Born in London in 1922, Christopher Lee went to work in business in
the City of London after leaving school. On leaving the Royal Air Force
at the end of World War II, he decided to become an actor, though he
admits that he finds it difficult to remember why he took the decision
to join the profession that was later to take him to the heights of
international success. One of the great turning points in his career,
however, undoubtedly came in 1956 when Hammer asked him to play the
creature in their first remake of the great horror movies of the 'thirties,
The Curse Of Frankenstein
(1957).
Christopher Lee's part in Frankenstein brought him into contact with
another actor, Peter Cushing, with whom he was to establish an acting
partnership which would prove equally successful in Dracula
(1957). Lee was reluctant to go on playing Dracula, and away from Hammer
his other notable roles have included Scaramanga in The
Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and Lord Summerisle in the occult
thriller The Wicker
Man (1973).
