.000 a safely removed from the action guard duty assignment, and 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.400 he later worked in the military as an office clerk 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.840 and switchboard operator. In two Lee enlisted with the Royal 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.200 Air Force. He couldn't fly because he had vision problems. 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.159 Though consequently he worked as an intelligence officer for the 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:26.320 Long Range Desert Control during World War Two. Primarily this 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.520 was in North Africa and Italy and during his time 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:34.719 and intelligence, after a while he was selected for Churchill's 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.560 Elite Special Operations Group, and this is known by the 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.000 best nickname of all time, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Uh. 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.600 And while the work of this unit is still classified, 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.359 Lee did speak on several occasions throughout his life about 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.360 having witnessed some very terrible things during this time and 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.640 having had to harden himself to it. And he was 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:56.960 so sort of self aware that you could tell he 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.240 really trying to kind of reconcile this, you know, having 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.400 to to both be someone who was hardened to things 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.600 like that and also be very compassionate person. And it's 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.719 one of those things that, uh, it's easy to think 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.280 of sort of this kind of activity, this uh, you know, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.159 Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in terms of the Christopher Lee 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.919 that we've seen playing villains in films. But keep in 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.560 mind that he was really barely out of you know, 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:26.480 boyhood at this point. He was in his very early 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.960 twenties during the war. After the war ended, he was 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.040 part of a unit that was tasked with investigating war crimes. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.880 In part because his flew of his fluency and multiple languages, 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.159 his group was tasked with tracking war criminals, and in 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:45.360 nineteen forty six, his military career concluded. And coming up, 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:47.560 we're going to talk about the career that made Lee 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.640 a household name. But first let's have a word from 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.760 one of the great sponsors that keeps the show going. 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.960 In ninety seven, Christopher Lee switched fields completely when he 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.160 opted to pursue an acting career. And he had been 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.680 offered a desk job with his pre war employer when 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.719 World War Two had ended and he had finalized his 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:09.000 military career, but he actually turned that job down. And 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.440 this move into acting was against the wishes of his mother. 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.760 She really felt that acting was for people of questionable morals. 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.919 In part, this turn into acting was influenced by Christopher 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:24.600 Lee's relative, Nicolo Carandini. He used his business and political 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.560 influence as an Italian ambassador to Great Britain to convince 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.000 his friend Felippo del Gudach, who ran a film studio, 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:35.520 to get Christopher a seven year contract with the Rank 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.800 Entertainment Group. But even though Rank made the deal, the 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.159 prevailion of the prevailing opinion was that Christopher Lee was 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.000 too tall to be an actor. Later in his life 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:46.960 he would say like he would say that that's like 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:51.400 saying you're too short to play the piano. Indeed, and 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.200 he was certainly handsome, and he was an English gentleman 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.960 to the core, but he really struggled to find leading 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.520 man roles. He was told, as we just mentioned, that 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:03.200 his high which was six five almost two meters and 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:07.440 his dark skin would not make him a believable English 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.440 gentleman in film. So he was cast constantly as outsiders 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.400 and villains. If there was a non Caucasian character in 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.040 a film. This was remember at a time when films 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:21.000 often did not seek out actors that were actually from 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:26.240 the um background that they were the character was, he 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.240 would always get cast in those. So if there was 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:31.840 an Arab, if there was a uh a Latino character, 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.600 basically anything that was not a white English gentleman, they 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:37.320 would just give it to Christopher Lee. To get an 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:41.559 acting education. Lee first performed in repertory theater productions with Rank, 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.840 but these stage pays, we're really not to his liking. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:48.160 He floundered in front of a live audience and in 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.600 one instance got laughter when he wasn't supposed to, when 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:53.600 he accidentally put his hand through a part of the 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:55.640 set that was supposed to be a window with glass 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:58.200 in it. Yeah, it was just one of those moments 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:00.880 of absurdity and kind of confusion, and he really, as 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.760 you can, I can't imagine how how Christopher Lee would 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:05.960 react to being laughed at, particularly when he was a 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:10.720 younger man. Um And this next story I will explain 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.560 why I tell it because it's a little, uh, not 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.680 really off color, but it's it's body humor. As part 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.960 of the Rank Organization's youth company, which was also colloquial 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.800 called colloquially called the Charm School, he also appeared on 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.080 the BBC magazine program Kaleidoscope a couple of times, and 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.680 in these cases, these young actors would act out charades 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.400 that were designed to represent a word that viewers were 