Christopher Lee

“I did play Ramses II once, who lived to be 91 and had 120 children, but he died 4,000 years ago.”

“In 1956, the success of the Hammer films kick-started my career. That immediately gave me a name and a face to go with it. I will always be grateful to Hammer for that.”

“When I first read 'Lord of the Rings,' I wanted to see a film of it. But at that time, the technology wasn't there; there was no such thing as CGI.”

“It's what you don't see that keeps you on the edge of your seat in any kind of film - leave it to the imagination of the viewer.”

“I wasn't a spy. I'd have been spotted in five seconds. Yes, I was in intelligence, but that covered a multitude of things.”

“Not every Hammer film was perfect.”

“I made three films with Boris Karloff. He was absolutely wonderful.”

“The first 'Charlemagne' album is metal, of course, but what I sang was more symphonic.”

“I haven't spent my entire career playing the guy in the bad hat, although I have to say that the bad guy is frequently much more interesting than the good guy.”

“Acting as a profession came to me by chance: in 1946, after the war, I was having lunch with my cousin, who was the Italian ambassador, and he asked, 'What are you going to do now you're out of uniform?' I said, 'I'm pretty inventive, and I can imitate people,' and he said, 'Have you thought about being an actor?'”

“The song 'My Way' is a very remarkable song. It is also difficult to sing because you've got to convince people that what you're singing about is the truth. It's a man who is very proud of having achieved everything that he's achieved his way.”

“A whole new career opened up for me when I was in 'Lord Of The Rings' and 'Star Wars.'”

“I thought that people should know about the dangers of Satanism, and diabolism does exist - there's no question about it.”

“Comedy is the most difficult thing to do. Easily the most difficult.”

“There was a gap of seven years between the first and second Dracula movies. In the second one as everybody knows, I didn't speak, because I said I couldn't say the lines.”

“There is something sad about malevolence, to be wicked. I have always tried to make that come across in the villains I have played.”

“Ian Fleming was my cousin, you know. He was in naval intelligence.”

“'The Wicker Man' for me, as an actor, was definitely the best film I've ever done.”

“I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I'm on the screen, and people will remember the character after they've seen the film.”

“As far as I am concerned, Don Quixote is the most metal fictional character that I know. Single handed, he is trying to change the world, regardless of any personal consequences.”