Sir Christopher Lee dies at 93

Glyph · June 2015

1922 - 2015

Rhesus Positive · June 2015

Stealing and elaborating upon my post from chat:

During World War II Christopher Lee was a volunteer for the Finnish Forces during the Winter War, worked in RAF Intelligence, was attached to the Special Operations Executive, and spent the last few months of his service tracking down Nazi war criminals.

He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.

He spoke eight languages, five of them fluently, and was in over 200 films since 1948.

What a guy.

AManFromEarth · June 2015

At least the world got a kick ass ghost

Bogart · June 2015

Not many people could hold up their hand, demonstrate how one of their fingers was a bit shonky and calmly state that he got it swordfighting with Errol Flynn.

Mulletude · June 2015

Hell of a man. RIP

SummaryJudgment · June 2015

Ohhh, damn.

Neco · June 2015

93 is a respectable age at least. Never really a consolation for the grieving of course, but his career was quite good until the end.

I think I am going to have to watch some of his movies this weekend.

Bogart · June 2015

Muhammed Ali once dedicated a fight to Christopher Lee.

For Saruman's death scene Christopher Lee demonstrated to Peter Jackson what happens when you stab someone in the back. Christopher Lee didn't elaborate on how he knew.

Christopher Lee was recording heavy metal albums into his 90's.

Christopher Lee was badass.

cr0w · June 2015

Bogart wrote: »

For Saruman's death scene Christopher Lee demonstrated to Peter Jackson what happens when you stab someone in the back. Christopher Lee didn't elaborate on how he knew.

.

One of my favorite anecdotes ever.

Man, he lived a hell of a life. Gonna be watching a lot of old Hammer horror very discreetly at work for a couple days and moving my old 1/6 scale Dracula figure to a place of honor for a while. RIP.

Synthesis · June 2015

Oh, what a bummer. At least he wasn't taken from us early, which seemed like a depressing trend recently.

Rhesus Positive · June 2015

Lee also worked with Ian Fleming during WWII, and was Fleming's first choice for Dr. No.

Trace · June 2015

I wonder if we'll be getting information on just what he did for the British Secret Service.

I wanna know just how badass Christopher Lee was. I mean, I know he was badass.

But was he literally James Bond?

Rhan9 · June 2015

Fuck this year. First Terry Pratchett, now Christopher Lee.

So fucking bummed out.

cr0w · June 2015

Not really well-written, but probably the most detailed explanation of his wartime service out there.

Christopher Lee enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he worked as an intelligence officer specializing in cracking German ciphers and skulls and any other Nazi bullshit he came in contact with. In North Africa he was attached to the Long Range Desert Patrol, the forerunner of the SAS, where he would jump in a badass fucking four-wheel-drive jeep with a gigantic machine gun mounted in the back, drive hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, survive the scorching heat of the Sahara Desert, then sneak-attack Luftwaffe airfields by rolling up on them at sixty miles an hour with his .50-caliber machine guns blazing out curtains of white-hot Nazi-smiting justice, planting dynamite on their airplanes, then peeling ass out of there leaving nothing but bullet-riddled corpses and gigantic explosions in his wake. After working with the LRDP, Lee was assigned to the Special Operations Executive – better known as Winston Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – a group that did shit like lead a twelve-man assault that destroyed the German top secret nuclear weapons development facility in Norway and assist brave Eastern European partisans and rebels sabotage Nazi supply lines to prevent them from bringing reinforcements up to fight the Soviets. His service records are sealed and Lee doesn't talk much about his service (when pressed on the subject, he reportedly asks his interviewer, "Can you keep a secret?". When they excitedly say yes, he leans in close and says, "So can I."), but we do know that by the time he retired as a Flight Lieutenant in 1945 he'd been personally decorated for battlefield bravery by the Czech, Yugoslavian, English, and Polish governments and was good friends with Josip Broz Tito, so draw your own conclusions.

Also, the aforementioned back-stabbing badassness

"When I was shooting the stabbing shot with Christopher, as a director would I was explaining to him what he should do"... "And he says, 'Peter, have you ever heard the sound a man makes when he’s stabbed in the back?' And I said, 'Um, no.' And he says 'Well, I have, and I know what to do.' "

darleysam · June 2015

cr0w wrote: »

Not really well-written, but probably the most detailed explanation of his wartime service out there.

Christopher Lee enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he worked as an intelligence officer specializing in cracking German ciphers and skulls and any other Nazi bullshit he came in contact with. In North Africa he was attached to the Long Range Desert Patrol, the forerunner of the SAS, where he would jump in a badass fucking four-wheel-drive jeep with a gigantic machine gun mounted in the back, drive hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, survive the scorching heat of the Sahara Desert, then sneak-attack Luftwaffe airfields by rolling up on them at sixty miles an hour with his .50-caliber machine guns blazing out curtains of white-hot Nazi-smiting justice, planting dynamite on their airplanes, then peeling ass out of there leaving nothing but bullet-riddled corpses and gigantic explosions in his wake. After working with the LRDP, Lee was assigned to the Special Operations Executive – better known as Winston Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – a group that did shit like lead a twelve-man assault that destroyed the German top secret nuclear weapons development facility in Norway and assist brave Eastern European partisans and rebels sabotage Nazi supply lines to prevent them from bringing reinforcements up to fight the Soviets. His service records are sealed and Lee doesn't talk much about his service (when pressed on the subject, he reportedly asks his interviewer, "Can you keep a secret?". When they excitedly say yes, he leans in close and says, "So can I."), but we do know that by the time he retired as a Flight Lieutenant in 1945 he'd been personally decorated for battlefield bravery by the Czech, Yugoslavian, English, and Polish governments and was good friends with Josip Broz Tito, so draw your own conclusions.