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:34.959 supposed to guess. It was kind of like an at 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.480 home play along part of the show. And apparently, uh 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:40.160 he only did this couple of times, but one of 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.079 the most famous and unintentionally funny appearances that he made 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.680 on the show happened because when Lee, who was playing 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.000 a police commissioner, stormed into the scene to chastise an 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.400 actor who was playing an inspector, the other actor, Richard Molinas, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.200 had a terrible case of gas, possibly because he was nervous, 0:08:56.480 --> 0:08:59.200 and he began farting audibly for several minutes while they 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.760 played the rest of the scene. And I don't usually 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.680 like like gassy bodily function humor, but the thought of 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.880 Taul Elegance or Christopher Lee, as a young man trying 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:10.280 to keep a straight face through such an ordeal kind 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.640 of cracks me up. It just seems so incongruous with 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:18.120 who he is in my mind. Lee also got swordplay 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.440 training as a member of Ranks Charm School, and he 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.080 was really good at it, so that would go on 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.360 to serve him for the rest of his theatrical career. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.320 And The Many Faces of Christopher Lee, which is a 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:31.240 biographical documentary that was released in he said that he 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.600 believed he had been in more sword fights on screen 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.839 than any other actor. He was also extremely frank that 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.319 in many instances he got carved up a bit. His 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.520 primary advice was that you always have to make things 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:48.160 feel like you'd truly like to harm the other person. Yeah, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.960 in terms of physical acting, he really went for it, 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:56.120 and he you know, that's dangerous, so sometimes he got hurt. Uh. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.480 He got his first film work the year after he 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.640 had made the decision to become an act or. He 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.080 played a very small part in a film about sort 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:07.000 of this Gothic romance that crossed multiple reincarnations called Corridor 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:09.520 of Mirrors, and that same year he also had a 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.960 small uncredited role in the Lawrence Olivier adaptation of Hamlet. 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.040 He got his big break when he was cast in 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.880 his first Hammer film, which was the Curse of Frankenstein. 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:24.000 This was a nineteen fifty seven He acted alongside Peter Cushing, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.000 who played Victor Frankenstein. The best of friends. The two 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.240 of them was star in numerous Hammer films together throughout 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.280 their careers. You know, the first ten years of his 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.360 career really he was just taking every party could, kind 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.440 of paying his dues, working in the trenches, doing all 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.360 the work. And then this opportunity came up and it 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:49.160 really made him instantly famous. Um later, when Christopher Lee 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.920 described the experience of getting into makeup for this part 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.600 to a journalist. He said, quote when I was in 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.160 full makeup as the creature, which was pretty unattractive. Somebody 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:00.800 said I looked like a road accident for a character 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.240 who's put together from bits and pieces of other people, 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.160 that's a very good description. In ninety eight, Least starred 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.240 in Horror of Dracula, which was released in Great Britain 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.800 simply as Dracula. This was the first of nine films 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.120 in which he would play the famous vampire, ten if 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.440 you count his uncredited appearance in the comedy One More Time, 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:23.320 which came out in nineteen seventy. But after the first 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.120 two of his Dracula films, he told his agent that 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:28.640 he just didn't want to do it anymore. He felt 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.040 like the writing was clumsy and it was just kind 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.240 of shoving the character into various scenarios without any real creativity. 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:37.120 And when he told the studio he didn't want to 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.440 play the famous vampire anymore, there was a huge uproar. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.160 The head of the studio called the actor completely frantic. 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.200 So the person he's talking about here is is a 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.960 hammer big wig named Jimmy Carreras. And so he says, 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:53.640 I got a frantic telephone call from Jimmy Carreras, saying 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.240 I already sold it to the American distributor with you 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.880 playing the part, and he said something I've never for 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.040 gotten because it was sheer blackmail. Think of the people 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.480 you're putting out of work. That's the only reason I 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.800 did the last few draculas. I didn't want to be 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.040 the reason for a hundred people not working. Yeah, that's 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:16.920 such a weasily way to pressure somebody. Um In Lee 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.520 started another Hammer film as the lead in the Mummy 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.640 and his nineteen sixty six performances Resputing in Resputing the 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.520 Mad Monk is also another one that is almost always 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.040 mentioned anytime you see like an abbreviated list of his 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.400 incredibly long career, and that's one that has a really 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:36.080 interesting and surreal historical connection because Lee had actually met 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:40.080 Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch, the two men 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.440 who assassinated Resputing in real life when he was just 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.280 a child. While Lee initially made his name in horror, 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:51.000 he was not enthusiastic about how that genre developed over 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.920 the years, and a two thousand one interview with The 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.400 Guardians Will Hodgkinson, he said there have been some absolutely 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:03.559 ghastly films recently physically repellent. What we did was fantasy, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.640 fairy tales. No real person can copy what we did, 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.120 but they can do what Hannibal Lecter does if they're 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.439 so inclined, So people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilson, 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.880 and for that reason, I think such films are dangerous. 