Of the recent tributes to British film legend Sir Christopher Lee, who died this past week at the age of 93, few have highlighted the man's enormous appetite for work--and its key role in his success at a time when he faced enormous odds.
In his 2003 autobiography, Lord of Misrule, Lee wrote that he started out in the film business with many disadvantages--not the least of which was his height--he reached six feet and four inches by the time he was seventeen. And he spent a good ten years toiling in obscurity before he made a name for himself in the classic Hammer films.
No one wanted to cast a hero whose leading ladies were too often, in his own words, staring at his navel. And adding to the difficulty of his height, was the fact that, being half Italian on his mother's side, he didn't look British enough in his twenties.
On top of this, as he wrote, was the precarious state of the British film industry in the decade and more after the end of World War II.
Acting is survival, as Vincent Price would say, and those with successes behind them were admitted to the charmed circles around the few fires still alight, like people huddled together against the night noises of the forest. It was natural, it was understandable, it was even cosy for them. In the long run, though, it was bound to lead to habits of repetition and insularity which would be to the detriment of the local British product.
As early as that in my career, I think, I began to rationalize my predicament as that of an actor who wasn’t sufficiently typical of his own country’s images to confine himself to the home market; in order to be known at all I would have to convert myself into an international figure. I never seriously calculated just how long a haul this would prove. In the rather uncertain range of my skills, the one department where I had a solid foundation was in languages. It’s also the area in which anyone can improve almost regardless of his funds. And if he has the luck to go on foreign locations, a small part will give him all the more time to chew the fat with the citizens. I worked at this, and made sure everybody knew I did. [p. 145]
Lee was fluent in Spanish and Italian--and he would quickly add French and German to his arsenal as he crossed the continent taking on parts wherever he could find them. Although he did not know it at the time, he was charting a path that future American stars like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson would also follow--as they struggled to escape from television and type-casting by heading to Europe.
In April, 2011, just before he agreed to reprise his role as Saruman for Peter Jackson in the Hobbit films, I had the opportunity to sit down with him in the beautiful park outside his London home to talk about his career, his web site, his love of music--and the sheer endurance any performing artist needs to make it in the world of entertainment.
Here is one snippet.
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