Sir Christopher Lee has died aged 93.
The English actor was of course Scaramanga in The Man With the Golden Gun. Lee was Ian Fleming’s step cousin, and was in fact offered the role of Dr No by Fleming in the first Bond film. But Joseph Wiseman had already been cast by the producers and Lee would have to wait until 1974 to make his mark as a Bond villian. On the rold of Scaramanga Lee said: “In Fleming’s novel he’s just a West Indian thug, but in the film he’s charming, elegant, amusing, lethal… I played him like the dark side of Bond.”
He had a long career and made many films; he made many which would be regarded as “cult” films which increaded his popularity as an actor.
His most famous roles were in horror as an iconic Dracula in the Hammer series, and as Lord Summerisle in The wicker Man; as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films trilogy and Darth Tyranus in the final two Star Wars prequels.