Horror fans have lost the last of the "big ones". Sir Christopher Lee has joined the grim reaper's procession of Lugosi, Chaney, Jr., Karloff, Cushing and Price in the line of the world's greatest horror movie stars. Many struggled along the way; Lugosi with his drug addiction, Chaney, Jr. with his alcoholism, Karloff with his debilitating back problems and Cushing with his depression. Price had his culinary and art interests, Lugosi had his stamp collecting, Chaney loved to fish and Karloff loved to garden.
Lee loved to act and he loved to sing. He or his voice were in well over 200 movies. His 6-foot-5 presence was commanding on the screen. He played almost every well-known screen monster, from the Frankenstein Monster, to Dracula, to The Mummy. He was praised in his interpretation of master criminal, Fu Manchu, he was the villain in Hammer's adaptations of Dennis Wheatley's occult thrillers, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, he played the sadistic sex maniac in WHAT?, he was in STAR WARS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. In short, there was not much in the arc of Lee's acting career that was not illuminated by his involvement.
He will be missed, of course. Luckily, we have a huge body of work, as well as many, many articles about him and his fellow actors in various movie and monster magazines. We were lucky to have him for so long.
Farewell, Sir.
What better way to kick off Christopher Lee week than with tributes to him by journalists from his native UK?
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