Actors Who Served: Christopher Lee

Big Hollywood ^ | September 8, 2012 | Amelia Hamilton

[Bratch]

Christopher Lee is known for playing villains in movies like "The Lord of the Rings," "Revenge of the Sith" and "The Wicker Man."

Before he was the villain, he was a real-life hero with the Royal Air Force during World War II.

Sir Christopher Frank Caradini Lee, CBE, CStJ was born on May 27, 1922. His mother was a well-known Edwardian beauty and his father, Geoffrey Trollope Lee, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 60th King’s Royal Rifle Corps.

Lee volunteered in 1939 to fight for the Finnish forces during the Winter War against the Soviet Union. He was, however, issued winter gear and was posted on guard duty but was kept at a safe distance from the Russians.

According to Lee’s autobiography, he and his fellow Brits were only in Finland for two weeks and never saw the Russian forces. In 1941, Lee enlisted with the Royal Air Force to serve in World War II. After eye problems forced Lee to drop out of training in South Africa, he ended up in North Africa as a Cipher Officer. He spent the remainder of the war working in intelligence, including his work as an Intelligence Officer with the Long Range Desert Group.

[skinkinthegrass]

from Encyclopedic Britannic
Russo-Finnish War, also called Winter War, World War II:
Russian bombing of Helsinki, capital of Finland, 1939 [Credit: Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library](Nov. 30, 1939–March 12, 1940), war waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the beginning of World War II, following the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (Aug. 23, 1939).

After Finland had refused to grant the Soviets a naval base and other concessions in the fall of 1939, Soviet troops totaling about one million men attacked Finland on several fronts. The heavily outnumbered Finns put up a skillful and effective defense that winter, and the Red Army made little progress.
they got stomped badly..the Army was still suffering from the Stalinist Purges of the 1930s..THE GREAT TERROR.

In February 1940, however, the Soviets used massive artillery bombardments to breach the Mannerheim Line (the Finns’ southern defensive barrier stretching across the Karelian Isthmus), after which they streamed northward across the isthmus to the Finnish city of Viipuri (Vyborg).

Unable to secure help from Britain and France, the exhausted Finns made peace on Soviet terms on March 12, 1940, agreeing to the cession of western Karelia and to the construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko Peninsula.

[CatherineofAragon]

Thank you for the link.

[PetroniusMaximus]

He was great in Space 1999.

[dfwgator]

Along with James Coburn, he was on the cover of Macca's "Band On the Run" Album

[Timber Rattler]

In one the of extra interviews included on the 'Lord of the Rings' collectors DVD, Brad Dourif (Grima Wormtongue) recounted how Christopher Lee showed him how to accurately portray someone dying from a stab or piercing wound to the lungs.

Knowing that Lee served in WWII, Dourif said that he did not ask him how he knew this first hand.

Classic!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

A trick question is how many movies has Sir Christopher Lee been killed or died in? One can only guess, because as of right now, he has no fewer than *four* movies in post-production.

I don’t even have a rough estimate.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Good post yarddog, good post.

[LS]

Lee flew for a while in training. During the casting of the movie,”The Battle of Britain” Lee auditioned and was told he was “too tall” to look like. Fighter pilot.