Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class fun stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Holly Fry and I'm Tracy. And it has become a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tradition since Tracy and I have
Speaker 1: been hosting the show that UH as we head into
Speaker 1: the Halloween season, we usually do an episode or two
Speaker 1: about the life of a famous horror actor. And this
Speaker 1: year we lost a man of incredible stature and fame,
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee, And we don't usually cover someone that reaches
Speaker 1: into the very recent past, but he was quite amazing
Speaker 1: in a number of ways. Uh. He wasn't just a
Speaker 1: famous star of the silver screen. He was, by any account,
Speaker 1: a really amazing man. He spoke multiple languages, he was
Speaker 1: an incredible singer, he was a skilled fencer, he was
Speaker 1: great at golf. It's one of those things that when
Speaker 1: he died, a lot of people asked us, oh, please
Speaker 1: do an episode, and it didn't seem quite right to
Speaker 1: jump on the dogpile of coverage of his life that
Speaker 1: was going on. Then we didn't kind of do one
Speaker 1: where it natchal more actually fit into our usual schedule
Speaker 1: anyway of doing a horror actor. But He's so much
Speaker 1: more than a horror actor. And what really makes him
Speaker 1: interesting to me in context of this podcast is that
Speaker 1: he was also at many intersections of sort of famous
Speaker 1: historical events, and he was tied through family to numerous
Speaker 1: famous historical figures. So today we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the life of Christopher Lee. Christopher Frank karendin E Lee
Speaker 1: was born on May seven, nineteen twenty two, in London's
Speaker 1: Bell Gravy neighborhood, and she would decidedly upscale household. His
Speaker 1: mother was Italian and she was the Contessa Estelle Marie.
Speaker 1: Through his mother's noble line in Italy, we had a
Speaker 1: lot of connections that were basically as we just referred to,
Speaker 1: went back to very important historical figures. Estella was a
Speaker 1: distant relative through marriage of the Borges and Prince Alexander
Speaker 1: of Battenberg. Queen Victoria's grandson was Christopher's godfather, and his father,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Lee, was a soldier that had served in the
Speaker 1: Boer War and World War One, and Jeffrey and Estell
Speaker 1: had two children together to Christopher and his older sister Xandra.
Speaker 1: But Jeffrey had some gambling problems and because of those,
Speaker 1: the marriage turned sour and the couple separated in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty six, so Christopher would have only been a small
Speaker 1: boy of four at that point. Estelle moved to Sweden
Speaker 1: with the children, and two years later the divorce was finalized.
Speaker 1: The contessa and her children moved back to London and
Speaker 1: leave mother remarried, taking Harcourt George sank Qui Rose as
Speaker 1: her second husband. He was a banker, and when Christopher
Speaker 1: was seventeen, his stepfather went bankrupt and his mother's second
Speaker 1: marriage fell apart, kind of all presumably related, and he
Speaker 1: ended his school at Wellington College, and he had actually
Speaker 1: attended Wellington because the family was already having trouble before
Speaker 1: this and couldn't afford to enroll him at Eton, even
Speaker 1: though he had passed the entrance exams and had been
Speaker 1: admitted there, And so once he stopped his schooling, he
Speaker 1: got a job working as a city clerk to help
Speaker 1: make ends meet. That's same year, which was nineteen thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Lee was also present at a unique historical event which
Speaker 1: was the last public execution by guillotine, and that took
Speaker 1: place in France on June seventeenth of that year. Eugene
Speaker 1: Wideman was put to death for multiple murders and kidnappings,
Speaker 1: and Lee was there in the crowd. He apparently was
Speaker 1: something of an execution buff and he allegedly memorized the
Speaker 1: names of all public executioners employed by England going back
Speaker 1: for centuries. Yeah, that's a whole interesting story in and
Speaker 1: of itself, and I would kind of love to cover
Speaker 1: that particular execution because it is unique and that we
Speaker 1: have pictures of it, which is not normally the case.
Speaker 1: Because the crowd was so unruly that it took longer
Speaker 1: than expected and the sun came up so people could
Speaker 1: actually get good photographs. Uh. So it's that's a whole
Speaker 1: fascinating event and he was there for that. Uh And
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine, Christopher also volunteered with Finnish forces
Speaker 1: that were fighting in World War Two. Many British soldiers did.
Speaker 1: He didn't see any actual fighting. He was stationed in
Speaker 1: said instead with the rest of the British volunteers at
Speaker 1: a safely removed from the action guard duty assignment, and
Speaker 1: he later worked in the military as an office clerk
Speaker 1: and switchboard operator. In two Lee enlisted with the Royal
Speaker 1: Air Force. He couldn't fly because he had vision problems.