Also, the aforementioned back-stabbing badassness

"When I was shooting the stabbing shot with Christopher, as a director would I was explaining to him what he should do"... "And he says, 'Peter, have you ever heard the sound a man makes when he’s stabbed in the back?' And I said, 'Um, no.' And he says 'Well, I have, and I know what to do.' "

That has to be from Cracked.

cr0w · June 2015

Nah it's from some random dude's film website I found while Googling his SAS exploits.

Trace · June 2015

It's from http://www.badassoftheweek.com/

cr0w · June 2015

Oh there you go, not a film website at all!

God, it's early.

Absalon · June 2015

93 years with such a great man is nothing I get sad over, but I feel for the family.

Mulletude · June 2015

I love 'Ministry of Ungentalmanly Warfare'

Cog · June 2015

That's a hell of a loss.

Atomika · June 2015

One the last great Renaissance men of our age, our world is immeasurably brighter for his place in it, only now just a bit dimmer. His legacy is remarkable and likely unmatchable; he will be missed, and often.

BloodySloth · June 2015

This one really gets to me. Lee was, by all accounts, a fucking remarkable human being, and we'll never see one like him again. Christopher Lee wasn't just one of my favorite actors, he was kind of one of my favorite people.

Before Robin Williams died, I never understood getting really worked up over celebrity deaths; they're just so far away. Well, now it's happening again.

Preacher · June 2015

I recall he wanted to live to see the end of the first LOTR trilogy, he made it through the second as well don't go quietly into the afterlife Scarmanga.

Shadowhope · June 2015

Is it weird that I sort of expected him to live forever? That at some point, Death had already visited him and that Lee offered to settle the matter like gentlemen, giving Death the choice of weapons? That Death just shook his head and walked away, dragging his scythe behind him?

Rhesus Positive · June 2015

Shadowhope wrote: »

Is it weird that I sort of expected him to live forever? That at some point, Death had already visited him and that Lee offered to settle the matter like gentlemen, giving Death the choice of weapons? That Death just shook his head and walked away, dragging his scythe behind him?

ONE MORE THING - WOULD YOU LIKE TO VOICE ME IN TWO DISCWORLD ANIMATED SERIES AND A SKY MINI-SERIES?

Preacher · June 2015

Nah that's what Alan Moore did, Christopher Lee just had a bucket list of bad ass things, and when he accomplished them all he became light and vanished into the place where heros go.

If ever there was a person who could become a real force ghost, it would be Lee. Whoever buys his house will have to live with him, in full saruman get up (because why not?).

Mancingtom · June 2015

He didn't really die. He just decided to go Full Legend.

cr0w · June 2015

Shadowhope wrote: »

Is it weird that I sort of expected him to live forever? That at some point, Death had already visited him and that Lee offered to settle the matter like gentlemen, giving Death the choice of weapons? That Death just shook his head and walked away, dragging his scythe behind him?

I like to think that Death sent Teddy Roosevelt in his stead, and he just showed up, stuck out his hand, and said, "You haven't seen anything yet, Sir Lee."

Preacher · June 2015

https://youtu.be/dr-GMvJ4sZY

Honor Christopher Lee by watching him die over and over and over again. I imagine this is how we'll remember Sean Bean.

Operative21 · June 2015

Interestingly enough, Lee voiced Death in the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's the Colour of Magic. Given Mr. Pratchett's death earlier this year, and Lee's death now, it makes Pratchett's final tweet eerily prophetic.

Regardless, I'm sad to see him go he was truly a remarkable man. May he rest in peace (mostly because I suspect we'll be in real trouble if he doesn't).

Local H Jay · June 2015

Man this got me hard

https://youtu.be/_G7NVnoiMV4

Rhan9 · June 2015

Operative21 wrote: »

Interestingly enough, Lee voiced Death in the adaptation of Terry Pratchett's the Colour of Magic. Given Mr. Pratchett's death earlier this year, and Lee's death now, it makes Pratchett's final tweet eerily prophetic.

Regardless, I'm sad to see him go he was truly a remarkable man. May he rest in peace (mostly because I suspect we'll be in real trouble if he doesn't).

Dracula the White? That'd certainly be something else.
Still, remarkable life and career he had.

Invectivus · June 2015

Local H Jay wrote: »

Man this got me hard
https://youtu.be/_G7NVnoiMV4

It was very possible that he knew his time was limited, same as Nimoy knew when he sent out that tweet. Th world lost a true legend.

Jazz · June 2015

That legendary voice, fighting to get out a few words. That choked me up. Gods, what an irreplaceable legend we have lost. RIP, Sir. We will miss you.

Arthil · June 2015

Well, that particular video was made two years ago. Not quite as recent as they're making you believe. It's also the... abridged version, to say the least. The full thing is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEhvKl9_5bg

Jazz · June 2015

Interesting. I think my point still stands, though. He's struggling to talk all the way through. He's clearly not in the best of health there, and looking rather more frail than in most recent public appearances.

Pertinent to what he says, though: I'm glad he lived to see the completed trilogy, as he wished.

Wonderful chap, one of a kind. And a true gentleman by all accounts.

Bogart · June 2015

Nice tribute from Anthony Lane in the New Yorker.

Jazz · June 2015

Bogart wrote: »

Nice tribute from Anthony Lane in the New Yorker.

That was excellent. Thank you.

Foomy · June 2015

https://youtu.be/gVzOve8T39w

His voice and Opera style just went so well for symphonic metal.

Preacher · June 2015

I swear to god if there is not a movie about the organization he was a part of "For ungentlemanly Warfare" then Hollywood has fucking failed us. Though first they'd have to declassify what this organization actually did.

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