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.040 Christopher Lee often played villains. I don't think that's any 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.880 big secrets. But what really made him special is that 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.400 he had this uncanny ability to make viewers kind of 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.240 root for the bad guy. His his personas were always 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:34.360 so incredibly compelling. So he famously, of course played Scaramanga 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:36.640 in The Man with the Golden Gun, and he did 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.480 this in a way that was just this cool, unflappable 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:44.240 and refined uh characterization. And even as he's, you know, 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.440 in that movie, constructing a gun right in front of 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:49.880 a man he's planning to shoot, he's just completely chill 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.160 and relaxed, and he was so charming, and he is 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:55.040 often cited in that film is sort of playing a 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.720 dark counter to Roger Moore's Bond, So he's like the 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:00.920 anti James Bond. He has all the same attributes, but 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.319 he is on the dark side of it. Incidentally, Lee 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.840 was a cousin of James Bond author Ian Fleming through marriage, 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:10.280 and he was the author's first choice to play Doctor No, 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:14.520 although the studio had already made their choice before Fleming 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.160 made this desire known to them. Yeah, he's just connected 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:22.000 to everything. Uh. In one Lee married twenty six year 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.920 old Danish model and actress Brigie Cranky, and unlike many 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.200 showed his couples, they stayed together until the end of 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.480 Lee's life. They also had one daughter together, Christina, and 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:35.280 by all accounts, Christopher Lee was a completely devoted husband 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.880 and father, and he was very protective of his private life. 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.440 He definitely did not believe in voyeuristic celebrity culture, and 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:43.520 his wife and daughters survive him. So we are not 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:45.600 out of respect for him. We're not going to go 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.880 into their story too much. While filming Dracula Has Risen 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.840 from the Grave. In the nineteen sixties, Lee was deeply 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.480 dismayed when British government officials came to Pinewood Studios to 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.080 bestow an honor on the Hammer Pictures Company. As the 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.200 officials arrived, he was in full Dracula mode and he 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.120 was mounted on a giant cross, and that was what 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.080 they saw when they walked in. So he didn't feel 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:14.360 like that was really the ideal introduction for a gentleman. Yeah, 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.360 he was very dismay ad how that timing played out. Uh. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.200 He did eventually use his standing and influence at Hammer 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.400 to bring in a cult thriller author Dennis Wheatley to 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:26.560 work on adaptations of his novels for the studio, and 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.440 this proved to be both a feather in his cap 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.280 and eventually something of a disaster. So the studio first 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:34.480 produced The Devil Rides Out with Wheatly. That is often 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.240 regarded as the best film the studio ever produced. It's 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.120 a tale based on satan worship among high society types 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.640 and men of diplomatic power, and it was intended, according 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.440 to Lee, to warn of the dangers of Satanism. But 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.360 in ninety six Hammer worked with Wheatly on a film 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.360 called to the Devil a Daughter, and that project was 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:56.160 not a success. It made money, but Wheatley was unhappy 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.360 with it and distanced himself from the production. It was 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.160 also the last horror film and the glorious mid mid 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:08.600 century run that Hammer Studios had, and It's a common joke, 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:10.960 of course, that actors get a new script and the 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.040 first thing they do is count their lines before they 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.720 do anything else, Like they run through and see how 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.680 many lines your character has. But Lee really broke the 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.120 mold in this regard. He was known, in fact, for 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.240 cutting many of his lines in his horror roles. He 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.320 said that he would rather cut his own dialogue than 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.200 speak a line that he felt was poorly written, and 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.920 as a consequence, in the nineteen sixty six film Dracula 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:34.680 Prince of Darkness, he didn't speak a word, although he 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:36.920 did his from time to time. He just thought the 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.040 writing was so abysmal. He refused to say any of 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.760 those lines. But just the same he is still incredibly mesmerizing. 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.760 Writer Mark Kermode wrote in a Guardian piece after Lee 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.160 died that when they had worked on a project called 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.080 Fear in the Dark Together, for which Lee provided narration, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.280 the actor wasn't the least bit shy about giving notes 0:16:55.320 --> 0:17:00.440 about the writing. Hermode described the corrections as polite but strong, 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.360 which is the way many people seemed to characterize him 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.360 in a variety of different scenarios. Yeah, I think Lee 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.880 was a gentleman, but he really. Uh was willing to 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.280 to voice his opinion, especially when it was important to him. 