Speaker 1: Though consequently he worked as an intelligence officer for the
Speaker 1: Long Range Desert Control during World War Two. Primarily this
Speaker 1: was in North Africa and Italy and during his time
Speaker 1: and intelligence, after a while he was selected for Churchill's
Speaker 1: Elite Special Operations Group, and this is known by the
Speaker 1: best nickname of all time, the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Uh.
Speaker 1: And while the work of this unit is still classified,
Speaker 1: Lee did speak on several occasions throughout his life about
Speaker 1: having witnessed some very terrible things during this time and
Speaker 1: having had to harden himself to it. And he was
Speaker 1: so sort of self aware that you could tell he
Speaker 1: really trying to kind of reconcile this, you know, having
Speaker 1: to to both be someone who was hardened to things
Speaker 1: like that and also be very compassionate person. And it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that, uh, it's easy to think
Speaker 1: of sort of this kind of activity, this uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in terms of the Christopher Lee
Speaker 1: that we've seen playing villains in films. But keep in
Speaker 1: mind that he was really barely out of you know,
Speaker 1: boyhood at this point. He was in his very early
Speaker 1: twenties during the war. After the war ended, he was
Speaker 1: part of a unit that was tasked with investigating war crimes.
Speaker 1: In part because his flew of his fluency and multiple languages,
Speaker 1: his group was tasked with tracking war criminals, and in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty six, his military career concluded. And coming up,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about the career that made Lee
Speaker 1: a household name. But first let's have a word from
Speaker 1: one of the great sponsors that keeps the show going.
Speaker 1: In ninety seven, Christopher Lee switched fields completely when he
Speaker 1: opted to pursue an acting career. And he had been
Speaker 1: offered a desk job with his pre war employer when
Speaker 1: World War Two had ended and he had finalized his
Speaker 1: military career, but he actually turned that job down. And
Speaker 1: this move into acting was against the wishes of his mother.
Speaker 1: She really felt that acting was for people of questionable morals.
Speaker 1: In part, this turn into acting was influenced by Christopher
Speaker 1: Lee's relative, Nicolo Carandini. He used his business and political
Speaker 1: influence as an Italian ambassador to Great Britain to convince
Speaker 1: his friend Felippo del Gudach, who ran a film studio,
Speaker 1: to get Christopher a seven year contract with the Rank
Speaker 1: Entertainment Group. But even though Rank made the deal, the
Speaker 1: prevailion of the prevailing opinion was that Christopher Lee was
Speaker 1: too tall to be an actor. Later in his life
Speaker 1: he would say like he would say that that's like
Speaker 1: saying you're too short to play the piano. Indeed, and
Speaker 1: he was certainly handsome, and he was an English gentleman
Speaker 1: to the core, but he really struggled to find leading
Speaker 1: man roles. He was told, as we just mentioned, that
Speaker 1: his high which was six five almost two meters and
Speaker 1: his dark skin would not make him a believable English
Speaker 1: gentleman in film. So he was cast constantly as outsiders
Speaker 1: and villains. If there was a non Caucasian character in
Speaker 1: a film. This was remember at a time when films
Speaker 1: often did not seek out actors that were actually from
Speaker 1: the um background that they were the character was, he
Speaker 1: would always get cast in those. So if there was
Speaker 1: an Arab, if there was a uh a Latino character,
Speaker 1: basically anything that was not a white English gentleman, they
Speaker 1: would just give it to Christopher Lee. To get an
Speaker 1: acting education. Lee first performed in repertory theater productions with Rank,
Speaker 1: but these stage pays, we're really not to his liking.
Speaker 1: He floundered in front of a live audience and in
Speaker 1: one instance got laughter when he wasn't supposed to, when
Speaker 1: he accidentally put his hand through a part of the
Speaker 1: set that was supposed to be a window with glass
Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, it was just one of those moments
Speaker 1: of absurdity and kind of confusion, and he really, as
Speaker 1: you can, I can't imagine how how Christopher Lee would
Speaker 1: react to being laughed at, particularly when he was a
Speaker 1: younger man. Um And this next story I will explain
Speaker 1: why I tell it because it's a little, uh, not
Speaker 1: really off color, but it's it's body humor. As part
Speaker 1: of the Rank Organization's youth company, which was also colloquial
Speaker 1: called colloquially called the Charm School, he also appeared on
Speaker 1: the BBC magazine program Kaleidoscope a couple of times, and
Speaker 1: in these cases, these young actors would act out charades
Speaker 1: that were designed to represent a word that viewers were
Speaker 1: supposed to guess. It was kind of like an at
Speaker 1: home play along part of the show. And apparently, uh
Speaker 1: he only did this couple of times, but one of
Speaker 1: the most famous and unintentionally funny appearances that he made
Speaker 1: on the show happened because when Lee, who was playing
Speaker 1: a police commissioner, stormed into the scene to chastise an
Speaker 1: actor who was playing an inspector, the other actor, Richard Molinas,
Speaker 1: had a terrible case of gas, possibly because he was nervous,
Speaker 1: and he began farting audibly for several minutes while they
Speaker 1: played the rest of the scene. And I don't usually
Speaker 1: like like gassy bodily function humor, but the thought of
Speaker 1: Taul Elegance or Christopher Lee, as a young man trying
Speaker 1: to keep a straight face through such an ordeal kind
Speaker 1: of cracks me up. It just seems so incongruous with
Speaker 1: who he is in my mind. Lee also got swordplay
Speaker 1: training as a member of Ranks Charm School, and he
Speaker 1: was really good at it, so that would go on
Speaker 1: to serve him for the rest of his theatrical career.
