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I thought that story was from LotR.
Also, my favorite Christopher Lee anecdote is … I just learned not true. I had read that he partially inspired James Bond (on cracked.com! I thought them at least moderately trustworthy back in the day!) but Lee is not listed in the Wikipedia character inspiration section.
The real story is from LOTR, yes. The joke here is that in Star Wars he supposedly requested a specially shaped curved lightsaber hilt because that was the style of fencing that he was accustomed to.
The story is actually false; the curved hilt was invented by the Phillipino prop designer as a homage to a style of traditional blade from his homeland, a fact that the story about Lee unfortunately erases. Lee, however, had no issue with the curved hilt as it was similar to a form used in many of the fencing styles he was familiar with.
However the LOTR story is true, confirmed by many sources including Jackson himself. In the scene where Saruman is stabbed in the back, Jackson was giving Lee notes, and Lee gave him a disappointed look and said no, no, that’s all wrong. “Look have you ever stabbed a man?”
He proceeded to take Jackson aside and, in Jackson’s words, tell him about some “Very clandestine parts of WW2.” For those who don’t know, what Jackson is referencing here is that Lee apparently served with the British Intelligence services and after the war was tasked with tracking down Nazi war criminals. This is basically your real life James Bond stuff. As in, the guy who wrote James Bond literally worked as a support officer to these people, and based his novels on their exploits, which is where the part about Lee being the inspiration comes from. While not him specifically, it was the many British (and foreign volunteer) spies doing absolutely crazy shit that formed the basis for the series. Yes, including the crazy gadgets. The shit that SOE (AKA, “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”) got up to was absolutely wild.
(note: There is some contention over the nature of Lee’s WW2 service, but, well, that’s the nature of doing spy shit. The British government still keeps a lot of that stuff under wraps, to this day. So, yes, it’s not what the publicly available records say, but that’s also entirely in line with the level of secrecy involved. We probably won’t know the truth for quite some time. I still can’t get my great uncle’s medical records from WW2, and his military service is in the public record.)
That was very interesting and informative. Thank you for all of it.
i’ve heard that too and didn’t really believe it but it was the kind of fun fact I wanted to be true
I believed it, but I’m not surprised to learn that my belief was unfounded.
ngl I’d start sweating if Christopher Lee looked me dead in the eye and said that to me while in his Dooku outfit.
