Biographie

Deeply melodic basso voice

Frequently played imposing, menacing villains

Frequently played characters from upper class

Characters interested in the occult and/or possessing supernatural powers

Many roles in Hammer Horror films

As a veritable J.R.R. Tolkien expert and the only member of the cast who had met Tolkien himself, he often visited the Production department on the sets of the various Lord of the Rings movies to give advice and tips on the various attributes of the films.

He read the Lord of the Rings trilogy once a year for decades, long before the film series ever even began.

He was upset about the deletion of his death scene in the theatrical version of Le Seigneur des anneaux : Le Retour du roi (2003). However, the scene was put back into the Extended Edition which is seen as the definitive version.

In his autobiography, he relates his first meeting with Peter Cushing during production of Frankenstein s'est échappé (1957), in which he played the monster. Lee stormed into a dressing room where Cushing was sitting and angrily shouted "I haven't got any lines!". Cushing replied "You're lucky; I've read the script.".

He was one of the few actors who portrayed three different Sherlock Holmes characters: Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes and Sir Henry Baskerville.

I stopped appearing as Dracula in 1972 because in my opinion the presentation of the character had deteriorated to such an extent, particularly bringing him into the contemporary day and age, that it really no longer had any meaning.

Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff didn't like the word "horror". They, like I, went for the French description: "the theatre of the fantastique".

There are many vampires in the world today - you only have to think of the film business.

In Britain, any degree of success is met with envy and resentment.

(on his friendship with Peter Cushing) I don't want to sound gloomy, but, at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again.