Speaker 1: And The Many Faces of Christopher Lee, which is a
Speaker 1: biographical documentary that was released in he said that he
Speaker 1: believed he had been in more sword fights on screen
Speaker 1: than any other actor. He was also extremely frank that
Speaker 1: in many instances he got carved up a bit. His
Speaker 1: primary advice was that you always have to make things
Speaker 1: feel like you'd truly like to harm the other person. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in terms of physical acting, he really went for it,
Speaker 1: and he you know, that's dangerous, so sometimes he got hurt. Uh.
Speaker 1: He got his first film work the year after he
Speaker 1: had made the decision to become an act or. He
Speaker 1: played a very small part in a film about sort
Speaker 1: of this Gothic romance that crossed multiple reincarnations called Corridor
Speaker 1: of Mirrors, and that same year he also had a
Speaker 1: small uncredited role in the Lawrence Olivier adaptation of Hamlet.
Speaker 1: He got his big break when he was cast in
Speaker 1: his first Hammer film, which was the Curse of Frankenstein.
Speaker 1: This was a nineteen fifty seven He acted alongside Peter Cushing,
Speaker 1: who played Victor Frankenstein. The best of friends. The two
Speaker 1: of them was star in numerous Hammer films together throughout
Speaker 1: their careers. You know, the first ten years of his
Speaker 1: career really he was just taking every party could, kind
Speaker 1: of paying his dues, working in the trenches, doing all
Speaker 1: the work. And then this opportunity came up and it
Speaker 1: really made him instantly famous. Um later, when Christopher Lee
Speaker 1: described the experience of getting into makeup for this part
Speaker 1: to a journalist. He said, quote when I was in
Speaker 1: full makeup as the creature, which was pretty unattractive. Somebody
Speaker 1: said I looked like a road accident for a character
Speaker 1: who's put together from bits and pieces of other people,
Speaker 1: that's a very good description. In ninety eight, Least starred
Speaker 1: in Horror of Dracula, which was released in Great Britain
Speaker 1: simply as Dracula. This was the first of nine films
Speaker 1: in which he would play the famous vampire, ten if
Speaker 1: you count his uncredited appearance in the comedy One More Time,
Speaker 1: which came out in nineteen seventy. But after the first
Speaker 1: two of his Dracula films, he told his agent that
Speaker 1: he just didn't want to do it anymore. He felt
Speaker 1: like the writing was clumsy and it was just kind
Speaker 1: of shoving the character into various scenarios without any real creativity.
Speaker 1: And when he told the studio he didn't want to
Speaker 1: play the famous vampire anymore, there was a huge uproar.
Speaker 1: The head of the studio called the actor completely frantic.
Speaker 1: So the person he's talking about here is is a
Speaker 1: hammer big wig named Jimmy Carreras. And so he says,
Speaker 1: I got a frantic telephone call from Jimmy Carreras, saying
Speaker 1: I already sold it to the American distributor with you
Speaker 1: playing the part, and he said something I've never for
Speaker 1: gotten because it was sheer blackmail. Think of the people
Speaker 1: you're putting out of work. That's the only reason I
Speaker 1: did the last few draculas. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: the reason for a hundred people not working. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: such a weasily way to pressure somebody. Um In Lee
Speaker 1: started another Hammer film as the lead in the Mummy
Speaker 1: and his nineteen sixty six performances Resputing in Resputing the
Speaker 1: Mad Monk is also another one that is almost always
Speaker 1: mentioned anytime you see like an abbreviated list of his
Speaker 1: incredibly long career, and that's one that has a really
Speaker 1: interesting and surreal historical connection because Lee had actually met
Speaker 1: Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovitch, the two men
Speaker 1: who assassinated Resputing in real life when he was just
Speaker 1: a child. While Lee initially made his name in horror,
Speaker 1: he was not enthusiastic about how that genre developed over
Speaker 1: the years, and a two thousand one interview with The
Speaker 1: Guardians Will Hodgkinson, he said there have been some absolutely
Speaker 1: ghastly films recently physically repellent. What we did was fantasy,
Speaker 1: fairy tales. No real person can copy what we did,
Speaker 1: but they can do what Hannibal Lecter does if they're
Speaker 1: so inclined, So people like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilson,
Speaker 1: and for that reason, I think such films are dangerous.
