Christopher Frank Carandini Lee CBE, CStJ (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor and singer. He initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films. Other notable roles include Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973), Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Count Dooku in the Star Wars series, as well as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Lee's most important role, according to him, was his portrayal of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998), he is, at 195.6 centimetres (6 feet, 5 inches), one of the tallest leading actors of all time.
Is a step-cousin of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond spy novels. He has been married to the Danish model Birgit Kroencke (also known as Gitte Lee) since 1961. They have a daughter named Christina Erika (b. 23 November 1963).
He is also the uncle of the British actress Harriet Walter.
A known cigar aficionado with a love for the Cuban cigar brand Montecristo, he once said "What are these? I do not smoke cigars such as these, I only smoke Montecristo!" as an answer to an offer to smoke a different kind of cigar. His Montecristo of choice is the No 1, a Lonsdale.
Lee has a longstanding personal interest in the occult, maintaining a library of over 12,000 books which is largely devoted to the topic. This is discussed in his autobiography, Tall, Dark and Gruesome.
Christopher shares his birthday with his old friend and fellow film legend Vincent Price - and the previous day is the birthday of his frequent co-star Peter Cushing.
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