May 27, 2009

Happy Birthday, Christopher Lee

A superb, saturnine portrait in profile of Christopher Lee in heavy makeup as The Creature in the 1957 classic The Curse of Frankenstein.

It’s Lee’s birthday today, he turns a glorious 87, and he is still a busy actor. Thank you, dear sir, for a lifetime of entertainment and may you continue doing what you so obviously love as long as your heart desires.

Lee’s photo comes from the Life Magazine archives, a spectacular resource. Go and enter your search words and enjoy the wonderful returns. Try “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and you’ll see rare color photos of the Gillman. Enter ‘Destination Moon” and you’ll see tons of behind the scenes photos.

It’s also Vincent Price’s birthday today, he would have been 98. I have posted pics of Lee — including a wonderful shot of him at the start of his film career, mugging for the camera — and Price on Monster Crazy.


Related:
The Monster: Christopher Lee
Vincent Price and Christopher Lee
All posts related to Christopher Lee
All posts related to
The Curse of Frankenstein


7 comments:

David L Rattigan said...

Excellent picture. Never seen it before.

monsterscholar said...

I had no idea Lee ever played Frankenstein. Must check it out.

Pierre Fournier said...

Dave: Agreed. In fact, that's the best shot of the Lee Monster I've yet seen.

Scholar: It was CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN that kicked Lee's career (and Peter Cushing's, too) into high gear.

rob! said...

Lee and Price have the same birthday? Amazing!

Pierre Fournier said...

Lee and Price, and Cushing a day before. Best of all, the three men were good friends.

Another coincidental date: November 23 is the birthday of Boris Karloff, his daughter Sara, and Christopher Lee's daughter, Christina.

rob! said...

Spoooooky...

Michael Jones said...

Now we can refer to him as SIR Christopher Lee, he's been knighted!