Speaker 1: Christopher Lee often played villains. I don't think that's any
Speaker 1: big secrets. But what really made him special is that
Speaker 1: he had this uncanny ability to make viewers kind of
Speaker 1: root for the bad guy. His his personas were always
Speaker 1: so incredibly compelling. So he famously, of course played Scaramanga
Speaker 1: in The Man with the Golden Gun, and he did
Speaker 1: this in a way that was just this cool, unflappable
Speaker 1: and refined uh characterization. And even as he's, you know,
Speaker 1: in that movie, constructing a gun right in front of
Speaker 1: a man he's planning to shoot, he's just completely chill
Speaker 1: and relaxed, and he was so charming, and he is
Speaker 1: often cited in that film is sort of playing a
Speaker 1: dark counter to Roger Moore's Bond, So he's like the
Speaker 1: anti James Bond. He has all the same attributes, but
Speaker 1: he is on the dark side of it. Incidentally, Lee
Speaker 1: was a cousin of James Bond author Ian Fleming through marriage,
Speaker 1: and he was the author's first choice to play Doctor No,
Speaker 1: although the studio had already made their choice before Fleming
Speaker 1: made this desire known to them. Yeah, he's just connected
Speaker 1: to everything. Uh. In one Lee married twenty six year
Speaker 1: old Danish model and actress Brigie Cranky, and unlike many
Speaker 1: showed his couples, they stayed together until the end of
Speaker 1: Lee's life. They also had one daughter together, Christina, and
Speaker 1: by all accounts, Christopher Lee was a completely devoted husband
Speaker 1: and father, and he was very protective of his private life.
Speaker 1: He definitely did not believe in voyeuristic celebrity culture, and
Speaker 1: his wife and daughters survive him. So we are not
Speaker 1: out of respect for him. We're not going to go
Speaker 1: into their story too much. While filming Dracula Has Risen
Speaker 1: from the Grave. In the nineteen sixties, Lee was deeply
Speaker 1: dismayed when British government officials came to Pinewood Studios to
Speaker 1: bestow an honor on the Hammer Pictures Company. As the
Speaker 1: officials arrived, he was in full Dracula mode and he
Speaker 1: was mounted on a giant cross, and that was what
Speaker 1: they saw when they walked in. So he didn't feel
Speaker 1: like that was really the ideal introduction for a gentleman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was very dismay ad how that timing played out. Uh.
Speaker 1: He did eventually use his standing and influence at Hammer
Speaker 1: to bring in a cult thriller author Dennis Wheatley to
Speaker 1: work on adaptations of his novels for the studio, and
Speaker 1: this proved to be both a feather in his cap
Speaker 1: and eventually something of a disaster. So the studio first
Speaker 1: produced The Devil Rides Out with Wheatly. That is often
Speaker 1: regarded as the best film the studio ever produced. It's
Speaker 1: a tale based on satan worship among high society types
Speaker 1: and men of diplomatic power, and it was intended, according
Speaker 1: to Lee, to warn of the dangers of Satanism. But
Speaker 1: in ninety six Hammer worked with Wheatly on a film
Speaker 1: called to the Devil a Daughter, and that project was
Speaker 1: not a success. It made money, but Wheatley was unhappy
Speaker 1: with it and distanced himself from the production. It was
Speaker 1: also the last horror film and the glorious mid mid
Speaker 1: century run that Hammer Studios had, and It's a common joke,
Speaker 1: of course, that actors get a new script and the
Speaker 1: first thing they do is count their lines before they
Speaker 1: do anything else, Like they run through and see how
Speaker 1: many lines your character has. But Lee really broke the
Speaker 1: mold in this regard. He was known, in fact, for
Speaker 1: cutting many of his lines in his horror roles. He
Speaker 1: said that he would rather cut his own dialogue than
Speaker 1: speak a line that he felt was poorly written, and
Speaker 1: as a consequence, in the nineteen sixty six film Dracula
Speaker 1: Prince of Darkness, he didn't speak a word, although he
Speaker 1: did his from time to time. He just thought the
Speaker 1: writing was so abysmal. He refused to say any of
Speaker 1: those lines. But just the same he is still incredibly mesmerizing.
