Saturday, June 13, 2009

"That's SIR Christopher Lee, Mister!"

Venerable character actor and long-time vampire Christopher Lee has received the highest honor attainable to a Brit, receiving an honorable knighthood from QE 2. It caps a career that has spanned 60 years and over 260 movies (nearly 100 in the '60s and '70s alone).

Not bad for a guy who has played Dracula more times than Robert Pattinson has been in a movie.

It's a fitting achievement for Lee. He's one of the last true "character" actors, not in the sense that they are able to play any role, but that if you need a certain kind of character, you call on that actor. If you needed a crusty prospector type, you got Walter Brennan. If you needed a stuffy, upper-class authority figure, you got John Houseman. If you need Christopher Lee, you get Christopher Lee.

I realize that nowadays this is called typecasting, but Lee managed to turn it into an artform and a career. He was such a powerful presence in all of his roles that he didn't even need to be the lead character to have an impact. John Wayne, another prolific actor, was in nearly every frame of every movie he was in. Lee could come in, put in two days of work, and still get his name above the title. In the six Dracula movies in made for Hammer Films, he's got maybe two hours screentime tops. Yet I think he's more associated with Dracula than even Bela Legosi. I've seen movies that he's in for 10 minutes and has top billing. That's an actor.

And now a Knight as well. I'd wish Lee much continued prosperity, but, hey, the guy's 87 years old; everyone retires eventually. Even Dracula.

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