BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee

Subject: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 27 May 13 - 05:17 AM

Happy birthday to actor Christopher Lee, who is 91 today. He must surely be the definitive Dracula and it is a curious coincidence that Bram Stoker's book was first published on this day in 1897.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 May 13 - 05:24 AM

Indeed, Happy Birthday. He is just 10 years older than me. I was fortunate enough to know him a little, in the mid-50s just before he made it big with the Hammer Films Frankenstein & Dracula franchises, as he was a regular customer whom I would join for a drink sometimes at my mother's restaurant off Gloucester Road. I distinctly remember his assuring me I would grow to love Wagner if I would just listen to his music a bit more!

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:18 PM

Perhaps also worth mentioning on this forum in particular, that as well as his notable Dracula, Sir Christopher had a leading part in one of the most distinguished of films with folk-oriented themes, The Wicker Man, on which there have been several threads on Mudcat over the years, which he has himself named as his own favourite among the films he has appeared in.

So, once again, Happy Birthday, Sir Christopher!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:29 PM

Yes indeed MtheGM and a wonderful film that is too. The fact he must have appeared in more films than any other actor shows what a superb actor he is: most others would not have got beyond Dracula.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: fat B****rd
Date: 27 May 13 - 03:50 PM

Remember him in "Beat Girl"?. A great actor of superbly diverse roles.
Happy Birthday Mr. Lee.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 27 May 13 - 05:56 PM

Oh yes, I remember him in The Wicker Man. He was a kind of Lord of the Manor with a sinister smile.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 28 May 13 - 01:17 PM

Lord Summerisle: that being the ironic name of the island on which so many dark deeds took place!

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 28 May 13 - 07:30 PM

Ah yes, MtheGM, Lord Summerisle. I've seen the film several times. Wasn't it Britt Ekland who tried to seduce the earnest policeman by banging on his wall in the nude? I bet that scene has fuelled many a male fantasy!

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 May 13 - 01:17 AM

Yes -- but altho it was her tits we saw, for some reason they used a bottom-double, one Jane Jackson, for the rear shots, taller than her and with a different hairstyle.
'A body double was secretly used for the naked rear shots of Willow dancing. The scenes were filmed after Britt Ekland had left the set. The body double was used because Ekland would only agree to topless shots of her body. After shooting was over, not only was Ekland furious to learn she had been doubled in some shots but that she was also a few weeks pregnant in that scene. Director Robin Hardy says it was Ekland herself who did not want her bottom to be filmed, as she did not like it.' Imdb

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MorwenEdhelwen1
Date: 29 May 13 - 03:41 AM

Happy Birthday Christopher Lee. I love his performance as Saruman, and it doesn't hurt that he also met Tolkien.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:06 AM

"Christopher Lee, who has appeared in 275 motion pictures, considers Lord Summerisle his best character, and The Wicker Man his best film."
Wikipedia entry on The Wicker Man

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:28 AM

for some reason they used a bottom-double

The reason according to Ms Eckland was that she hated her bottom, describing it as looking 'like a ski-slope' - a simile that baffles me to this day.

Lots more on this here:

http://www.garycarpenter.net/archive/wicker3.htm

*

I once met Christopher Lee during the filming of Ivanhoe for the BBC back in the 90s and failed to recognise him though we talked at length on various topics. This was in the Galilee Chapel of Durham Cathedral; he was dressed as a Templar Knight, and reading his Daily Telegraph, and I took him for an extra. He even chuckled at my quoting of Walter Scott's 'Grey towers of Durham well I love thy mixed & massive piles' as carved into Prebend's Bridge thus marking that city's most famous view.

Subject: RE: BS: Happy Birthday Christopher Lee
From: Green Man
Date: 29 May 13 - 04:36 AM

Yes, many a happy hour watching his movies (from behind the sofa)

Fangs for the memories,, (Well somebody had to) :)

GM