Christopher Lee, One of the Last of the Great Movie Icons

Recently, actor Robert Duvall announced he was slowing down and asking his agent to find him smaller roles in movies. Smaller roles like his scene in Sling Blade or The 6th Day, for instance.
At 85, some might think Duvall deserves some downtime, but Sir Christopher Lee would have probably laughed at him. When many people, not just actors, reach their 70s and 80s, they look to slow down, but Lee didn't.
His one-scene appearance in Sleepy Hollow, which Lee made in his mid-70s, would probably be what Duvall is looking for now. But that wasn't the end. Lee continued to act in somewhat physically demanding roles as the evil wizard Saruman in the Lord of the Rings trilogy or the villainous Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequel. Quite frankly, he was the only good thing, aside from learning the origins of Boba Fett, about Attack of the Clones.
With his tall stature and baritone British voice, Lee was often cast as the bad guy, even in comedies such as 1941 as a Nazi captain working along with the Japanese Navy.
But long before he ever picked up a lightsaber, sorcerer staff, Dracula cape or the golden gun used to hunt James Bond, Lee fought against Nazi Germany in the Royal Air Force.
He was a singer and recorded several albums.
And he was good at mocking his image, such as in Sleepy Hollow and came close to appearing in one of the best comedy movies ever, Airplane!, in which he would play the role of Dr. Rumack, which was played by Leslie Nielsen.
Lee had appeared in the movie Airport '77 in one of his few roles as a nice guy, but unfortunately, his character, dies.
Then, there was his role as the maybe mad doctor in Gremlins 2, in which we're not for sure if the genetic splicing doctor is evil or just too caught up in his work, like the scene where he casually asks for a napkin his secretary has sneezed into to have it analyzed.
But of course, the role he is most remember for is Count Dracula. Like Bela Lugosi, the role would forever follow him around. Lee seemed to embrace his stature and appeared in many horror movies through the Hammer studios.
But he didn't always play the bad guy. Remember his roles as Sherlock Holmes?
Regardless of who he played or what the movie was, he had obtained the type of recognition many actors want among directors and actors.
In the 1980s, there was a Garfield Halloween special in which a creepy old man seems to be modeled after Lee, both in appearance and voice.
Whether or not it was just a coincidence, it should that he had reached a level in which he was being compared to and that is what it means to be a movie icon.
Rest in peace, Sir Lee!