Christopher Lee, RIP
Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:28 am
What a man. What an actor.
I can't think of a time when I didn't assume, after he pulled yet another major role out of the hat, that it was his final throw of the dice and then he'd up and do it again. And the odd thing is that he did all this long after retiring age. Other than The Wicker Man there's nothing in his Hammer repertoire which hasn't dated appallingly - magnificent performances, yes, he and Peter Cushing were wonderful in them, but the productions and often the scripts themselves were dire.
And then he comes out with Jinnah, and everyone's asking whether he can still even walk he's so old, and he defines the role for ever, he was as exactly and unexpectedly right as Ben Kingsley had been as Gandhi. What a way to end a career. And then he does it again, not just once more but twice.
I can't think of a time when I didn't assume, after he pulled yet another major role out of the hat, that it was his final throw of the dice and then he'd up and do it again. And the odd thing is that he did all this long after retiring age. Other than The Wicker Man there's nothing in his Hammer repertoire which hasn't dated appallingly - magnificent performances, yes, he and Peter Cushing were wonderful in them, but the productions and often the scripts themselves were dire.
And then he comes out with Jinnah, and everyone's asking whether he can still even walk he's so old, and he defines the role for ever, he was as exactly and unexpectedly right as Ben Kingsley had been as Gandhi. What a way to end a career. And then he does it again, not just once more but twice.