Thursday, the world lost another great actor, the incomparable British actor Sir Christopher Lee.
Although, I have not seen his Dracula or horror movies, I have seen him in the more recent “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies.
His portrayal of Saruman the White Lord is one of the standout performances in each movie.
Tim Burton, one of my favorite directors, utilized Lee’s great talents in a majority of his movies, including “Sleepy Hollow,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Corpse Bride,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Dark Shadows.”
One of my favorite features of Lee’s was his voice.
He had a deep bass like voice that would send tingles up my spine.
According to his biography on www.imdb.com, he mainly portrayed villains on screen including “Star Wars,” “James Bond” and “Dracula.”
I adore a good villain and will certainly be viewing some of his earlier films soon.
As the older generation of actors passes on, I fear I will be relying more and more on my classic movie collection when I want to watch a good movie with accomplished and skillful actors.
In my humble opinion, the movies generated today are either regurgitations of older movies or just plain terrible.
I rarely attend the movies anymore, and not because I wouldn’t like to, but because there is nothing playing that catches my interest or the movie trailer basically shows the entire plot of a movie.
As I was perusing Lee’s biography, I came across a quote from him that I will certainly remember.
“Of course, you can be…disappointed at times. I’ve done movies which are remarkably horrid. I’ve been wildly miscast in others. I’ve given some truly lackluster performances in still others. But it’s all part of your training.” –– Christopher Lee.