Check out the most anticipated movies and shows premiering during the summer season, from [i]Ballerina[/i] to [i]Thunderbolts*[/i].

IMDb Summer Watch Guide

Check out the most anticipated movies and shows premiering during the summer season, from <em>Ballerina</em> to <em>Thunderbolts*</em>.

Sinister sequels, eerie indies, and blockbuster boo-fests — here are the most exciting horror movies and shows to add to your Watchlist.

The Best New and Upcoming Horror

Celebrate some of the most iconic Asian actors from film and television, from [link=/name/nm1231899/]Priyanka Chopra Jonas[/link] to [link=/name/nm0702841]Ke Huy Quan[/link], plus many more.

Asian Icons of Film and Television

Celebrate some of the most iconic Asian actors from film and television, from <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm1231899/?ref_=nmmi_eds_right-7_lk">Priyanka Chopra Jonas</a> to <a class="ipc-md-link" href="/name/nm0702841?ref_=nmmi_eds_right-7_lk">Ke Huy Quan</a>, plus many more.

Christopher Lee in The Return of Captain Invincible (1983)

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Robert Urquhart in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Christopher Lee in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Christopher Lee and Yvonne Furneaux in The Warriors (1955)

Christopher Lee and Eva Gabor in The Truth About Women (1957)

Christopher Lee and Edward Underdown in They Were Not Divided (1950)

Olivia de Havilland and Christopher Lee in That Lady (1955)

Christopher Lee and Véra Valmont in Crypt of the Vampire (1964)

Christopher Lee and Leonora Ruffo in Hercules in the Haunted World (1961)

Christopher Lee in The Devil's Daffodil (1961)

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Christopher Lee, Isla Blair, and Linda Hayden in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

Christopher Lee and Linda Hayden in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

Christopher Lee and Veronica Carlson in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)

Christopher Lee in Horror of Dracula (1958)

Christopher Lee in In Search of Dracula (1974)

Christopher Lee in Dracula and Son (1976)

Christopher Lee and Marie-Hélène Breillat in Dracula and Son (1976)

Christopher Lee in Saturday Night Live (1975)

Christopher Lee and John Mills in Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

Christopher Lee, Reginald Beckwith, Derek Bond, John Gregson, James Robertson Justice, Kenneth More, Clive Morton, and Harold Warrender in Scott of the Antarctic (1948)

Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, and Hugo Weaving in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Christopher Lee in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Christopher Lee in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Christopher Lee in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and André Morell in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Christopher Lee in Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979)

Christopher Lee in To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

Christopher Lee in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Christopher Lee and Suzan Farmer in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it be Francisco Scaramanga in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), or Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), or as the title monster in the Hammer Horror film, The Mummy (1959).

Lee was born in 1922 in London, England, where he and his older sister Xandra were raised by their parents, Contessa Estelle Marie (Carandini di Sarzano) and Geoffrey Trollope Lee, a professional soldier, until their divorce in 1926. Later, while Lee was still a child, his mother married (and later divorced) Harcourt George St.-Croix (nicknamed Ingle), who was a banker. Lee's maternal great-grandfather was an Italian political refugee, while Lee's great-grandmother was English opera singer Marie (Burgess) Carandini.

After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organisation in 1947, training as an actor in their "Charm School" and playing a number of bit parts in such films as Corridor of Mirrors (1948). He made a brief appearance in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), in which his future partner-in-horror Peter Cushing also appeared. Both actors also appeared later in Moulin Rouge (1952) but did not meet until their horror films together.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. He struggled initially in his new career because he was discriminated as being taller than the leading male actors of his time and being too foreign-looking. However, playing the monster in the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the was successful, leading to him being signed on for future roles in Hammer Film Productions.

Lee's association with Hammer Film Productions brought him into contact with Peter Cushing, and they became good friends. Lee and Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in Horror of Dracula (1958), or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in The Mummy (1959).

Lee continued his role as "Dracula" in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), and made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and also appeared in a number of films in Europe. With his own production company, Charlemagne Productions, Ltd., Lee made Nothing But the Night (1973) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976).

By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), The Three Musketeers (1973), The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), and the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) and as Saruman the White in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Lee played Count Dooku again in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), and portrayed the father of Willy Wonka, played by Johnny Depp, in the Tim Burton film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

On 16 June 2001, he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on 13 June 2009 in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama and charity. In addition he was made a Commander of the Order of St John on 16 January 1997.

Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on 7 June 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there. His wife delayed the public announcement until 11 June, in order to break the news to their family.

Christopher Lee at an event for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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