Christopher Lee Did The Lightsaber Fight Scenes in STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES Himself
When you think of actor Christopher Lee, you typically think “Oh, that's Dracula!,” Or “Oh wait, isn’t that the guy who played Count Dooku in Star Wars,” or Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, but what a lot of people aren’t familiar with is the things he managed to accomplish in the stunt world as an actor.
Did you know in his entire career Lee has worked on over 200 film projects? Seven of those were spent playing the blood-sucking vampire known as Count Dracula (how fitting, two roles with Count in his name). Over the course of his career, when it came to stunts in action sequences, he mostly worked with swords.
During a past interview with TheForce.Net, Lee bragged about his Guinness World Record for having the highest number of sword fights in movies, and happily said that he has "the scars to prove it.”
Even at 80-years-old, while working on Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones, he jumped in to perform many of his own stunts during the lightsaber fight sequences! That’s impressive for someone of his age!
/Film pointed out an interview that Lee gave back in 2015, before his passing at the age of 93, Lee talked about being proud of the fruits of his labor after seeing the final cut of the film, saying:
"When I saw 'AOTC' I said to Rick McCallum 'I didn't see the double anywhere,' and Rick confirmed that it's me in all the scenes. Sometimes you need a double, obviously. At my age, I cannot run very fast, so I needed a double for that particular long shot. When it comes to close shots, it has to be the actor. And almost all the fights were close shots. And not easy, to put it mildly."
The thing I have found so interesting is nowadays everyone is talking about how actors like Tom Cruise are changing the way action sequences are filmed and just how extreme the stunts are becoming but yet no one talks about actors like Lee who are responsible for paving the way for a lot of these new actors to come and continue to improve the stunt world in movies and TV shows. I mean, Lee holds the record for the “most screen swordfights, having dueled in 17 films with foils, swords, lightsabres and billiard cues!” Makes you wonder what Tom Cruise will be doing for stunts when he’s 80!
Lee is a legendary actor and will never be forgotten for his amazing feats in the movie industry.
Written By Travis Conant