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.199 In nineteen seventy three, he started a film called The 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.359 wicker Man, and this film became a cult classic. Uh 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:22.480 Lee considered it to be some of his best work, 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:24.280 and in it he played a man named Lord summer 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.720 Isle who ran an island of pagans where ritual practices 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.280 were part of the normal routine. And the setup is 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.800 that a policeman goes to investigate some of what's going 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.560 on in the island and things go very poorly from there. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.280 But even though the movie gained a following, British Lion, 0:17:39.359 --> 0:17:42.240 which is the production company behind it, had no love 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.120 for that particular child. Studio executives thought it was so 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.200 bad that they heavily edited it into a shorter version 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.159 and released it basically as a B film on a 0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:55.720 double on a double bill with Don't Look Now. But 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.639 Lee really defended the film and he crusaded for it 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:00.800 to get the attention that he felt deserved. He felt 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:02.800 really strongly that they had made a great film and 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.200 what came out was not it. Years later, the film 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:08.680 was partially restored thanks to his efforts, and it was 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.280 hailed as one of the most important and impressive horror 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:14.800 films of all time. But even so, Lee always felt 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:16.920 that there was a more complete cut of that film 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.320 that existed somewhere and was even greater than the one 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.840 that critics and audiences eventually loved. In nineteen seventy seven, 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.800 Lee moved to Los Angeles to sort of change things 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:31.640 up and look for new opportunities. One of these opportunities 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.199 came in the form of hosting Saturday Night Live. This 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:37.480 was during the Belushi, Murray, and Ackroid era, and the 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:40.440 Englishman held his own with all of basically the people 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.200 who were regarded as the best comedians of the day. 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:45.960 It was calculated in a way because he wanted the 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.240 American entertainment industry to know that he could play funny. 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.080 It really paid off in part due to the Saturday 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.760 Night Live appearance. He landed a role in Steven Spielberg's 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.680 forty one. He was also offered the role that eventually 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.879 went to Leslie Nielsen and Airplane. He wound up turning 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.560 that down, which he later regretted. Yeah, it was kind 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:07.679 of a nice change of pace. I think, you know, 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.800 everyone had seen him in these horror roles, and they 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:14.040 took him very seriously and he was just frightening, villainous figure. 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.399 But he was very funny and if you can go 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.119 to YouTube and search for his SNL appearances, there are 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.000 a lot of small clips of it. And he's incredibly witty. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.960 He has great timing, uh and he worked pretty consistently 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.600 on TV and film projects after his move to the US, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.800 So he worked in comedies and dramas alike, in everything 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.199 from Return to Witch Mountain to Sherlock Holmes in The 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.639 Leading Lady. And we're going to talk about his incredibly 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.480 prolific next stage of his career in just a moment, 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.520 but first let's have a word from one of our 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:48.280 fabulous sponsors. So one of the pivotal, although unseen by many, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.919 roles in Lee's career, came in when he started as 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.639 the father of Pakistan. That's Mohammed al Ali Jenna and 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:59.440 the film Jenna. When he was speaking at the College 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.080 of dubl It in eleven, he said that this was 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.680 the most important thing he'd ever done. Although it wasn't 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:09.000 theatrically released outside of Pakistan, Lee believed that the limited 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.600 release was due to the fact that his character's speeches 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.040 told the people of Pakistan that they were free to 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:18.359 follow and practice whatever religions they wished, and some person 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.360 or group didn't want that information seen by the rest 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.200 of the world. For context in an inordinately simplified way. 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.400 It's not interminently for context, in an extremely simplified way. 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:34.800 Mohammed Ali Jenna separated Pakistan from India after religious conflict 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.760 between Hendy's and Muslims. Yeah, and there are copies of 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.600 that film floating about like you can't find it if 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.360 you really go looking, but it is difficult, uh. And 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.680 it's interesting because one of the other things he said 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.320 in interviews throughout the years about what was very difficult 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:52.920 about that was that it was a person who had 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.080 lived and lived recently, so he felt like there was 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:58.480 additional pressure to be really spot on and it really 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.000 raised his game and he is amazing in it. Uh. 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.480 In a nod tid Lee's Hammer career, director Tim Burton 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:08.760 cast a very tall actor in Sleepy Hollow, which came out. 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:11.680 And what's really great is that if you listen to 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:14.840 the director's commentary on that film, there is a large 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.600 chunk where Burton spends just all of this time sort 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.320 of being awed at the fact that the Christopher Lee's 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.160 in his movie, he's such a fanboy, and it's very charming, 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:27.520 and since Burton already at this point has had a 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.360 hugely successful career, it's a nice reminder of just how 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.680