Editing Christopher Lee (section)

=== 1977–1999: Move to Hollywood ===
[[File:Christopher Lee à Aubagne (13) pendant le Festival des Passions (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Christopher Lee at Festival des Passions in [[Aubagne]], France, in September 1996]]
In 1977, Lee left the UK for the US, concerned at being typecast in horror films, as had happened to his close friends Peter Cushing and [[Vincent Price]].<ref name=telegraphinterview /> His first American appearance was in the disaster film ''[[Airport '77]]'' (1977). In 1978, Lee surprised many people with his willingness to go along with a joke, appearing as guest host on NBC's ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.<ref name=TFInterview /> [[Steven Spielberg]], who was in the audience for that show, cast him in ''[[1941 (film)|1941]]'' (1979).<ref name=TFInterview /> Meanwhile, Lee co-starred with [[Bette Davis]] in the Disney film ''[[Return from Witch Mountain]]'' (1978).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/212737 |title=Return from Witch Mountain |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=15 August 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904054710/http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/212737&#124;0/Return-from-Witch-Mountain.html |archive-date=4 September 2015}}</ref> He turned down the role of Dr. Barry Rumack (finally played by [[Leslie Nielsen]]) in the disaster spoof ''[[Airplane!]]'' (1980), a decision he later called "a big mistake."<ref name=TFInterview /> <!--Lee appeared in ''[[The Return of Captain Invincible]]'' (1982), a comedy-musical film. Lee sings on two tracks in the film ("Name Your Poison" and "Mister Midnight"), written by [[Richard O'Brien]] and [[Richard Hartley (composer)|Richard Hartley]]. Later, he appeared alongside [[Reb Brown]] and [[Sybil Danning]] in ''[[Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf]]'' (1985). -----This is just an uncited list, "and then he did another thing.{{cn}} And another thing.{{cn}} And yet another.{{cn}}" So what? -->

Lee played the [[mad scientist]] Dr. Catheter in ''[[Gremlins 2: The New Batch]]'' (1990). In a nod to his role as Dracula in Hammer Films, as the Bat Gremlin transforms, Dr. Catheter experiences deja-vu – the audience hears Dracula music.<ref>{{cite news |title=Sir Christopher Lee: Vampire, wizard, jedi and heavy metal musician |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2015-06-11/sir-christopher-lee-vampire-wizard-jedi-and-heavy-metal-musician |access-date=21 October 2022 |publisher=ITV}}</ref> Lee made his last appearances as Sherlock Holmes in the television films ''[[Incident at Victoria Falls]]'' (1991) and ''[[Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady]]'' (1992).<ref>{{cite web |title=Christopher Lee |url=https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Christopher_Lee |website=The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia |access-date=10 January 2022 |url-status=live |archive-date=10 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110113225/https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Christopher_Lee}}</ref>

Lee and Peter Cushing appeared together in more than a dozen feature films for Hammer Films, [[Amicus Productions]], and other companies, as well as in ''Hamlet'' (1948) and ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952), albeit in separate scenes. They featured, too, in separate instalments of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' films: Cushing as [[Grand Moff Tarkin]] in the original film, and Lee decades later as [[Count Dooku]]. The last project that united them in person was a documentary, ''Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror'' (1994), which they jointly narrated, two months before Cushing's death.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gillis |first=Joe |title=All 24 Movies Featuring Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing |url=https://screenrant.com/christopher-lee-peter-cushing-24-movies-all/ |publisher=[[Screen Rant]] |access-date=10 January 2022 |date=7 August 2021}}</ref>

Lee considered his best performance to be in this period, when he played Pakistan's founder [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] in the biopic ''[[Jinnah (film)|Jinnah]]'' (1998).<ref name=TFInterview /><ref name="Lindrea 2004" />