Editing Christopher Lee (section)

== Early life ==
Lee was born on 27 May 1922 in [[Belgravia]], London,<ref name="12:49&nbsp;pm">{{cite web |url=http://christopherleeweb.com/pages/biography |title=Biography – Christopher Lee – Official Website |publisher=christopherleeweb.com |access-date=16 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140224035253/http://christopherleeweb.com/pages/biography |archive-date=24 February 2014}}</ref> the son of [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant Colonel]] Geoffrey Trollope Lee (1879–1941) of the 60th [[King's Royal Rifle Corps]], and his wife, Countess Estelle Marie (née [[House of Carandini|Carandini di Sarzano]]; 1889–1981).<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2002/05/19/do1910.xml |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |title=Merchant of menace |date=19 May 2002 |access-date=30 April 2010 |location=London}}</ref><ref name="Early">{{cite news |title=Christopher Lee obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/11/christopher-lee |access-date=28 March 2022 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Lee's father fought in the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]] and [[First World War]],{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=6–7}} and his mother was an [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] beauty who was painted by [[John Lavery|Sir John Lavery]], [[Oswald Birley]], and [[Olive Snell]], and sculpted by [[Clare Sheridan]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=13}}<ref name="Wise 2002">* {{cite book |last1=Wise |first1=James E. |last2=Baron |first2=Scott |title=International Stars at War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d_mUJebJ4uwC&pg=PA118 |date=January 2002 |publisher=[[Naval Institute Press]] |isbn=978-1-55750-965-9 |page=118 |ref=none}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.ucd.ie/news/2011/11NOV11/091111-Christopher-Lee-honoured-by-UCD-Law-Society.html |title=Christopher Lee honoured by UCD Law Society |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=November 2011 |website=UCD News |publisher=[[University College Dublin]] |access-date=12 June 2015 |quote=The Carandini family is one of the oldest in Europe and traces itself back to the first century AD. It is believed to have been connected with the Emperor Charlemagne, and as such was granted the right to bear the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. |ref=none}}
* {{cite news |last=Exshaw |first=John |date=12 June 2015 |title=Sir Christopher Lee: 'Crown Prince of Terror' whose work with Hammer Horror led the postwar revival of Gothic fantasy |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sir-christopher-lee-crown-prince-of-terror-whose-work-with-hammer-horror-led-the-postwar-revival-of-gothic-fantasy-10314473.html |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |access-date=12 June 2015 |quote=He inherited his father's dark looks, and from his mother a lineage stretching back possibly to Ancient Rome, and including Charlemagne, along the way to the first Count Carandini in 1184. |ref=none}}</ref> Lee's maternal great-grandfather, [[Jerome Carandini]], the Marquis of Sarzano, was an Italian political refugee; his wife, Lee's great-grandmother, was the English-born opera singer [[Marie Carandini]] (''née'' Burgess). He had an elder sister, Xandra Carandini Lee (1917–2002){{sfn|Lee|2003|p=3}} as well as a younger brother, Nicholas.

Lee's parents separated when he was four and divorced two years later.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=7}} During this time, his mother took his sister and him to [[Wengen]] in Switzerland.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=21}} After enrolling in Miss Fisher's Academy in [[Territet]], he played his first role, as [[Rumpelstiltskin]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=22}} They then returned to London, where Lee attended Wagner's private school in [[Queen's Gate]], and his mother married Harcourt George St-Croix Rose, a banker and uncle of [[Ian Fleming]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=22–23}} Fleming, author of the [[James Bond]] novels, thus became Lee's step-cousin. The family moved to [[Fulham]], living next door to the actor [[Eric Maturin]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=23}} One night, he was introduced to [[Felix Yusupov|Prince Yusupov]] and [[Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia|Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich]], the assassins of [[Grigori Rasputin]], whom Lee was to play many years later.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=24}}

When Lee was nine, he was sent to [[Summer Fields School]], a preparatory school in Oxford, some of whose pupils later attended [[Eton College]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=25}} He continued acting in school plays, though "the laurels deservedly went to [[Patrick Macnee]]."{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=32}} Lee applied for a scholarship to Eton, where his interview was in the presence of the [[ghost story]] author [[M.R. James]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=38}} His poor mathematics skills meant that he was placed eleventh, and thus missed out on being a [[King's Scholar]] by one place. His step-father was not prepared to pay the higher fees that being an [[Oppidan Scholar]] meant,{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=38}} so instead he attended [[Wellington College, Berkshire|Wellington College]], where he won scholarships in the [[classics]], studying [[Ancient Greek]] and [[Latin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biography.com/people/christopher-lee-20702949 |title=Christopher Lee biography | access-date=18 April 2013}}</ref> Aside from a "tiny part" in a school play, he did not act while at Wellington.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=44}} He was a "passable" [[Rackets (sport)|racquets]] player and fencer and a competent cricketer but did not do well at the other sports played: hockey, football, rugby and boxing.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=45}} He disliked the parades and weapons training and would always "play dead" as soon as possible during mock battles.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=46–47}} Lee was frequently [[School corporal punishment|beaten]] at school, including once at Wellington for "being beaten too often," though he accepted them as "logical and therefore acceptable" punishments for knowingly breaking the rules.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=47}} At age 17, and with one year left at Wellington, the summer term of 1939 was his last.<ref name="Early" /> His step-father had accrued gambling debts of £25000 worth 
£1,391,932.85 in 2025.  

His mother separated from Rose, and Lee had to get a job; his sister was already working as a secretary for the Church of England Pensions Board.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=50}} With most employers on or preparing to go on summer holidays, there were no immediate opportunities for Lee, who was sent to the [[French Riviera]], where his sister was on holiday with friends.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=50}} On his way there he stopped briefly in Paris, where he stayed with the journalist [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], a friend of Rose, and witnessed [[Eugen Weidmann]]'s execution by [[guillotine]] – the last public execution performed in France.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=52}} Arriving in [[Menton]], he stayed with the Russian Mazirov family, living among exiled [[List of Russian princely families|princely families]].{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=54}} It was arranged that he should remain in Menton after his sister had returned home, but with Europe on the [[Causes of World War II|brink of war]], he returned to London instead.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=56}} He worked as an office clerk for [[United States Lines]], taking care of the mail and running errands.{{sfn|Lee|2003|pp=58–59}}<ref name="Paul2007">{{cite book |last=Paul |first=Louis |title=Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NQ-Y8lbGAsC&pg=PA146 |date=6 September 2007 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-8402-7 |pages=146–}}</ref>