Christopher Lee's Real Name: Christopher Frank Carandini Lee

Quick answer: Sir Christopher Lee was born Christopher Frank Carandini Lee on May 27, 1922, in Belgravia, London. The Library of Congress and the BBC both give that full name. The middle name Carandini comes from his mother's aristocratic Italian family. He played Dracula for Hammer Films and later Saruman and Count Dooku, and he died in London on June 7, 2015, at 93 (LOC; BBC).

Real name and early life

The BBC obituary says his father was a colonel in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. His mother was Contessa Estelle Marie Carandini di Sarzano, a celebrated Edwardian beauty. After his parents' marriage broke up, his mother took him to Switzerland for part of his childhood. He then returned to England and attended Wellington College, which Britannica dates to 1936–39.

In 1939 he volunteered to fight for Finland against the Soviet invasion but saw no action, according to the BBC. He then joined the Royal Air Force. Poor eyesight kept him from training as a pilot, so he became an intelligence officer and ended the war as a flight lieutenant. Britannica says casting directors first dismissed him because of his height. The BBC adds that, with help from a relative who was Italy's ambassador, he signed a seven-year contract with the Rank Organisation. He made his film debut in Corridor of Mirrors (1948).

Career highlights

He had already made about 50 films when Hammer cast him as the creature in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), opposite his lifelong friend Peter Cushing. Dracula (1958), released in the US as Horror of Dracula, made him an international star, and he played the Count again in six more Hammer films. He also played the Mummy, Rasputin, and Fu Manchu. The BBC quotes him calling The Wicker Man (1973) his best performance. He played Scaramanga in the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); the BBC notes that Bond creator Ian Fleming was his cousin.

A new generation discovered him as Saruman in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films (the BBC says he had wanted Gandalf, which went to Ian McKellen), and as Count Dooku in two Star Wars prequels. He considered Jinnah (1998), in which he played Pakistan's founder, his most important work. Rolling Stone chronicled his late-life heavy metal albums, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010) and Charlemagne: The Omens of Death (2013). He was made a CBE in 2001, knighted in 2009, and received a BAFTA Fellowship in 2011.

Name notes for searchers

Christopher is his first name, and Frank and Carandini are middle names; Lee is his family surname. After his 2009 knighthood he was styled Sir Christopher Lee, which is the form the LOC uses.