Sir Christopher Lee after media blood (From Borehamwood Times)

Sir Christopher Lee after media blood

4:35pm Monday 29th June 2009

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PAUL Welsh congratulates Christopher Lee on his knighthood and recalls him walking the halls of Elstree — but just don’t call him Dracula

IT IS great news to hear that prolific screen actor Christopher Lee has at last been awarded a knighthood, albeit they have waited until he is 87 years old.

I phoned Christopher at his home to congratulate him only to find instead of having his feet up, he is in New Mexico filming. I believe he is already in the record books for having more screen credits than any other living actor with more than 250 films and TV shows under his belt.

I remember Christopher filming the last of the old Hammer films, To the Devil a Daughter, in 1975, and not long before that donning his Dracula cloak for the last time, both filmed at Elstree Studios. I can still recall his imposing figure as he wafted along the dressing room corridor in his prince of darkness cloak.

Naturally the press have gone with the obvious headline “Arise Sir Dracula” but that will not please Christopher as he once explained to me: “I played the Count in a handful of movies nearly 40 years ago and the majority of my movies have been non-horror but still they tag me.

“Naturally I am grateful to Hammer for those roles but I am equally proud of The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars movies for which younger cinemagoers know me much more.”

Christopher, I believe, declines to sign photos of himself as the Count and I know when we discussed the wording for his Elstree plaque he chose the films to be mentioned and none were Hammer horrors.

Christopher also accepted my invite in 1996 to visit Elstree and unveil a plaque in honour of his frequent co-star Peter Cushing as they were great friends. I stood next to him holding the rather heavy metal plaque and you could see me wilting when he spoke for nearly 20 minutes.

You don’t have short conversations with him but I am a great admirer of his career’s longevity. After all, how many actors can show you a crooked finger damaged in a screen duel with Errol Flynn and 55 years later still have a hectic film career around the world?

I drink to Christopher’s success, but not in blood.

I must also phone and congratulate Roy Button on his OBE. Roy is a senior vice president of Warner Bros and managing cirector of its UK production arm. I had the pleasure to know his father well, the late Dave Button, who was a councillor in Borehamwood for many years. Dave would have been very proud.

On a sadder note, we have lost another three screen actors, one of which was premature. David Carradine, the son of the late John Carradine whose screen appearances rivalled Christopher, was found dead in a hotel closet. David shot to fame in the Seventies hit TV series Kung Fu, although at the time he had no knowledge of martial arts. Charles Tingwell has passed away from cancer aged 86 and was one of Australia’s most revered actors with a career stretching 70 years.

Charles was also familiar with Borehamwood as during the Sixties he was a hearthrob doctor in the long-running hospital drama Emergency Ward 10.

I think this was the first of its type in the UK and it is ironic that 40 years later Holby City is now filmed in the same studio.

However, there are big differences —when Emergency Ward 10 was made they were limited to a couple of deaths a year and no mention of certain diseases lest the viewing public developed a poor image of the real NHS.

Charles also played the long-suffering inspector in the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple movies shot at MGM in Elstree Way.

Finally we also say goodbye to veteran character actor Terence Alexander who appeared in countless films and TV shows from the Fifties usually playing upper-class toffs.

I like to remember him from being one of the gang in the hit movie The League of Gentlemen and I did invite him to join his fellow gang members Dickie Attenborough and Bryan Forbes at an Elstree plaque unveiling last year, but he was not well enough.

Readers with shorter memories will probably recall Terence playing John Nettle’s father-in-law in the Eighties hit TV series Bergerac which was shown in nearly 40 countries.

As for me, I have been unable to walk properly for a week so far due to a damaged calf muscle. I am not sure whether it’s my war wound shifting shrapnel or an old sporting injury, but I shall be taking part in the festival half-marathon.

Okay, so I am handing out water, what do you want, blood?

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