calimac: (puzzle)
calimac ([personal profile] calimac) wrote2015-06-11 09:43 pm

Sir Christopher Lee will live on

People talk about his heavy-metal albums, but did you know he also recited Tolkien poetry for the Tolkien Ensemble? I'm sure it was playing Saruman that got him the gig, but what a voice!

And he'll live on generationally, too. Did you know that Harriet Walter (best-known to me as Fanny Dashwood in Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility) is his niece?

[identity profile] sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com 2015-06-12 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
He also provided voices for a version of "The Queen of Elfland's Daughter" with some Steeleye members, I believe.

[identity profile] athenais.livejournal.com 2015-06-12 03:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't know she was his niece! How interesting.

Christopher Lee had a truly great voice. Such command over his instrument.

[identity profile] randy-byers.livejournal.com 2015-06-12 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Yesterday I saw somewhere in passing that he claimed to have known Tolkien.

[identity profile] desperance.livejournal.com 2015-06-13 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
He did! Which is why I'm asking rather anxiously whether I'm the last man alive who met both Tolkien and Gandalf...?

[identity profile] desperance.livejournal.com 2015-06-13 06:59 am (UTC)(link)
I saw Harriet Walter often with the RSC - but I remember her most fondly for her Harriet Vane in the BBC's most recent Peter Wimsey adaptations. I had no idea she was Christopher Lee's niece...