{"id":31015,"date":"2015-06-11T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=31015"},"modified":"2015-06-16T23:03:38","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T23:03:38","slug":"news-sir-christopher-lee-dies-of-respiratory-problems-and-heart-failure-aged-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/news-sir-christopher-lee-dies-of-respiratory-problems-and-heart-failure-aged-93\/","title":{"rendered":"SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE Dies Of Respiratory Problems And Heart Failure Aged 93 (June 11th, 2015) | News @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"title2\"><strong>SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE Dies Of Respiratory Problems And Heart Failure Aged 93<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: arial; font-size: 8pt\"><strong>June 11th, 2015<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image floatedright\">\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-content\/themes\/metalforces\/images\/spacer.gif\" width=\"10\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/christopherleedeathnewsphoto.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/p>\n<table width=\"100%\" align=\"center\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" border=\"0\">\n<tr valign=\"top\">\n<td>\n<div align=\"left\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><strong><em>Sir Christopher Lee<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<div align=\"right\"><span class=\"smalltext\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sir Christopher Lee, an actor an actor with almost 300 film credits and best known for his appearances in <em>Dracula<\/em> (1958, Dracula), <em>The Wicker Man<\/em> (1973, Lord Summerisle), <em>The Man With The Golden Gun<\/em> (1974, Scaramanga) and <em>The Lord Of The Rings<\/em> trilogy (2001-3, Saruman), died on June 7th, 2015 at the age of 93. Lee had been hospitalised at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, following  respiratory problems and heart failure.<\/p>\n<p>Late in life, Lee earnt notoriety in the world of symphonic metal. Lee duetted on the single \u2018The Magic Of The Wizards Dream\u2019 with Fabio Lione, lead vocalist of Italian symphonic metal group Rhapsody Of Fire. That track emerged on 2004 effort <em>Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II \u2013 The Dark Secret<\/em>, Lee additionally portraying narrator The Wizard King on that record as well as the records <em>Triumph Or Agony<\/em> (2006), <em>The Frozen Tears Of Angels<\/em> (2010) and <em>From Chaos To Eternity<\/em> (2011), as well as the EP <em>The Cold Embrace Of Fear \u2013 A Dark Romantic Symphony<\/em> (2010).<\/p>\n<p>Lee worked with American classic metal ensemble Manowar in a narrative role as well, lending his voice as narrator to the re-recorded version of \u2018Dark Avenger\u2019, the original role having been occupied by the late Orson Welles on 1982 debut <em>Battle Hymns<\/em>. The re-recorded version arrived in 2010, the entire opus having been re-recorded as <em>Battle Hymns MMXI<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>With London-based punk outfit Inner Terrestrials, in 2006 he recorded a metal variation of the composition \u2018The Toreador Song\u2019 from the 1875 opera <em>Carmen<\/em>, which appeared on the man\u2019s 2006 platter <em>Revelation<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>2010 concept affair <em>Charlemagne: By The Sword And The Cross<\/em> told the story of First Holy Roman Emperer, King Charlemagne, whom Lee was ancestrally linked to.  For that outing, Lee was awarded the Spirit Of Metal award at the 2010 <em>Metal Hammer<\/em> Golden Gods ceremony, being presented with the trophy by Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. In 2012, a music video was filmed for the track \u2018The Bloody Verdict Of Verden\u2019. Successor <em>Charlemagne: The Omens Of Death<\/em> arrived in 2013, the music having been arranged by guitarist Richie Faulkner, who was to later join Judas Priest.<\/p>\n<p>An EP of metal versions of Christmas tracks entitled <em>A Heavy Metal Christmas<\/em> arrived in 2012, its follow-up <em>A Heavy Metal Christmas Too<\/em> emerging a year later in 2013. Lee\u2019s rendition of \u2018Jingle Hell\u2019 entered the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart at position 22, being the oldest musician to ever enter those respective charts. Following media attention, the track rose further to position 18.<\/p>\n<p>2014 covers EP <em>Metal Knight<\/em> marked Lee\u2019s 92nd birthday, collecting cover interpretations of \u2018My Way\u2019 (originally recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1969), the aforementioned \u2018The Toreador Song\u2019 (retitled \u2018The Toreador March\u2019), and the songs \u2018The Impossible Dream\u2019 and \u2018I Don Quixote\u2019 \u2013 both from the 1965 Don Quixote musical <em>Man Of La Mancha<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The 2014 Christmas single \u2018Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing\u2019, his last musical outing, was a take on \u2018Hark! The Herald Angels Sing\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE Dies Of Respiratory Problems And Heart Failure Aged 93 June 11th, 2015 Sir Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Lee, an actor an actor with almost 300 film credits and best known for his appearances in Dracula (1958, Dracula), The Wicker Man (1973, Lord Summerisle), The Man With The Golden Gun (1974, Scaramanga) and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christopher-lee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31015"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31439,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31015\/revisions\/31439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}