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The late Christopher Lee was a compelling character actor and a genre icon whose career saw him land parts in numerous pop culture favorites throughout his more than two hundred film roles. He's Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings" films, he's Count Dooku in the "Star Wars" universe, and he stars in sequels to films like "Gremlins," "Police Academy," "The Howling," and more. From Tim Burton's dark fantasies to the realm of Sherlock Holmes, Lee has seen it all, but for many fans it's his horror output that they love most. Sitting atop his dozens of horror efforts, it's his unforgettable portrayal of Count Dracula that reigns supreme. 

Below are all nine feature films in which Lee plays Count Dracula as a lead/title role. For completists, he did don the fangs for a 10th film, a 1970 comedy called "One More Time," but it's for no more than a thirty-second cameo.

Christopher Lee was a horror movie icon thanks to his depiction of Dracula, even if not every film he starred in as the famous blood-sucker was created equally. Long before Christopher Lee's famous villain roles like Saruman or Count Dooku, the English actor rose to prominence as none other than Count Dracula himself. Appearing in the flesh as Dracula in nine different films, Christopher Lee left behind a vampire legacy matched by few other performers, even if not every Dracula movie he starred in was the best.

Christopher Lee's Dracula rose to prominence thanks to his casting in the esteemed Hammer horror films of the 1950s and 60s. While Dracula was far from Christopher Lee's only horror character, it was by far his most influential, with crimson red eyes and a fanged laugh that sent shivers down the spines of 50s audiences. His Dracula appearances differ in quality heavily thanks to their varied directors,...

Lee's final time playing Dracula in The Satanic Rites of Dracula role inspired his later James Bond villain performance in The Man with the Golden Gun. Lee felt typecast in later Dracula films, leading to his eventual exit from the series. The Dracula actor turned down the final Hammer Dracula film after disliking the screenplay.

Christopher Lee's final time playing Hammer's Dracula saw the star basically auditioning for his eventual James Bond villain role. Lee's filmography is littered with great performances, with some of the most famous being Lord Summerisle from The Wicker Man and The Lord of the Rings' Saruman. One of Lee's most famous parts is Count Dracula, a character he played no less than ten times. Christopher Lee's Hammer Dracula movies make up seven of these efforts, with the 1958 original being the actor's breakout. He brought a menace and a sexuality to the role that hadn't been attempted onscreen before.

One of Tim Burton's favorite movies is Hammer's Dracula A.D. 1972, which he described as a "weird mixture of a Hammer horror film and swinging London." Despite his misfiring vampire comedy Dark Shadows, a Burton-helmed Dracula movie could revive the franchise and Hammer Horror. Burton's past successes with gothic horror make him an ideal choice to bring a fresh and more modern take to Hammer's Dracula.

One of Tim Burton's favorite movies makes him the best candidate to breathe life into horror's most famous monster. A quick look at Tim Burton's favorite horror movies reveals a broad diet of influences, but few that would be regarded as critically acclaimed masterpieces; instead, he loves old-fashioned B-movies like The War of the Gargantuas or Charlton Heston's The Omega Man. The director is also an admirer of classic British horror, including The Wicker Man or the works of Hammer.

On this episode of Daily Dead's official podcast, co-hosts Bryan Christopher, Derek Anderson, and Jonathan James catch up to discuss their recent viewings, including Jordan Peele's Nope, Dracula and Son (starring Christopher Lee), the first season of Chucky (as well as the upcoming second season), and the fourth season of What We Do in the Shadows!

You can listen to the new episode of Corpse Club right now on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, YouTube, Pandora, and SoundCloud!

Looking for more scary good Corpse Club content? Be sure to check out our Corpse Club website and memberships. Not only can you view past episodes, but you can also sign up to be an official Corpse Club member to enjoy a wide range of rewards, including a shirt and pin that are to die for, access to bonus content, and the ability to suggest an episode topic!

Missed out on our previous episodes?...

May 31st sees the release of The Eurocrypt of Christopher Lee Collection 2 from Severin Films, bringing more cult classic Christopher Lee films to Blu-ray, including Uncle Was a Vampire and Dracula and Son! We have all the details below, along with a trailer, and a look at the box set artwork:

The Eurocrypt Of Christopher Lee Collection 2

To celebrate the centennial of the legendary actor, Eurocrypt Collection 2 presents five of the most unexpected, underrated and underseen films of the iconic actor’s European career. Immediately following Horror Of Dracula, Lee reprised the role in the quirky 1959 Italian comedy Uncle Was A Vampire. Lee speaks fluent German opposite Klaus Kinski for the crazed 1962 krimi Secret Of The Red Orchid. In the 1974 UK psycho-thriller Dark Places, Lee toplines a cast that includes Joan Collins, Herbert Lom and Jane Birkin. Lee’s final performance as The Count in the 1976 French comedy Dracula And Son...

