The brilliantly villainous actor Christopher Lee turns 90 today and despite his age he is still busy acting. He was just in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and is appearing in Peter Jackson’s upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit (even though Lee’s character never appeared in the original novel).
Lee was born in 1922 and started his acting career in 1947 starring in primarily bit parts. It wasn’t until 1957 that he broke though and became a star with the Hammer Production The Curse of Frankenstein . He starred as the monster along side frequent co-star Peter Cushing (who played the good Doctor Frankenstein.) From there he starred in Hammer’s version of Dracula, a role he played a total of seven times over the years, the Mummy and many more of Hammer’s horror movies.
Although he has played a good guy on occasion, he primarily has been the villain in the vast 276 roles that he has played over the years. He has been the bad guy in everything from James Bond, to The Three Musketeers, to Star Wars and more recently The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Here are just a few of his more prominent roles.
