Member-only story
The Peculiar Truth about Sir Christopher Lee
Published in
3 min readNov 12, 2024
- Although he is remembered by some for his later roles in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films and in the Star Wars franchise, Christopher Lee’s acting career spanned 66 years. His life offscreen, however, was equally fascinating.
- He was born in 1922 in London’s upscale Belgravia district. His parents were a British colonel and an Italian countess. He was a descendant of Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor.
- He grew to the height of 6’ 5”, an imposing figure.
- During World War II, Lee served as an intelligence operative. So did his cousin, Ian Fleming.
- When Lee’s parents divorced, Fleming’s uncle married Lee’s mother. Ian would go on to author the James Bond novels, and his step-cousin Christopher was said to have been one of many inspirations for the famous spy hero.
- Lee rarely spoke openly about his espionage exploits during WWII, but some claimed he was involved in missions to sabotage enemy aircraft throughout Northern Africa.
- Lee spoke 7 languages other than his native English; Greek, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Russian, and French. Those skills were put to use after the war when he tracked down and interrogated Nazi war criminals.
- After the war, Lee tried his hand at acting. He appeared in his…