Speaker 1: Writer Mark Kermode wrote in a Guardian piece after Lee
Speaker 1: died that when they had worked on a project called
Speaker 1: Fear in the Dark Together, for which Lee provided narration,
Speaker 1: the actor wasn't the least bit shy about giving notes
Speaker 1: about the writing. Hermode described the corrections as polite but strong,
Speaker 1: which is the way many people seemed to characterize him
Speaker 1: in a variety of different scenarios. Yeah, I think Lee
Speaker 1: was a gentleman, but he really. Uh was willing to
Speaker 1: to voice his opinion, especially when it was important to him.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy three, he started a film called The
Speaker 1: wicker Man, and this film became a cult classic. Uh
Speaker 1: Lee considered it to be some of his best work,
Speaker 1: and in it he played a man named Lord summer
Speaker 1: Isle who ran an island of pagans where ritual practices
Speaker 1: were part of the normal routine. And the setup is
Speaker 1: that a policeman goes to investigate some of what's going
Speaker 1: on in the island and things go very poorly from there.
Speaker 1: But even though the movie gained a following, British Lion,
Speaker 1: which is the production company behind it, had no love
Speaker 1: for that particular child. Studio executives thought it was so
Speaker 1: bad that they heavily edited it into a shorter version
Speaker 1: and released it basically as a B film on a
Speaker 1: double on a double bill with Don't Look Now. But
Speaker 1: Lee really defended the film and he crusaded for it
Speaker 1: to get the attention that he felt deserved. He felt
Speaker 1: really strongly that they had made a great film and
Speaker 1: what came out was not it. Years later, the film
Speaker 1: was partially restored thanks to his efforts, and it was
Speaker 1: hailed as one of the most important and impressive horror
Speaker 1: films of all time. But even so, Lee always felt
Speaker 1: that there was a more complete cut of that film
Speaker 1: that existed somewhere and was even greater than the one
Speaker 1: that critics and audiences eventually loved. In nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: Lee moved to Los Angeles to sort of change things
Speaker 1: up and look for new opportunities. One of these opportunities
Speaker 1: came in the form of hosting Saturday Night Live. This
Speaker 1: was during the Belushi, Murray, and Ackroid era, and the
Speaker 1: Englishman held his own with all of basically the people
Speaker 1: who were regarded as the best comedians of the day.
Speaker 1: It was calculated in a way because he wanted the
Speaker 1: American entertainment industry to know that he could play funny.
Speaker 1: It really paid off in part due to the Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live appearance. He landed a role in Steven Spielberg's
Speaker 1: forty one. He was also offered the role that eventually
Speaker 1: went to Leslie Nielsen and Airplane. He wound up turning
Speaker 1: that down, which he later regretted. Yeah, it was kind
Speaker 1: of a nice change of pace. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone had seen him in these horror roles, and they
Speaker 1: took him very seriously and he was just frightening, villainous figure.
Speaker 1: But he was very funny and if you can go
Speaker 1: to YouTube and search for his SNL appearances, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of small clips of it. And he's incredibly witty.
Speaker 1: He has great timing, uh and he worked pretty consistently
Speaker 1: on TV and film projects after his move to the US,
Speaker 1: So he worked in comedies and dramas alike, in everything
Speaker 1: from Return to Witch Mountain to Sherlock Holmes in The
Speaker 1: Leading Lady. And we're going to talk about his incredibly
Speaker 1: prolific next stage of his career in just a moment,
Speaker 1: but first let's have a word from one of our
Speaker 1: fabulous sponsors. So one of the pivotal, although unseen by many,
Speaker 1: roles in Lee's career, came in when he started as
Speaker 1: the father of Pakistan. That's Mohammed al Ali Jenna and
Speaker 1: the film Jenna. When he was speaking at the College
Speaker 1: of dubl It in eleven, he said that this was
Speaker 1: the most important thing he'd ever done. Although it wasn't
Speaker 1: theatrically released outside of Pakistan, Lee believed that the limited
Speaker 1: release was due to the fact that his character's speeches
Speaker 1: told the people of Pakistan that they were free to
Speaker 1: follow and practice whatever religions they wished, and some person
Speaker 1: or group didn't want that information seen by the rest
Speaker 1: of the world. For context in an inordinately simplified way.
Speaker 1: It's not interminently for context, in an extremely simplified way.
