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Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor, singer, author, and World War II veteran. With a career spanning nearly 70 years, Lee initially portrayed villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a sequence of Hammer Horror films. His other film roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974), Saruman in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and ''The Hobbit'' film trilogy (2012–2014), and Count Dooku in the final two films of the ''Star Wars'' prequel trilogy (2002 and 2005). Lee was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013.〔 *("Hammer Horror star Lee knighted" ). BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2012 * ("Christopher Lee to receive Bafta Fellowship" ). BBC. Retrieved 7 May 2012 * ("Depp surprises Sir Christopher Lee with film award" ). BBC. Retrieved 14 December 2013〕 Lee considered his best performance to be that of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic ''Jinnah'' (1998), and his best film to be the British horror film ''The Wicker Man'' (1973). Always noted as an actor for his deep strong voice, Lee was also known for his singing ability, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and the symphonic metal album ''Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross'' in 2010 after having worked with several metal bands since 2005. The heavy metal follow-up titled ''Charlemagne: The Omens of Death'' was released on 27 May 2013.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Sir Christopher Lee releases second heavy metal album )〕 He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony. Lee died from complications of respiratory problems and heart failure in a Chelsea hospital on the morning of 7 June 2015 at the age of 93. == Early life == Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was born on 27 May 1922 in Belgravia, Westminster, London, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Trollope Lee (1879–1941), of the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps, and his wife, Countess Estelle Marie (née Carandini di Sarzano; 1889–1981).〔 *(【引用サイトリンク】title=Christopher Lee Biography (1922–) ) * 〕 Lee's father fought in the Boer War and in the First World War and his mother was an Edwardian beauty who was painted by Sir John Lavery as well as by Oswald Birley and Olive Snell, and sculpted by Clare Sheridan;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Christopher Lee – Biography )〕 her lineage can be traced to Charlemagne.〔 〕 Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, whose wife, Lee's great-grandmother, was English-born opera singer Marie Carandini (née Burgess). He had one sister, Xandra Carandini Lee (1917–2002). Lee's parents separated when he was four and divorced two years later. During this time, his mother took him and his sister to Wengen in Switzerland. After enrolling in Miss Fisher's Academy in Territet, he played his first role, as Rumpelstiltskin. They then returned to London, where Lee attended Wagner's private school in Queen's Gate and his mother married Harcourt George St-Croix Rose, a banker and uncle of Ian Fleming. Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, thus became Lee's step-cousin. The family moved to Fulham, living next door to the actor Eric Maturin. One night, he was introduced to Prince Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the assassins of Grigori Rasputin, whom Lee was to play many years later. When Lee was nine, he was sent to Summer Fields School, a preparatory school in Oxford whose pupils often later attended Eton. He continued acting in school plays, though "the laurels deservedly went to Patrick Macnee." Lee applied for a scholarship to Eton, where his interview was in the presence of the ghost story author M. R. James. Sixty years later, Lee played the part of James for the BBC. His poor maths skills meant that he placed eleventh and thus missed out on being a King's Scholar by one place. His step-father was not prepared to pay the higher fees that being an Oppidan Scholar meant and so he did not attend. Instead, Lee attended Wellington College, where he won scholarships in the classics, studying Ancient Greek and Latin.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Christopher Lee biography )〕 Aside from a "tiny part" in a school play, he didn't act while at Wellington. He was a "passable" racquets player and fencer and a competent cricketer but did not do well at the other sports played: hockey, football, rugby and boxing. He disliked the parades and weapons training and would always "play dead" as soon as possible during mock battles. Lee was frequently beaten at school, including once at Wellington for "being beaten too often", though he accepted them as "logical and therefore acceptable" punishments for knowingly breaking the rules. At age 17 and with one year left at Wellington, the summer term of 1939 was his last. His step-father had gone bankrupt, owing £25,000. His mother separated from Rose, and Lee had to get a job, his sister already working as a secretary for the Church of England Pensions Board. With most employers on or preparing to go on summer holidays, there were no immediate opportunities for Lee and so he was sent to the French Riviera, where his sister was on holiday with friends. On his way there he stopped briefly in Paris, where he stayed with the journalist Webb Miller, a friend of Rose, and witnessed the execution of Eugen Weidmann, the last person to be executed in public in France. Arriving in Menton, he stayed with the Russian Mazirov family, living among exiled princely families. It was arranged that he should stay on in Menton after his sister had returned home, but with Europe on the brink of war, he returned to London instead. He worked as an office clerk for United States Lines, taking care of the mail and running errands. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Christopher Lee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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