Big Screen Icon Christopher Lee to Receive BFI Fellowship

Screen legend Sir Christopher Lee will be the recipient of a BFI Fellowship during this year’s upcoming BFI London Film Festival Awards.

The fellowship is the highest honour the BFI can dish out and it will be presented during the 2013 BFI London Film Festival nods on October 19th. 

Receiving a BFI Fellowship is no easy feat as it is only awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television.

Last year, the fellowship was presented to Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton and in 2011 it was David Cronenberg and Ralph Fiennes who were the honoured recipients of the recognition.  

BFI chief executive Amanda Nevill described the timing for Lee’s plaudit as being “a truly illustrious moment.”

Lee is a worthy inheritor of the accolade after racking up more than 250 acting credits for film and television and as a result, he was knighted in 2009 for his services to drama and charity. 

The English actor made his feature film debut in 1948 with CORRIDOR OF MIRRORS, but what first made him famous, was his role in the mid-1950s playing Frankenstein’s creature, then the title role of DRACULA for Hammer Films.

His career has been illustrious, performing in a variety of different roles over an astonishing eight decades. He has starred as Mycroft Holmes in Billy Wilder’s THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, as Lord Summerisle in cult classic THE WICKER MAN and as Scaramanga in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN.  

Most recently, the man is recognised for his work on the big screen thanks to his role as Saruman in the BAFTA and Oscar-winning LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. 

The festival runs from October 9th to October 20th.