Speaker 1: Mohammed Ali Jenna separated Pakistan from India after religious conflict
Speaker 1: between Hendy's and Muslims. Yeah, and there are copies of
Speaker 1: that film floating about like you can't find it if
Speaker 1: you really go looking, but it is difficult, uh. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting because one of the other things he said
Speaker 1: in interviews throughout the years about what was very difficult
Speaker 1: about that was that it was a person who had
Speaker 1: lived and lived recently, so he felt like there was
Speaker 1: additional pressure to be really spot on and it really
Speaker 1: raised his game and he is amazing in it. Uh.
Speaker 1: In a nod tid Lee's Hammer career, director Tim Burton
Speaker 1: cast a very tall actor in Sleepy Hollow, which came out.
Speaker 1: And what's really great is that if you listen to
Speaker 1: the director's commentary on that film, there is a large
Speaker 1: chunk where Burton spends just all of this time sort
Speaker 1: of being awed at the fact that the Christopher Lee's
Speaker 1: in his movie, he's such a fanboy, and it's very charming,
Speaker 1: and since Burton already at this point has had a
Speaker 1: hugely successful career, it's a nice reminder of just how
Speaker 1: big a star Lee was too many kids who grew
Speaker 1: up watching Hammer Horror. In two thousand one, Lee famously
Speaker 1: began his role as Saramon in the Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings trilogy. He had wanted for quite some time to
Speaker 1: play Gandolf, and he had even approached Talking at one
Speaker 1: point to make his case that he should have that role,
Speaker 1: and he got the author's blessing that should there be
Speaker 1: a film, he should be the choice to play Gandolf.
Speaker 1: By the time Peter Jackson's project got off the ground, though,
Speaker 1: Lee was believed to be too old to play Gandalf.
Speaker 1: I think he actually thought this about himself their interviews
Speaker 1: where he talked about realizing that all of the things
Speaker 1: that Gandalf physically needed to do would have been particularly
Speaker 1: risky by this point in his age. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: I have heard him tell it to that way, as
Speaker 1: well as saying like, oh, they kind of suggested that
Speaker 1: I might be too old and then yes, they were right,
Speaker 1: And in a way it worked out because I get
Speaker 1: to be the only villain since Suron is just an eye,
Speaker 1: I'm really the only heavy and it's kind of a big,
Speaker 1: juicy role in that regard. And Lee was really an
Speaker 1: expert on J. R. R. Tolkien's work. He was more
Speaker 1: than happy to advise the production department on designs and
Speaker 1: logistics as well as playing his role of Saromon, and
Speaker 1: the actor had made this habit of reading the Lord
Speaker 1: of the Rings trilogy once a year for decades, so
Speaker 1: he really did know his stuff. Saramon's death scene was
Speaker 1: edited out of the third film and the trilogy and
Speaker 1: the theatrical release, which really displeased Lead because he felt
Speaker 1: like it took away from the story. He also said publicly, though,
Speaker 1: that he had no ill will towards Peter Jackson for
Speaker 1: the decision. Seen his back in there for the extent
Speaker 1: edition and also a much repeated story about that whole
Speaker 1: death scene, and Peter Jackson was sort of describing, uh,
Speaker 1: the sound that would happen when someone was stabbed at
Speaker 1: the back, and Christopher Lee explained that is not in
Speaker 1: fact the sound that a person makes when they are
Speaker 1: stabbed in the back and he knew this from experience, Yeah,
Speaker 1: presumably from his classified work in the war. There's another
Speaker 1: uh kind of sidebar, because I couldn't find this particular interview.
Speaker 1: I know I saw it, and it's so charmed me
Speaker 1: regarding Christopher Lee a moment where he was talking about
Speaker 1: playing Sargamon and how he was having this morning where
Speaker 1: he was just out of sorts and he was it
Speaker 1: was an afternoon and he was just out of sorts
Speaker 1: and he was getting frustrated, and he had this sort
Speaker 1: of mini tantrum where he was saying, Oh, it's this
Speaker 1: damn costume. I can't walk without tripping on it. And
Speaker 1: how Peter Jackson just said from behind the camera, you
Speaker 1: did it this morning. Christopher Lee was like, that really
Speaker 1: put me in my place. And I was always so
Speaker 1: charmed that this man of you know, such incredible iconic stature,
Speaker 1: Like what he was telling people in press junkets was
Speaker 1: that he had been a diva and Peter Jackson had
Speaker 1: fixed it. Like I just found that the most charming
Speaker 1: story ever. I also like how while the films were
Speaker 1: in production, like principal photography was done, but but all
Speaker 1: of the editing was not done. He would say in
Speaker 1: interviews that his goal was to live to see all
Speaker 1: three films. Yes, and then he kind of did a
Speaker 1: similar thing with Star Wars. So in two thousand two
Speaker 1: he began his two film role of Count Dooku in
Speaker 1: Star Wars Attack of the Clones. What's interesting about this
Speaker 1: is the duel between Douku and Yoda featured Lee actually
Speaker 1: making use of his skill at swordplay. If you've watched it,
Speaker 1: you've seen that there's some doubling going on there, and
Speaker 1: he was doubled from the waist down and for the
Speaker 1: longer shots that included full body movement, but any of
Speaker 1: the shots that are just upper body are still Lee.
