So long, Lord Summerisle
Jun. 11th, 2015 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoSo, Sir Christopher Lee passed away today (article here). What a full life! That man had a filmography as long as my arm, and I've hardly seen a fraction of his work. I really should fix that one of these days.
I've seen a few quotes flying around that indicate he felt that his role as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973) was one of his best performances. While I can't be sure how it matches up to his other work, I can definitely say that he was excellent in that movie. It's an amazing film, one of my favourites - you should all watch it if you haven't seen it yet!
That film doesn't just have Lee in a great role; it also lets us experience his great singing voice. His duet with Ingrid Pitt, "Tinker of Rye" accompanied by piano, is lovely. You can listen to it over here. In general, man, The Wicker Man has a great soundtrack. The music is one of my favourite things from that movie. All of it.
Aside from the film roles, I'm mostly familiar with the work Lee did with Rhapsody of Fire. He voiced the narration on several of their albums - and then of course there is Magic of the Wizard's Dream, a song that I was totally in love with when it came out. ... Though I will admit that at the time, it was more because of the "Holy shit, Fabio Lione did a song with Saruman!" factor, ahaha. I have no idea what Lee's solo music is like, but apparently he released two metal albums centred around the story of Charlemagne, and I'm totally there for that.
...And I only just realized that Lee was the voice of King Haggard in The Last Unicorn as well! Another one of my favourites! And he did voice for both the English and German versions?! What a guy.
I've seen a few quotes flying around that indicate he felt that his role as Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973) was one of his best performances. While I can't be sure how it matches up to his other work, I can definitely say that he was excellent in that movie. It's an amazing film, one of my favourites - you should all watch it if you haven't seen it yet!
That film doesn't just have Lee in a great role; it also lets us experience his great singing voice. His duet with Ingrid Pitt, "Tinker of Rye" accompanied by piano, is lovely. You can listen to it over here. In general, man, The Wicker Man has a great soundtrack. The music is one of my favourite things from that movie. All of it.
Aside from the film roles, I'm mostly familiar with the work Lee did with Rhapsody of Fire. He voiced the narration on several of their albums - and then of course there is Magic of the Wizard's Dream, a song that I was totally in love with when it came out. ... Though I will admit that at the time, it was more because of the "Holy shit, Fabio Lione did a song with Saruman!" factor, ahaha. I have no idea what Lee's solo music is like, but apparently he released two metal albums centred around the story of Charlemagne, and I'm totally there for that.
...And I only just realized that Lee was the voice of King Haggard in The Last Unicorn as well! Another one of my favourites! And he did voice for both the English and German versions?! What a guy.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-12 08:57 am (UTC)I'm sad we don't have him in the world anymore, but wow, what a life lived! He did so much with his 93 years.
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Date: 2015-06-12 12:27 pm (UTC)I have heard his metal albums and they are interesting in the same way that William Shatner's musical career is interesting. It isn't so much singing as it is a narrative...but still pretty good.
But...in all ways...he shall be missed.
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Date: 2015-06-12 08:55 pm (UTC)And what a guy, indeed. He was also a total bad ass in real life: I remember back when LotR movies came out he got a lot of attention from the Finnish press because he'd lived in Finland for a while during the second world war after volunteering to fight on the Finnish front.