Famed actor Christopher Lee died June 7, 2015, at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital of respiratory and heart failure. The renowned actor was 93 years old, and was survived by his wife and children.

Lee lived a life oftentimes more astonishing then the lives of the characters he portrayed. Descended from both Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Medieval French king Charlemagne, he volunteered to join the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, where he joined the intelligence branch. He was attached to the SOE, the organization responsible for numerous acts of sabotage in Nazi-controlled Europe. He served alongside writer Ian Fleming, who claimed that Christopher Lee was one of the inspirations for Fleming’s character James Bond. At the end of the war, Lee worked to hunt down fleeing Nazi war criminals.

Lee then played a variety of minor roles in movies before he made his big break playing Dracula in the eponymous 1958 film by Hammer Studios. He performed in a dozen more horror movies for Hammer Studios, and filmed his personal favorite movie, “The Wicker Man,” in 1976. Lee appeared in many movies over the next 25 years, from the humorous, such as musical-comedy “The Return of Captain Invincible,” to the serious, such as “Jinnah,” a biopic on the founder of Pakistan. He also famously appeared in Peter Jackson’s movie “The Lord of the Rings” as the wizard Saruman, and in the second and third “Star Wars” films as Count Dooku.

Lee, astonishingly, had a fairly successful music career as well. He was a trained and talented opera singer, but was a great fan of heavy metal. At the age of 88, he released his first album, “Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross,” which was critically acclaimed and won him the “Spirit of Metal” award. He released two more albums, and his Christmas song “Jingle Hell” was #18 on Billboard’s top 100.

Lee was a Commander of the Venerable Order of Saint John, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and was knighted by Prince Charles in 2009.