coffee nut bitch (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} peiyu) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2009-11-01 04:17:00 |
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| Current mood: |  tired |
| Entry tags: | british celebrities |
Arise, Sir Dracula! Christopher Lee knighted
LONDON — British actor Christopher Lee was knighted on Friday at Buckingham Palace, a far cry from the dark and gloomy Hammer Horror film sets where he made his name playing Dracula in the 1950s.
Lee, 87, became famous for his blood-curdling performances as the thirsty count. He has also portrayed a succession of baddies from Scaramanga in the James Bond movie "The Man With The Golden Gun" to Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings."
He was knighted by Prince Charles for his services to drama and to charity spanning during a decades-long career that has seen him appear in more than 250 film and television productions.
"A whole new career opened up for me when I was in "Lord Of The Rings" and "Star Wars (Episode II: Attack of the Clones)"," Lee said.
"What's really important for me is, as an old man, I'm known by my own generation and the next generation know me too."
Lee became a household name as Dracula but admitted he became typecast by the end of the 1960s -- a problem he quickly overcame with his performance in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes."
"Since then I've never been typecast although I've played a lot of bad guys, there's more scope than being the man in the white hat," he said.
However, he returned to Hammer Horror for the first time since 1976 this year, filming "The Resident" with Hilary Swank.
Sauce
Edit: THIS IS IN GUARDIAN LOL!! I imagine the person who typed this up a rabid fan who adores him so~
HAHA SRSLY?
I BET HE WAS TELLING PRINCE CHARLES AWESOME STORIES HERE.
Finding oneself opposite a tall, baleful celluloid vampire would have most people reaching for a head of the most pungent Spanish garlic, a large crucifix or a sharp stake.
The Prince of Wales, however, opted for a ceremonial sword, even as the 1.95-metre (6ft 5ins) vision of Count Dracula leaned worryingly close to the royal neck.
Fortunately, the prince had little to fear. Christopher Lee – aka Counts Dracula and Dooku, not to mention Lord Summerisle and the Duc de Richeleau – had been invited to Buckingham Palace today to receive a knighthood for his services to drama and to charity.
The 87-year-old is one of cinema's most prolific actors, appearing in more than 250 films over the course of a career that has so far spanned 61 years.
After making his name by poking blood-red contact lenses into his eyes and false fangs into his gums for a series of Hammer Horror films, Lee went on to play the urbane laird of the pagan manor in The Wicker Man and the bounteously nippled, bling-packing assassin Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun.
More recently, the actor has lent his imposing frame and limpid tones to the roles of the evil Middle Earth wizard Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, and the evil space wizard Count Dooku in the final two Star Wars films.
Lee, whose mother was an Italian countess, will next be seen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, in which he plays neither a vampire nor a wizard but the Jabberwock.
Sauce for this bit: Guardian~
I was just thinking of having another LOTR marathon earlier... :D
And I'm going to see Neil Gaiman in a couple of hours, yaye!
