Chris lee and his role as Saruman.

[Lobelia]

Originally Posted by Essex

And vice-versa, Sir Ian can definately play a baddy role. eg Magneto in XMen(s) and, of course, Richard III, the biggest 'baddy' in ALL literature.

Ooh, yes, absolutely! I saw the Richard III film first and thought him wonderfully villainous, though I had some sympathy for Magneto. Just goes to show both of them are wonderful actors who can act rings around many younger stars.

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

I think that it would have been interesting to see what Christopher Lee would have made of Gandalf, since he's a tremendously versatile and experienced actor; but then we would have been deprived of his excellent characterisation of Saruman. Although I don't think that the script gave him as much to work with as is present in the book, I think that he really captured the fallen wisdom and flawed majesty of Tolkien's character. It probably helped that he reads The Lord of the Rings each year and has done since the first edition came out. I don't think that he'd be happy to hear his voice described as 'monotonous', though: he's been trained as an operatic singer and enjoys singing arias. To some, his voice is his best feature.

An interesting aside is that in his autobiography, Christopher Lee mentions some research that an acquaintance of his had done into on-screen swordplay:

As the result of a formidable amount of research on swordplay in films, and duelling with axes, daggers, swords, knives, etc., he'd established a kind of chart, in the way that sports pages maintain lists of leading goal scorers. ... Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn have both chalked up eight. And at the top, Derek showed me Christopher Lee, with seventeen. It must be admitted that the others were generally victorious, whereas I was usually killed.

[haltred]

[B]I think Lee was excellent as Saurman and Sir Ian as Gandalf. And frankly playing what if with differnent actors in LOTR roles is silly. OK nice but a bit silly because the actors who made these roles all took the role and became the charecter.

[Lobelia]

[QUOTE=The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]I don't think that he'd be happy to hear his voice described as 'monotonous', though: he's been trained as an operatic singer and enjoys singing arias. To some, his voice is his best feature.

Very true. He has a wonderful basso profundo singing voice and is the best Treebeard I've ever heard, full of warmth and humour and - where appropriate - sadness. He could have made his living as a singer.

But yes - he *is* Saruman and Ian M *is* Gandalf and they both do just fine with the roles they have been given.

[ninlaith]

Chris Lee was almost like a living presence of Tolkien on screen. Especially for the fact that he had met Sir Tolkien earlier in his life. Mr. Lee has made a tradition of reading LOTR once a year and it seems as if he was doing a round about Tolkien study. He is normally an educated, well-rounded man and an intense fan of all of Sir Tolkiens literature. He is truly a splendid actor and I don't believe they could have found anyone better. It is sad to think what the movie would be like without any of those actors. It would not be the same.

[Boromir88]

I give kudos to all the actor's of LOTR, this was such an ensemble cast. Ian, Mr. Lee, Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Bernard Hill (one of my favorites of the movies), Sean Bean, John Rhys-Davies...etc, the list just goes on. I will say the only weak parts might have been the women parts (despite how beautiful they were) I thought Liv and Miss Otto were two of the weaker parts. Mr. Weaving brought in too much of his Agent Smith voice, there were parts where I just wanted to say "Mr. Anderson," and I've seen Cate Blanchett do better. Other then that, this was a great cast, and even the weaker parts didn't do that bad of a job.