User:Tiller54/Music career of Christopher Lee

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee,, (born 27 May 1922) is an English actor, singer and author. Lee initially portrayed villains and became best known for his role as Count Dracula in a string of popular Hammer Horror films. His other notable roles include Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003) and The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014), and Count Dooku in the final two films of the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002 and 2005).

He was knighted for services to drama and charity in 2009, received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2011 and received the BFI Fellowship in 2013. Lee considers his best performance to be that of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the biopic Jinnah (1998), and his best film to be the British horror film The Wicker Man (1973).

Always noted as an actor for his deep, strong voice, he has, more recently, also been known for using his singing ability, recording various opera and musical pieces between 1986 and 1998 and the symphonic metal album Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross in 2010 after having worked with several metal bands since 2005. The heavy metal follow-up titled Charlemagne: The Omens of Death was released on 27 May 2013. He was honoured with the "Spirit of Metal" award in the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards ceremony.

Christopher Lee is one of the highest grossing actors of all time, having grossed $8,321,486,066 worldwide.

Music career of Christopher Lee
"The one serious regret of my career is that I never gave singing a proper shot."

The King And I with Valerie Masterson.

The King of Elfland's Daughter was "one of the most beautiful things I've ever been associated with." Narrated and sang the King.

The Soldier's Tale, narrating all the voices. Went on tour including Birmingham, Croydon, Cheltenham, Glasgow, with the Scottish Chamer Orchestra.

1989 Peter and the Wolf in Leominster.

Christopher Lee Sings Devils, Rogues & Other Villains - from Broadway to Bayreuth. Invited by Nicholas Schreck. Fifteen songs sung in five days in LA in 1997. Some with piano, some with orchestra, some with Mighty Wurlitzer. Includes Iago's Credo from Othello, the two Mephistopheles arias from Faust, the Mikado's song, the Inquisitor's number from The Gondoliers, plus pieces from The Rheingold, The Marriage of Figaro, Gotterdammerung and so forth.

Sang with Gary Curtis. First Elvis' Now or Never, plan for an album in 2003 "along country and western lines", "using High Noon, songs from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a Pat Boone song, a smidgen of Nashville, a whiff of the Delta."

Reading books on radio or audio: Frankenstein, Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, The Strange CAse of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde which was "one of the best." As well as works by Agatha Christie and Dennis Wheatley. Hybrid M. R. James stories reading them by the fire. The Exorcist.

On radio, Somerset Maugham's The Noble Spaniard and Leviathan 99.