Name at birth: Christopher Frank Caradini Lee

After a long and distinguished career as one of the biggest movie stars of horror and fantasy, Christopher Lee is now known to film audiences as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films, and as Darth Tyranus in the Star Wars epics Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Christopher Lee has been making movies since 1947, and over the years he has played mostly villains and monsters, thanks in part to a long association with the United Kingdom's Hammer Films. His remarkable filmography includes more than 250 films, including: Dracula (1958); The Mummy (1959); The Hands of Orlac (1961); The Gorgon (1964); The Face of Fu Manchu (1962); The Devil Rides Out (1968); The Wicker Man (1973); The Three Musketeers (1973, co-starring Faye Dunaway); The Man With The Golden Gun (1974, with Roger Moore); Airport '77 (1977, starring Jack Lemmon); and Sleepy Hollow (1999, with Johnny Depp). He was introduced to a new generation of fans in the Lord of the Rings films, playing the villainous wizard Saruman: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003). He reprised the role for the 2012 prequel The Hobbit.

Christopher Lee made nearly two dozen movies with his friend and fellow horror star Peter Cushing... In 1977 he published his autobiography, Tall, Dark and Gruesome.