Christopher Lee: Nerdom Looses an Icon!

Allow me to fanboy...just one last time.

For movies, in general, have lost a legend. Sir Chistopher Lee, star of nearly 300 movies in his lifetime, has passed away due to heart and respiratory complications. According to IMDB, Lee is 'listed as the Center of the Hollywood Universe by the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website' because he can be linked to anyone in Hollywood on an average of 2.59 steps. Take that Kevin Bacon! His acting career goes back to early television roles in 1948. But, most reading this will, no doubt, fade into memories of Saruman from Lord of the Rings or Count Dooku from the Star Wars prequel. But my memories fade a bit older.

I grew up in the heyday of Hollywood horror where characters that are now iconic like Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the Mummy ruled the screen. I didn't realize it at the time, but Lee would become irreversibly interwoven into my life long consumption of horror and suspense movies. He became one of the great horror icons with his role as Dracula in several Hammer Horror films. But, it was his role THE CREEPING DEAD, a story about a scientist who returns from Papua New Guinea with an archeological find that goes terribly wrong. That's the first I had ever heard of Chirstopher Lee. And that move to me, is still amazingly written and captivating after all of these years. He shared the screen with another legend Peter Cushing.

Christopher Lee, being as prolific as he is, has weaved his way through much of nerdom in movies and tv. He made an appearance in Disney's Return from Witch Mountain (1978), the sequel to the Captain America tv movie (1979), Howling II (1985), Gremlins 2 (1990), The Young Indiana Jones tv show (1992); just to name a few. He cemented his place in modern nerdom with his roles in Lord of the Rings and Star Wars along with cameos like the voice of the Jabberwocky in Alice in Wonderland.

I could gush on and on, but suffice it to say that this year will see a flood of purchasing, downloading and viewing across the ages from Lee's Dracula movies to his recent big budget appearances and, no doubt, a good many downloading and listing parties for this icon's Metal albums. Rock on Sir Christopher Lee. We who are about to binge watch salute you.