Sir Christopher Lee, the last man standing of the Grand Horror Pantheon, has died at age 93. And it’s sort of hard to put into words what we’ve lost. Not only was he an incredible actor but Lee had a voice that would chill you. I mean seriously. Go listen to him read stuff on Spotify. His laugh is scarier than even Rox’s. And he worked his arse off. IMDB lists him with 281 credits to his name. And yet, he has more recognition from the Metal Hammer Golden God Awards than the Academy. In his honor, here’s some of my favorite bits, some of which we’ve posted before during the Halloween season.
I know that he first got his huge break with Hammer’s Curse of Frankenstein, but for me one of his first iconic roles wasn’t even really a horror flick. It was Corridors of Blood, where he was supporting Boris Karloff. Karloff plays a doctor trying to come up with a method of painless surgery. Lee plays Resurrection Joe, your one stop shop for experimental corpses. Here’s the trailer. Check out Lee. A stove pipe hat adds to his already formidable tallness. He’s got that scarred face. And, well, the voice. He just looks like a guy who would club you with your back turned.
I said to go listen to his stuff on Spotify, but here he is reading Poe from the BBC’s Fireside Tales series. Brilliant stuff.
And one thing he didn’t have to do…is go and sing. But he did, dammit. Why? Because he could. And if you want to hear a far better performance of Sweeney than Johnny Depp, then here you go… Yeah, his pitch is sometimes lacking, but he’s freakin’ dangerous.
Update: Alas, the performance of “Epiphany” has been taken down. When we find it again, we shall throw it back up here.
And lastly, here’s the man himself, remembering two very excellent friends.
We have a lot of great memories too, Sir Christopher. And if there is an afterlife, I hope the three of you guys are having one hell of a party. Rest well.
The idea of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing doing Yosemite Sam and Sylvester the Cat impressions make my life so much brighter.
The world seems weird now that Christopher Lee has left it.