Christopher Frank Caradini Lee was born on the 27th May 1922 in London. His mother Estelle Marie was an ancestor of the Italian royal family (the Caradinis) and his father, Geoffrey Trollope was a professional soldier, Lee's grandparents also founded the Australian Opera Company. Lee attended Summerfield Preparatory School before moving on to Wellington College, London. After graduation he worked for several shipping companies as a clerk before joining the RAF in 1941.

In 1947, following his release from military service, Lee joined the successful Rank Film Organisation where he trained as an actor. During his time with Rank he had several small bit-parts in their productions debuting in "Corridor of Mirrors" (1947). He also made appearances in Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet" in 1948 and "Moulin Rouge" in 1952 which also starred Peter Cushing, although the two did not meet until later in their careers.

The 1950's saw Lee take on several more small film and television roles but his career didn't really take off until the late fifties when he left the Rank Organisation and moved to Hammer Film Productions. His career with Hammer started with the 1957 release of "The Curse of Frankenstein" but he is best known and loved for his portrayals of Count Dracula. In all, Lee made 10 appearances for Hammer as Count Dracula out of the 21 Hammer films he starred in.

By the 1970's Lee was tiring of his stereotypical and somewhat typecast horror image and tried to become more of a mainstream actor, starring in a variety of films including "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970)  and most famously the he played the role of Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun", based on the book written by his step-cousin Ian Flemming.

On the success of these films, Lee moved to Hollywood in the late 1970's and, whilst working almost constantly many of the roles he took were ordinary and did not bring much critical acclaim or success and he eventually returned to England. In 1978 Lee turned down the role later portrayed by Donald Pleasance in Halloween, fearing it would lead him being typecast in horror movies once more.

An honorary member of three stuntmen unions, Lee also starred in "Airport ' 77" and "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" (1990) in which he sent up his horror image by playing a mad geneticist. The early 2000's saw Lee entering a new age of popularity when he was cast as "Saurman the White"  in the "Lord of the Rings" Trilogy. Interestingly, Lee is the only member of the cast to have actually met Tolkien. Lee then followed this role with an appearance in "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones" playing yet another Count - Dooku, following in his horror partner Peter Cushing's footsteps.

In June 2001, Lee was awarded the CBE by the Queen for his services to film and television. In this year he was also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the International Star with most Screen appearances, over 300 in all.

At over 80 years of age, Lee keeps going from strength to strength, appealing to a worldwide audiences of varying cultural backgrounds and ages, proving he is one of the most versatile and great actors of the last century, and this one.

Works Cited and Consulted

International Movie Database
Yahoo! Movies
Official Star Wars Website