[Article] Goodbye, Christopher Lee

The death of the English actor Christopher Lee, who had recently turned 93, has recently been made public. At ComboGamer we wanted to make some kind of tribute or article dedicated to his memory, but I'm afraid that the following lines are all we can offer you in this regard, since an entire life dedicated to acting cannot be summarized in a bunch of lines.

One of the most difficult moments for an actor must be when he has to play a character that everyone relates to a previous interpretation to the point that the face, voice and style of that character and the actor who immortalized him merge into one. Something like having to play the role that Arnold Schwarzenegger played in Terminator knowing that whatever you say and do what you do, you will always be compared to him, simply because of the importance, impact and popularity that character had in his interpretation.

Christopher Lee had his great success in that same situation, when in 1958 he donned the cape of Dracula, a role that Bela Lugosi had immortalized in the 1930s. Lugosi managed to make his image, voice and gestures become those of Dracula, to the point that if you ask someone to imitate Dracula for you, there is a good chance that the interpretation will try to emulate Lugosi's, even if that person has not seen the film!

Lee was a renowned fan of horror films and Lugosi himself and knew that he could not fight in the field of the Hungarian actor, so he decided to play a Different Dracula, more authoritarian, fearsome and violent, for which he had the help of his height (1.96 meters). This aggressive Dracula with fangs dripping with red blood terrified an entire generation that considered Christopher to be the real Dracula, as his performance made Lugosi look like a snake charmer in the eyes of new viewers.

In that situation, one might think that the actor would be proud of his performance and the good reception he had from the public, and that in an exercise of arrogance he would throw Lugosi's classic Dracula to the ground, however in most of Lee's interpretations of the Lord of the Vampires, he wore a strange ring that was a copy of the ring that Bela Lugosi wore in Dracula (1931), a detail of respect towards his predecessor, who was buried dressed as Dracula 2 years before Lee filmed Horror of Dracula (1958).

This role was not the first that Christopher Lee played, since he had been acting in plays since his youth and had already participated in several films before putting on the vampire cape, although in some of them he simply only played small extra roles, as happened in Hamlet (1948) where he met Peter Cushing with whom he would develop a great friendship behind the cameras and an incredible rivalry in front of them, since both actors used to play opposite roles in the same film.

This position of rivals began in Curse of Frankenstein (1957) directed by Terrence Fisher, who trusted the Cushing-Lee tandem on many occasions after seeing the result of said film in which Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) was in a cell, sentenced to death for the crimes his creature (Christopher Lee) had committed.

Although in my opinion, Lee's Frankenstein monster was light years away from the one played by Karloff in Frankenstein (1931), That role opened the doors to Hammer Productions, where Lee had his artistic home for years., playing a huge number of villains.

Although there is no doubt that the villains have a charisma that can hardly be matched by the protagonist of the film, Lee found himself typecast in that role, which he played for practically his entire career., despite participating in films of all kinds, since we saw him in musicals (The Return of Captain Invincible) action movies (007 – The man with the golden gun), humorous (Gremlins 2), superheroes (Captain America II: Death Too Soon), and in his recent appearances in multimillion-dollar sagas such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Ringss and The hobbyt.

While it is true that he had his chance playing some famous protagonists such as Sherlock Holmes (a role immortalized by his partner Peter Cushing), he had to suffer a typecasting similar to that of the aforementioned Lugosi, although fortunately Christopher accepted his destiny in a much more laudable way and with better results, even playing roles in small productions that could barely pay their salary., as long as you liked the character and the story, as happened in El Conde Drácula (1970) y El hombre de mimbre (1973), siendo esta última una de sus interpretaciones favoritas, hasta el punto de que algunas fuentes aseguran que Lee hizo el trabajo prácticamente gratis.

Lamentablemente el tiempo pasa y los gustos de los espectadores, así como las inquietudes de los directores y productores, suelen variar hasta el punto de alejarse de lo que había sido moda durante los años anteriores. En los años 80 las películas de terror habían cambiado tanto, que muchos de sus actores vieron como su trabajo descendía a gran velocidad, de manera que tenían que buscar todas las alternativas posibles, entre ellas la televisión y los documentales de cine. Afortunadamente algunos de los nuevos directores habían crecido viendo las películas de Lee y eso le aseguró un mínimo de trabajo, como por ejemplo el que le dio uno sus fans, Tim Burton, quien ha contratado a Lee para muchas de sus películas.

La vida de este actor ha sido muy larga y son muchas las cosas curiosas que se cuentan de él, como su afición al baile y a la música, que seguramente lo llevaron a participar en musicales y a grabar canciones de Heavy Metal para sus propios discos o en colaboraciones con bandas como Rhapsody either Manowar, either su pasión por la lectura, siendo El Señor de los anillos una de sus sagas favoritas, hasta el punto de que el actor llegó a decir que lo había leído en multitud de ocasiones y cada vez que lo hacía descubría algo nuevo.

Cuando se rodaron las películas basadas en la obra de Tolkien, se pensó en Christopher Lee para hacer el papel de Gandalf, aunque lamentablemente su avanzada edad le impedía hacer muchas de las escenas de acción de manera que, una vez más, le tocó interpretar al villano: Saruman el Blanco, papel que le dio de nuevo la fama y que volvió su rostro reconocible para una nueva legión de fans.

Sin embargo, se cuenta que no todo fue maravilloso en ese rodaje, pues a Lee (como fan de la obra original, hasta el punto de haber conocido a Tolkien en persona) le molestaron algunos cambios que habían en la película con respecto al libro, siendo uno de ellos la muerte de Saruman, que solo aparece en la versión extendida de la tercera película y no tiene absolutamente nada que ver con su muerte según el libro.

Sin embargo, muy grande no debió ser el enfrentamiento entre actor y director, pues una década más tarde se inició el rodaje de El hobbit y Lee se ofreció a dar su inolvidable voz al dragón Smaug al no poder viajar a Nueva Zelanda para interpretar a Saruman por su delicada salud, algo que ni Peter Jackson, ni los fans de la trilogía anterior estaban dispuestos a aceptar, de manera que, por última vez, Lee interpretó a Saruman el Blanco.

Son más de 200 las películas en las que este actor ha dejado su huella con un papel principal o aportado su granito de arena con uno secundario, de hecho es muy difícil ser amante del cine y no haber visto nunca una película donde aparezca Christopher Lee. Incluso si eres una persona que evita las películas de terror y de cine fantástico, puedo asegurarte que has visto su rostro y escuchado su voz, un lujo que parecía que iba a durar para siempre.