I’m a huge fan of Sir Christopher Lee. Not only did he have a wicked sense of humor and a great life philosophy, but he was a fantastic—and very underappreciated!—actor. After I saw his first film in Hammer’s Dracula series, he visited my childhood nightmares every day. He terrified me—and I loved every bit of it.
Maybe that is why his death makes me so sad. He’s an integral part of my childhood, like many of the other great actors of that era who are now gone—like his friends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. And maybe that’s why his last video message, published on his personal YouTube page on Christmas 2013, is so heartbreaking. It almost feel like a premonitory farewell.
So long, Christopher Lee. I wish you could return from the land of the dead like you did after being killed at the end of every Dracula movie.