The legend of Sir Christopher Lee

The breakthrough for the London-born star came with 1958 film "Dracula," the first of the series of horror films featuring the legendary vampire. Lee's chilling performance as the titular character ensured his fame as a movie villain, and made the undead count as his signature role for decades to come.

In 1973, Lee played the lord of a Scottish pagan community investigated by a police officer, in cult classic "The Wicker Man." The movie was remade in 2006, featuring Nicolas Cage as the policeman.

Lee joined the long line of Bond villains in 1974, facing off against Agent 007 as the assassin Francisco Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun." Ever the gentleman, Bond (Roger Moore) asked Scaramanga before this duel whether he was happy to fight with a single bullet in his golden gun, against 007's six. "I only need one, Mr. Bond," was Lee's bullish - albeit mistaken - response.

In the mid-1960's Lee brought to life Asian criminal mastermind Fu Manchu, in a series of low-budget thrillers.

"Hammer Films" studio, which gave Lee his first big role in Dracula, also hired him for other horror productions, such "The Mummy" in 1959, and "The Curse of Frankenstein" in 1957. In playing the movie monsters, Lee was aided by his tall stature of 1,93 meters (6-foot 4-inches).

The evil Sith Lord Dooku, from the Star Wars prequels, also owes his charisma to Lee's unique bearing and deep voice. "I didn't have dreams of being a romantic leading man," Lee told The Associated Press in 2002. "But I dreamed of being a character actor, which I am."

After playing literally hundreds of roles, Christopher Lee admitted that he could not remember all the movies he appeared in. "And certainly some of them you want to forget," he said in 2002, reflecting on the ups and downs in his acting carrier. Here we see a poster for 1979's "Jaguar Lives!" staring Lee, once again, as the villain.

Lee worked with Tim Burton in several of his movies (albeit not quite so many as Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter), including "Sleepy Hollow" and the remake of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." He also voiced the grumpy Pastor Galswells in the stop-motion animated feature "The Corpse Bride", in 2005.

Alongside his movie career, Christopher Lee released a series heavy metal albums including "Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross" in 2010, and "Charlemagne: The Omens of Death" in 2013. His last album was "Metal Knight," released on his 92nd birthday.

Lee's younger fans were probably first captivated by his performance as the white wizard Saruman, in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy directed by Peter Jackson. A life-long Tolkien fan, Lee reportedly sent a picture of himself dressed as a wizard to Jackson, with a message: "This is what I look like as a Wizard, don't forget this when you cast the movie," according to factfiend.com.