Christopher Lee quotes

Born
27 May 1922 Belgravia, London, England.

Died
7 June 2015.

Occupation
Actor.

Christopher Lee was an English actor, singer and military officer. With a career in acting spanning nearly 70 years.

Movies
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Dark Shadows (2012)
Hugo (2011)
The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

I’ve done a lot of films that have become iconic, not necessarily because of me.
– Christopher Lee

I’m much softer than people think. I don’t present to the world an emotional face. I’m pretty good at self-control, but I am easily moved.
– Christopher Lee

To be a legend, you’ve either got to be dead or excessively old!
– Christopher Lee

Not every Hammer film was perfect.
– Christopher Lee

I thought that people should know about the dangers of Satanism, and diabolism does exist – there’s no question about it.
– Christopher Lee

I didn’t want to be known as a man who only made horror films. I made some – very few.
– Christopher Lee

There is something sad about malevolence, to be wicked. I have always tried to make that come across in the villains I have played.
– Christopher Lee

Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.
– Christopher Lee

I was attached to the SAS from time to time, but we are forbidden – former, present, or future – to discuss any specific operations.
– Christopher Lee

I’ve worked with Tim Burton five times, and it’s just like being part of a family; life doesn’t get much better than that.
– Christopher Lee

I am never going to stop playing the villain. I would be foolish to do so because the audiences apparently enjoy watching me, and who am I to say no?
– Christopher Lee

I’m still asked a great deal about ‘The Wicker Man’ because it’s become one of the great cult movies of all time. That’s the story of my career, really, making cult movies. And I’ve always said it’s the best film I’ve ever made.
– Christopher Lee

My favourite country is Finland because once you get to a certain point, you can drive for hours without seeing a single person. I love peace and quiet – something I don’t get very often.
– Christopher Lee

Ian Fleming was my cousin, you know. He was in naval intelligence.
– Christopher Lee

When I first read ‘Lord of the Rings,’ I wanted to see a film of it. But at that time, the technology wasn’t there; there was no such thing as CGI.
– Christopher Lee

There are many vampires in the world today… you only have to think of the film business.
– Christopher Lee

I don’t play long parts. They must be short parts, but they’ve got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I’m on the screen, and people will remember the character after they’ve seen the film.
– Christopher Lee

When the Second World War finished, I was 23, and already I had seen enough horror to last me a lifetime. I’d seen dreadful, dreadful things, without saying a word. So seeing horror depicted on film doesn’t affect me much.
– Christopher Lee

I lived for 10 years in Los Angeles, and the one element that surpasses everything else – that you are very conscious of – is fear. You can smell it.
– Christopher Lee

The secret to a long marriage in the film industry? Marry someone wonderful, as I did. And always have her come along on location.
– Christopher Lee

‘The Impossible Dream’ is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written. Here is a man, an old man, a very old man full of daring, bravery, courage, determination, romanticism and dreams.
– Christopher Lee

I turn to the ‘Telegraph’s’ obituaries page with trepidation.
– Christopher Lee

Peter Jackson’s instincts are extraordinary, as is his stamina.
– Christopher Lee

I have made a lot of movies, but I don’t see any point in talking about films I don’t think are terribly good. I have been in a few. I don’t know any actor that hasn’t.
– Christopher Lee

You can learn Elvish, if you want. It’s a language like Italian and English. You can learn to read it, you can learn to write it, and you can learn to speak it.
– Christopher Lee

Let’s just say I was in Special Forces and leave it at that. People can read into that what they like.
– Christopher Lee

On the Italian side, we can trace the family back 2,000 years. I have a cousin in Rome, a famous archaeologist, Count Andrea Carandini, who was in Lombardy and came across some pottery with the original name of the family, Carandinus, painted on it.
– Christopher Lee

I don’t think anyone has ever succeeded in putting Ian Fleming‘s James Bond up on the screen. The closest in my opinion is Pierce Brosnan.
– Christopher Lee

If I had any deadly secrets, I wouldn’t still be alive.
– Christopher Lee

I haven’t spent my entire career playing the guy in the bad hat, although I have to say that the bad guy is frequently much more interesting than the good guy.
– Christopher Lee

We don’t always get the kind of work we want, but we always have a choice of whether to do it with good grace or not.
– Christopher Lee

The most important film I made, in terms of its subject and the great responsibility I had as an actor, was a film I did about the founder of Pakistan called ‘Jinnah.’
– Christopher Lee

I associate heavy metal with fantasy because of the tremendous power that the music delivers.
– Christopher Lee

It’s what you don’t see that keeps you on the edge of your seat in any kind of film – leave it to the imagination of the viewer.
– Christopher Lee

The saddest country I went to was Romania, years ago, during Ceausescu’s rule.
– Christopher Lee

We don’t live in a particularly attractive world. I don’t really remember, except as a small boy, anything but a pretty grim world.
– Christopher Lee