Speaker 1: He was still pretty angile despite his advancing age, and
Speaker 1: he really wanted to do as much of the sword
Speaker 1: play as he possibly could. Shortly before he turned to
Speaker 1: eight e, Lee told a journalist that he wanted to
Speaker 1: live long enough to see Star Wars Revenge of the
Speaker 1: Fifth Open that was in two thousand and five, and
Speaker 1: in fact he would live another entire decade. Lee was
Speaker 1: actually knighted on October two thousand nine in recognition of
Speaker 1: his contributions to the arts and to charity. Early the
Speaker 1: next year, he released a symphonic metal concept album entitled
Speaker 1: Charlemaine by the Sword and the Cross, and then later
Speaker 1: that same year he received a Spirit of Metal Award
Speaker 1: for it. Yeah, he was a fan of metal, which
Speaker 1: is I think to some people so incongruous because he
Speaker 1: is such a British gentleman. But he really was a
Speaker 1: genuine fan of it. That wasn't just like a thing
Speaker 1: he did for a lark. He loved. He loved metal.
Speaker 1: Go figure And in uhleven he received another big award,
Speaker 1: and that was an Academy Fellowship by the British Academy
Speaker 1: of Film and Television Arts, which is basically one of
Speaker 1: the biggest act awards a British actor could receive, and
Speaker 1: that was presented to him by his longtime fan and
Speaker 1: at that point collaborator, Tim Burton. In he released A
Speaker 1: Heavy Metal Christmas and then a follow up called A
Speaker 1: Heavy Metal Christmas Too, which came out the following year.
Speaker 1: Uh and then things slowed down a little bit. He
Speaker 1: was still working when he could, but not at the
Speaker 1: same pace. Uh and Lee passed away on June seven,
Speaker 1: at the age of ninety three. He had been struggling
Speaker 1: with some heart failure and some respiratory issues, and his
Speaker 1: career actually spanned seven decades, and at that point it
Speaker 1: was still going. He was scheduled to appear in a
Speaker 1: movie about nine eleven with Uma Thurman when he passed,
Speaker 1: so he never retired. He outlived his friends and colleagues,
Speaker 1: Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Boris Carloff. They were all
Speaker 1: sort of a famous group of friends. And in his
Speaker 1: sixty five year career, the longest break that he ever
Speaker 1: took from acting was only four weeks, Like, that's the
Speaker 1: longest vacation he had. I have a few bits of
Speaker 1: trivia about him that didn't quite fit in any in
Speaker 1: the chronological story of his life and work. And the
Speaker 1: first is that because of his height, which one he
Speaker 1: was once told would prevent him from having an acting career,
Speaker 1: he holds the Guinness record for the tallest leading actor. Uh.
Speaker 1: He also has the record for most screen credits for
Speaker 1: a living actor, the Guinness Tract, which was two forty
Speaker 1: four films. And he actually had many Guinness records to
Speaker 1: his name, but those are just two. So many yes.
