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Old 06-12-2015, 05:27 AM   #6
Faramir Jones
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Pipe George McDonald Fraser on Lee

George McDonald Fraser (1925-2008), who as well as being the author of the Flashman books also wrote screenplays, said this about Sir Christopher in a book of memoirs about his screenwriting days, The Light's on at Signpost (2002), having got to know him in the early 1970s due to writing the screenplay for The Three Musketeers. It struck him that 'this man was the ultimate film star; he must have made more pictures than John Wayne, even, and the whole world knows him'. After talking about him being so recognised by so many people, Fraser then commented that it couldn't have happened 'to a nicer man'.

Fraser, in the same book, retold an anecdote told to him about Sir Christopher by director Guy Hamilton, when the latter was directing the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), in which the actor was playing villain Francisco Scaramanga:

the set was visited by Muhammed Ali, professing himself a devoted Lee fan, and requesting an audience. They were introduced, Ali assuring Christopher that he was his favourite movie star, and then he had added: "And I'm goanna dedicate my next fight to you, too!"

While this was seen as 'an extravagant compliment, no more', when Ali won his next fight,

and the ring was awash with fans, handlers, and journalists, the champion fought his way to the nearest TV camera and roared into the lens: "I won that fight for Christopher Lee!" Which as Guy remarked, was not only a tribute to Christopher, but proved Ali a man of his word.

Later, Fraser recalled how, in the 1960s, he wrote a letter to Tolkien asking if the goblins in The Hobbit were the same as the orcs in The Lord of the Rings, and 'received a courteous and detailed reply'. Tolkien answered 'Yes' to the question, and also said that they had been inspired by his childhood reading of the stories of George McDonald. Fraser said that those stories 'helped to freshen my own infant nightmares'.
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