Mubi's retrospective, Catherine Breillat, Auteur of Porn?, is showing April 4 - June 3, 2017 in Germany.Sex Is ComedyThroughout her career, Catherine Breillat has provided viewers with a long-form meta-cinema experience. While metacinema is as old as the medium itself, since her debut feature A Real Young Girl in 1976, Breillat has developed a distinct form of it: one that collapses ‘autobiographical’ material, various artistic sensibilities, and the process of filmmaking itself.Like dozens of other English words—such as ‘aesthetic’ or ‘abject’—the word ‘meta’ has been largely misused or misapplied with regard to the film and literary criticism. Regarding the consumption of fiction, the appropriate use of the term 'metafiction,' 'metafilm,' et cetera, has its basis in the Greek meta, which does not translate directly into English but can be understood as a preposition similar to the English word ‘about’ (‘having to do with,’ or ‘on the subject of’). Metafiction is therefore,...

The day monster kids have dreaded for some time has arrived. Mournful, nostalgic, and melancholy – it’s the end of an era for more than one generation of horror fans. It seemed like Christopher Lee would live through all eternity, but unlike some of the characters he played, there’s no bringing him back to life this time. He made it to 93 and went out on a high note, appearing in the final Hobbit film just this past winter. He had an amazing career of fantastic performances and remains the greatest villain actor in film history. Rip to the last classic horror star and thank you for all the monster memories.

Christopher Lee was married to his wife Birgit (Gitte) for 54 years.

Here, according to Movie Geeks Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and myself, are Christopher Lee’s ten best roles.

10. Frankenstein

It’s only fitting that The Curse Of Frankenstein,...

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Mustache twirling aficionados of evil all know that when Hollywood wants ‘bad’ they go British, regardless of the characters actual nationality. Hollywood’s decision to cast Brits as bad guys started in the early days of cinema when American actors were reluctant to play villains so producers looked elsewhere.

They settled on the British because their accent was thought to represent sophistication and intelligence (clearly Hollywood producers have never been to Essex) and had anti-imperialistic connotations from the big, bad British Empire of yesteryear.

The British accent was to become a modern-day equivalent of the white hat/black hat stereotype of good and evil and was used to help audiences instantly recognize that one stereotype most people would never meet in real life; the evil genius. Almost a 100 years later and that tradition is still as strong as ever.

Join us as we take a look at some of...

With Hugh Jackman currently negotiating to play Wolverine for a seventh and eighth time, Cinelinx takes a look at actors who’ve played the same role eight times or more. Who has played the same character most often? Come in and find out.

Hugh Jackman has already played Wolverine five times--x-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and The Wolverine (2013)—as well as a cameo in X-Men:First Class (2011). Soon we’ll be seeing him fully clawed again on the big screen in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Recently, he told Collider that he might shoot Wolverine 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse “back-to-back”, which would make a total of eight times (9 times with the cameo) that he’ll portray the Canadian mutant.

You might be thinking “Wow! That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of anyone playing the same role so many times.” Well, for those who may not know it,...

‘La Cage aux Folles’ film: Edouard Molinaro international box office hit (photo: Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in ‘La Cage aux Folles’) (See previous post: “‘La Cage aux Folles’ Director Edouard Molinaro Dead at 85.”) But Edouard Molinaro’s best-known effort — comedy or otherwise — remains La Cage aux Folles (approximate translation: "The Cage of the Queens"), which sold 5.4 million tickets when it came out in France in 1978. Perhaps because many saw it as a letdown when compared to Jean Poiret’s immensely popular 1973 play, Molinaro’s movie ended up nominated for a single César Award — for eventual Best Actor winner Michel Serrault. Somewhat surprisingly, in the next couple of years La Cage aux Folles would become a major hit in the United States and other countries. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the U.S. in 1979, the film grossed $20.42 million at the North American box office — or about $65 million in 2013 dollars, a remarkable sum for a subtitled release.

‘La Cage aux Folles’ director Edouard Molinaro, who collaborated with Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, dead at 85 Edouard Molinaro, best known internationally for the late ’70s box office comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, which earned him a Best Director Academy Award nomination, died of lung failure on December 7, 2013, at a Paris hospital. Molinaro was 85. Born on May 31, 1928, in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, to a middle-class family, Molinaro began his six-decade-long film and television career in the mid-’40s, directing narrative and industrial shorts such as Evasion (1946), the Death parable Un monsieur très chic ("A Very Elegant Gentleman," 1948), and Le verbe en chair / The Word in the Flesh (1950), in which a poet realizes that greed is everywhere — including his own heart. At the time, Molinaro also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with, among others, Robert Vernay (the 1954 version of The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Jean Marais) and...

Article by Jim Batts, Dana Jung, Sam Moffitt, and Tom Stockman

The film career of legendary English actor Sir Christopher Lee began in 1948 and continues to the present day. Lee is best known for his roles in horror films, especially the string of seven Dracula movies he starred in for Hammer Studios between 1958 and 1974, but be may be best known to younger audiences for his roles in the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. Almost all of the roles that Lee has played have been villains and here, according to We Are Movie Geeks, are his ten best.

10. Frankenstein

It’s only fitting that The Curse Of Frankenstein, the film that truly began England’s Hammer Studios’ theatrical run of full color gothic horror epics, should team (well, they’re both in the 1948 Hamlet, but have no scenes together) their greatest stars, Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein...