Editing Christopher Lee (section)

=== 1947–1957: Career beginnings ===
Returning to London in 1946, Lee was offered his old job back at Beecham's with a significant raise, but he turned them down as "I couldn't think myself back into the office frame of mind." The Armed Forces were sending veterans with an education in the Classics to teach at universities, but Lee felt his Latin was too rusty and didn't care for the strict curfews.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=109}} During lunch with his mother's cousin [[Nicolò Carandini]], now the Italian Ambassador to Britain, Lee was detailing his war wounds when Carandini said, "Why don't you become an actor, Christopher?"{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=110}} Lee liked the idea, and after assuaging his mother's protests by pointing to the successful Carandini performers in Australia (which included his great-grandmother [[Marie Carandini]], who had been an opera singer), he met Nicolò's friend [[Filippo Del Giudice]], a lawyer-turned-film producer and head of [[Two Cities Films]], part of the [[Rank Organisation]]. Lee recalled that Giudice "looked me up and down" and "concluded that I was just what the industry had been looking for." He was sent to see [[Josef Somlo]] for a contract:{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=111}}

{{blockquote|Initially, I was told [by Somlo] I was too tall to be an actor. That's a quite fatuous remark to make. It's like saying you're too short to play the piano. I thought, "Right, I'll show you..." At the beginning I didn't know anything about the technique of working in front of a camera, but during those 10 years, I did the one thing that's so vitally important today – I watched, I listened and I learned. So when the time came I was ready... Oddly enough, to play a character who said nothing [The Creature in ''[[The Curse of Frankenstein]]''].<ref name=TFInterview>{{cite news |url=http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the_total_film_interview__christopher_lee |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612192345/http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the_total_film_interview__christopher_lee |archive-date=12 June 2007 |title=Interview – Christopher Lee |work=Total Film |date=1 May 2005 |access-date=25 August 2013}}</ref>}}

Somlo sent him to see Rank's [[David Henley (producer)|David Henley]] and Olive Dodds, who signed him on a seven-year contract.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=111}} Like other students at Rank's "[[The Company of Youth|Charm School]]," Lee had difficulty finding work.{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=112}} He finally made his film début in 1948, in [[Terence Young (director)|Terence Young]]'s [[Gothic romance]] ''[[Corridor of Mirrors (film)|Corridor of Mirrors]]''.<ref name="Yahoo">[https://movies.yahoo.com/person/christopher-lee/biography.html "Christopher Lee- Biography"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519163736/http://movies.yahoo.com/person/christopher-lee/biography.html |date=19 May 2012}}. Yahoo!. Retrieved 7 May 2012</ref> He played Charles; the director got around his height by placing him at a table in a nightclub alongside [[Lois Maxwell]], [[Mavis Villiers]], [[Hugh Latimer (actor)|Hugh Latimer]] and [[John Penrose (actor)|John Penrose]]. Lee had a single line, "a satirical shaft meant to qualify the lead's bravura."{{sfn|Lee|2003|p=112}}

In this early period, he made an uncredited appearance in [[Laurence Olivier]]'s film version of ''[[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]]'' (1948), as a [[spear carrier]] (his later co-star and close friend [[Peter Cushing]] played [[Characters in Hamlet#Osric|Osric]]). A few years later, he appeared in ''[[Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.]]'' (1951) as a Spanish captain. He was cast when the director asked him if he could speak Spanish and [[Swordsmanship|fence]], which he was able to do.<ref name=aprolific>{{cite news |last=Welsh |first=Paul |url=http://www.borehamwoodtimes.co.uk/film_nostalgia/history/690680.print/ |title=A prolific star of the Elstree screen |publisher=[[Borehamwood & Elstree Times]] |date=16 February 2006 |access-date=20 December 2012}}</ref> Lee appeared uncredited in the American epic ''[[Quo Vadis (1951 film)|Quo Vadis]]'' (1951), which was shot in Rome, playing a chariot driver and was injured when he was thrown from it at one point during the shoot.<ref name=TFInterview />

He recalled that his breakthrough came in 1952, when [[Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.]] began making films at the [[British National Studios]]. He said in 2006, "I was cast in various roles in 16 of them and even appeared with [[Buster Keaton]] and it proved an excellent training ground."<ref name=aprolific /> The same year, he appeared in [[John Huston]]'s Oscar-nominated ''[[Moulin Rouge (1952 film)|Moulin Rouge]]''.<ref name="Yahoo" /> Throughout the next decade, [[Christopher Lee filmography|he made nearly 30 films]], including ''[[The Cockleshell Heroes]]'', playing mostly stock action characters.<ref name="AllMovie Filmography">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmovie.com/artist/christopher-lee-p41362 |title=Christopher Lee filmography |publisher=[[AllMovie]] |accessdate=18 December 2015}}</ref>