Speaker 1: In two thousand two, Uh, in an interview with journalist
Speaker 1: David Edelstein, Lie said, my whole life has been about
Speaker 1: proving people wrong. And in his nineties three years Lee
Speaker 1: was so incredibly prolific, and he was so fascinating that
Speaker 1: we could never ever cover everything. It would have to
Speaker 1: be like a dedicated month of shows, which would be
Speaker 1: super fun, but uh, not really realistic in terms of
Speaker 1: what we do. But in terms of his legacy, particularly
Speaker 1: in horror, I thought it was best described in the
Speaker 1: words of the actor himself, and this is from an
Speaker 1: interview that he did. He says, quote, Hammer was an
Speaker 1: important part of my life, and generally speaking, we had
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Fun seems to be a three
Speaker 1: letter word these days, although it directors like Tim Burton
Speaker 1: and George Lucas. It's fun, fun, fun, while also working
Speaker 1: yourself to death. But if you compare those Hammer movies
Speaker 1: to what's been made in the last twenty years, Brian
Speaker 1: to Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, West Craven,
Speaker 1: Tim Burton, and Peter Jackson have all said the same
Speaker 1: thing to me. We were brought up on your movies
Speaker 1: and it certainly shows in theirs. I love that, I
Speaker 1: love that he was, so he was aware of his
Speaker 1: own influence. At the same time, he seemed very um,
Speaker 1: sort of down to earth, but also very proper. There
Speaker 1: will never be another Christopher Lee. I don't think he's amazing,
Speaker 1: and I highly recommend hunting down any and all pieces
Speaker 1: of his work you can. It's there's no end of
Speaker 1: fun to it. Do you also have some listener mail
Speaker 1: for us? I do. It's listener mail that we get
Speaker 1: to say a big, fat thank you for because this
Speaker 1: comes from our listener, Jennifer, and she sent us an
Speaker 1: amazing package. She says, Tracy and Honley, I have been
Speaker 1: enjoying the stuff you missed in History Class podcast for years,
Speaker 1: and I've gotten so many hours of enjoyment out of
Speaker 1: it that I wanted to send you a thank you
Speaker 1: gift package. It's been a great podcast right from the beginning,
Speaker 1: and it's only improved over time. I especially love some
Speaker 1: of the newer episodes that YouTube ladies have done. You've
Speaker 1: unearned some hidden nuggets history and tied them into popular
Speaker 1: culture and daily life in different eras. Earlier this year,
Speaker 1: I started a new company called Adventure Since making scented
Speaker 1: products to match common Adventure locations in games, books, movies,
Speaker 1: and other stories. We even have a line of Sense
Speaker 1: inspired by historical locations. The funky fragrances range from the pleasant,
Speaker 1: like the exotic exotic copal and spicy coco notes in
Speaker 1: our Mayan Temple scent, to the odiferous, like the stench
Speaker 1: of their indicaate in our multi crypt scent. At various times,
Speaker 1: my house has read of every smell imaginable. I once
Speaker 1: accidentally woke my daughter up at two am on a
Speaker 1: school night with the odor of a vampire's layer. I'm
Speaker 1: sure she's traumatized for life. Creating the Sense is tons
Speaker 1: of fun, but making and packaging large quantities of them
Speaker 1: can be time consuming and tedious. And the thing that
Speaker 1: really makes the time fly by as I work is
Speaker 1: listening to your podcast. So I have enclosed a selection
Speaker 1: of Adventure Sense products that made me think of the
Speaker 1: two of you, the past episodes you've done, and the
Speaker 1: hobbies and interested interests that you've revealed along the way.
Speaker 1: She sent us this incredible parcel, which it came to
Speaker 1: the Atlanta office. So and Tracy is here next we
Speaker 1: have to divvy everything up, but like it has these
Speaker 1: cool scent jars. It has sent throws. They're sent lockets
Speaker 1: that are beautiful. There are these two great little mini
Speaker 1: fascinator hats that you can actually they have a little
Speaker 1: receptacle that you can put these scent crystals in so
Speaker 1: you can just smell fabulous and fashionable. Uh. They're amazing. Jennifer,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. It's such a like, incredibly generous gift.
Speaker 1: And I love it, love it, love it, and I
Speaker 1: love the history inspires things like descent products. It's so cool.
Speaker 1: So you can also check out her stuff for yourself
Speaker 1: at adventure scents dot com and I hope you do
Speaker 1: because they smell amazing. I love them. I love a
Speaker 1: little non standard perfumery. So thank you, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you a million times over again. Our listeners are often
Speaker 1: so generous, and I feel like we never get enough
Speaker 1: time to publicly thank them for it. So thank you
Speaker 1: to everyone who has sent us stuff, and today just
Speaker 1: happens to be Jennifer's stuff that shuffled up. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you would like to email us, you can do so
Speaker 1: at History podcast at how stuff Works dot com, or
Speaker 1: at Facebook dot com, slash misst in history on Twitter
Speaker 1: at misston History at pinterest dot com, slash misst in
Speaker 1: history at misston history dot tumbler dot com, and we
Speaker 1: are on Instagram at misst in history. So if you
Speaker 1: would like to uh do a little research on things
Speaker 1: related to this, you can go to our parents site,
Speaker 1: how stuff Works, typing Christopher Lee's name in the search
Speaker 1: bar and one of the things that comes up is
Speaker 1: a quiz about Frankenstein actors. So super fun, great for
Speaker 1: the Halloween season. You can also visit us at mt
Speaker 1: in history dot com for show notes and an archive
Speaker 1: of every episode going way back to the original host
Speaker 1: up to the modern era with me and Tracy and uh,
Speaker 1: you should absolutely do that. Come and visit us at
Speaker 1: mton history dot com and visit our parent site, how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
Speaker 1: of other topics. Because it hous toff works dot com