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In Sunningdale,
London on 27th
May 1922
Christopher Francis Carandini Lee was born
to Estelle Marie and Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Lee, the youngest
of two children.
His parents later split up and
Christopher moved to Switzerland with his sister and mother.
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It
was at Miss Fisher's Academy, Wengen
when he got his first taste of acting - the title role in a
school production of Rumplestiltskin .
Eventually
his mother returned to London where Christopher attended the
private school Wagners.
During
this time his mother met and married a banker (who was the Uncle
of Ian Fleming, writer of the James Bond novels) and the family
lived in Elm Park Gardens, Fulham. |
In 1931 he enrolled at Summer Fields
prep school in Oxford, where he had a small part in
a production called "Summer Fields", which ran for five
years. Also attending the school was the actor Patrick MacNee
who later starred as Steed in The Avengers TV series. Both Christopher
and MacNee appeared in a number of productions at Summer Fields
together, but he was always under MacNee
on the billing.
He was also showing an interest
in becoming a footballer, but his teachers thought he was unsuitable
and would discourage him by placing him in goal!
Upon leaving Summer Fields, he
attended Wellington College where he saw very little activity
in the way of acting. He did however discover a passion for singing
and joined the choir - a move which would benefit him in later life.
Soon one of his cousins introduced
him to a friend who was then head of Two Cities Films. He was told
that he was unsuitable to be an actor due to his height and they suggested
he visit the Rank offices in London. Rank offered him a seven year
contract (which lasted two years), and in 1948 he was given a minor
part in Corridor
Of Mirrors. By the end of the year he had appeared
in a further seven productions.
Biography
Cont.....
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