Happy birthday, Christopher Lee

The best Dracula ever (in a color film, at least) turns 84 today! How lucky I was to have grown up as a movie-loving kid at a time when intelligent, charismatic actors like Lee and Peter Cushing were making their kind of horror films-- so much fun, and I love them to this day. And like everyone else, I'm glad Mr. Lee is around and working still.

As a birthday-related present for fellow Lee fans stopping by on this holiday weekend, here's a Dracula recording Lee made in the early '70s. (Note: File size is around 5 MB.) And if you're then in the mood for one of his films, and would like to check out his non-Drac roles, I'd suggest The Skull, a nice old-fashioned horror story with Cushing, written by Robert Bloch, or, if you're feeling a bit kinky, and/or want to see one of the very best films he's done, check out the original version of Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body.